The Politics of Consumption: Fischler’s Food Theory and Moral Agency in the Dystopia of The Platform

Abstract

This study focuses on the symbolic and disciplinary role of food in The Platform 
(2019), examining how consumption becomes a mechanism for shaping, eroding, and 
potentially reclaiming subjectivity within systems of inequality. It is the theme of the paper 
that food, identity, and power are intertwined in a closed, hierarchical setting, where access to 
food is the key to not only survival but also moral behavior and self-perception. Using the 
Claude Fischler theory of food and identity, food is used as a means of degradation, violence, 
and inequality, and not as a means of cultural affirmation. In this sense, the paper explores 
how food has turned out to be a moral agent of dehumanization and how people internalize 
the roles assigned to them in systems of inequality through food. It also discusses how the act 
of refusing to consume, especially the uneaten panna cotta, acts as an act of ethical resistance. 
The study also traces the protagonist's descent from an idealistic observer to an embodied 
participant in a violent system, illustrating how food operates not only as a source of 
sustenance but also as a tool of control and a site of resistance. Methodologically, this study 
uses close textual reading of the major scenes in the movie, especially the dialogue, character 
development, and space. These are thematically interpreted to show that The Platform is not 
only a metaphor of social stratification but also a tool of moral and psychological 
transformation through food. Such findings open up to further interdisciplinary interaction 
with food as a medium where political, ethical, and social meanings are negotiated.