Nasogastric tube: treatment or punishment? dehumanizing female bodies through force-feeding strategy in Sophia Gore’s The Rustle of a Wing: Finding Hope Beyond Anorexia

This paper explores how nasogastric force-feeding in the treatment of anorexia nervosa can function as both a life-saving intervention and a profoundly dehumanizing act. Drawing on Sophia Gore’s memoir The Rustle of a Wing: Finding Hope Beyond Anorexia and historical accounts of the force-feeding of suffragettes, the paper analyses the violation of embodied autonomy through a phenomenological lens, particularly Husserl’s distinction between the lived body (Leib) and the objectified body (Körper). By comparing medical treatment with political coercion and examining the language, procedures, and trauma of enforced feeding, this research questions the ethical implications of coercive care. It also reflects on the failure of narrative and empathetic engagement in clinical settings, proposing the integration of narrative medicine as a more humanizing framework. Ultimately, the paper argues that force-feeding, while medically justified in some cases, may perpetuate a form of violence when it neglects the lived experiences and subjectivity of patients.