“God blessed me with employers who don't starve their helpers”: Food insecurity and dehumanization in domestic work

Abstract

This paper explores the intercorporeal dimensions of dehumanization in intimate labor through the control of food for domestic workers by employers. The concept of dehumanization, or “the denial of full humanness to others” (Haslam, 2006) offers a useful framework for understanding the spectrum of harms that workers may experience, including those that may be legible as criminal offenses as well as harms that may be woven into the day-to-day management of private households. We argue that food insecurity offers a fruitful lens for understanding how intercorporeal relations are shaped through workers' bodies. This analysis starts with an examination of dehumanizing food practices, based on interviews with 48 Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers. This is followed by an analysis of domestic workers' resistance to dehumanization and concludes with a discussion of the potential of food practices in rehumanizing domestic work.