Paper short abstract:

I explore the experiences of people in the San Francisco Bay Area who sell and consume health products as contractors for a multi-level marketing company. They appeal to and critique capitalism in their vision of "health". I argue that self-improvement is inseparable from financial aspirations

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the experiences of people in the San Francisco Bay Area who sell and consume health products as part of their work as independent contractors of a multi-level marketing (MLM) company. These people consider it a necessity to control their own health through rigorous consumption of nutritional supplements and fasting practices. However, their participation in MLM is not only an effort to improve their bodies, but also an attempt to gain financial stability. Because of the way that the MLM compensation structure is designed, participants earn money not only by selling the nutritional products but also by recruiting other people to join their network. Their personal health aspirations and concerns are thus embedded in larger forms of capitalism and market logic. Even as they turn to market-based solutions for bodily and financial self-improvement, these MLM contractors frequently express their dissatisfaction with economic decline and growing inequality in the United States, which they perceive to be a result of corporate greed. By attending to how these individuals both appeal to and critique capitalism in their vision of the "healthy" body, this article contributes to an anthropological understanding of how bodily self-improvement practices are inseparable from financial aspirations and precarity