“The Process of Discipline”: Diet Culture and HBO’s ‘The Vow’
By: Marquisele Mercedes
Tags: Health, Television, Society, Media, Beauty

HBO’s new documentary series ‘The Vow’ provides a carefully curated peephole into NXIVM, a corporate pyramid scheme that sold self-help workshops and was home to a sex cult intended to fulfill the desires and ambitions of its founder, Keith Raniere.

(If you’re planning on watching ‘The Vow’, this essay has spoilers. If you’re not planning on watching it, but want to know more about this tangled tapestry, read Vulture’s take on NXIVM.)

NXIVM’s sex cult was called DOS, a shortened form of Dominus Obsequious Sororium, or “lord over the obedient female companions”. High-ranking female NXIVM members called themselves “masters” and were tasked with recruiting women into DOS, who were called “slaves”. Before getting a clear idea of what DOS was or its purpose, recruits were forced to give collateral to ensure their silence about the group’s existence. They were lured in by the idea that they were joining an all-women collective that would help them be “better” versions of themselves and make a better world through improving one another. Collateral took many forms, including naked pictures, reputation-ruining letters or videos — even financial documents, like property deeds. Upon joining, recruits took a lifelong vow pledging their time, privacy, and loyalty to their “masters” and to Raniere. Some wore chains around their waists as a material reminder of this vow.

Members were then tasked with recruiting other “slaves” in a function similar to NXIVM’s primary business model, as well as providing even more collateral when demanded. Recruits into DOS were subjected to non-stop surveillance by those who recruited them (usually through messages and check-ins) and, for some, mental, emotional, and physical grooming for sex with Raniere, which was touted as some kind of fast track to enlightenment.

The longer women in DOS stayed, the more likely it became that they would be branded with Raniere’s initials in a ceremony that required them to strip naked, get in a car with other recruits, be transported to an unknown location while blindfolded, and physically restrain each other as they took turns under a hot iron burning their flesh.

Weight loss and dieting have been minor, but recurring themes in ‘The Vow’. In NXIVM, these (incredibly gendered) activities were encouraged by key tenets of Raniere’s teachings, specifically that personal evolution involved not allowing oneself to be controlled by base urges. To achieve states of complete control, members would train themselves to reject bodily signals of hunger, exhaustion, discomfort, and even fear. Learning to ignore something as fundamental as the need to eat was framed as a sign of enlightenment.

Most episodes of ‘The Vow’ briefly mention calorie counting and restrictive eating, which often precede further evidence of women being involved in DOS. However, the show avoids a sustained look at these manifestations of diet culture until Episode 4 (“Building Character”) when we are introduced to “Jane”, an anonymous woman who left DOS. Through Jane’s story, we learn more about how deprivation is woven into NXIVM’s approach to self improvement.