Purity as power
Orthorexia nervosa and the moral governance of health in neoliberal wellness culture
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12692360 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Omer Horovitz (0000-0003-2094-7448, Tel Hai Academic College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | medhum-2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-14 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Medical Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1468-215X • E-ISSN: 1473-4265 |
| Publisher | BMJ (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1136/medhum-2025-013331 |
| PMID | 40953914 |
| OpenAlex | W4414189006 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 70 |
Orthorexia nervosa (ON) - a pathological obsession with healthy eating - has emerged as a cultural pathology intricately woven into neoliberal ideologies and biopolitical regimes. This paper critically analyses ON through the lens of power, foregrounding Foucault's concept of biopower and contemporary theories of moral governance, digital surveillance and gendered health expectations. It argues that the rise of ON is not merely a psychological phenomenon but a reflection of broader socio-political forces that moralise food, discipline bodies and construct health as an individualised, virtuous identity. Clean eating becomes a moral imperative; health becomes a site of self-surveillance; and digital wellness culture functions as a disciplinary apparatus. Drawing on interdisciplinary frameworks, it offers a socio-cognitive model of ON shaped by psychological vulnerability, algorithmically curated content and neoliberal demands for bodily optimisation. This work calls for a re-theorisation of ON that situates it within contemporary ideological terrain. It offers a novel socio-cognitive model that links individual psychopathology with biopolitical power, digital culture and gendered health expectations. It provides critical insights into mental health practice, public health policy and feminist thought critique
Biopower · Foregrounding · Governmentality · Ideology · Medicalization · Mental health · Neoliberalism (international relations · Public health · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology
Moral Identity
Social Determinants of Mental Health
Do you “like” my photo? Facebook use maintains eating disorder risk
The Process of Moralization
Prevention and early intervention in youth mental health
The Relationship between Social Networking Site Use and the Internalization of a Thin Ideal in Females
Digital health and the biopolitics of the Quantified Self
Social Media's Impact on Mental Health
Social Drivers and Algorithmic Mechanisms on Digital Media
Addiction and the self
Right, yet impossible? Constructions of healthy eating
‘Wellness’ lifts us above the Food Chaos’
Understanding perceived characteristics and causes of orthorexia nervosa in online communities—A Reddit analysis
Nutrition and addiction - are they linked in de-addictive process
Social Media, Thin-Ideal, Body Dissatisfaction and Disordered Eating Attitudes
Quantifying the body
Diet culture on TikTok
Social media and adolescent psychosocial development
Stigma, shame and ‘people like us’
Clean eating and Instagram
Orthorexia
Behavioral and psychological implications of body dissatisfaction
What are the key features of orthorexia nervosa and influences on its development? A qualitative investigation
Relation between orthorexia nervosa and healthy orthorexia
Healthism and the Medicalization of Everyday Life
Post-postfeminism
The Social Construction of a Concept-Orthorexia Nervosa
Paradoxical bio-citizenship
Health as a meaningful social practice
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |