Food is integral within the American culture as it represents different periods of history over time. The understanding of food through gender is often neglected because food is oftentimes simply accepted as merely a delicious dish for the sole purpose of enjoyment by the diner; however, food has a deeper significance in society as it is serves much more than just sustenance for the body and social relations within a community. The idea that men and women desire and need certain foods based on their biological makeup is often argued, but it is important to realize that society and industries within societies tend to over push certain foods like sweets for women and meat for men as a whole. Moreover, there is a focus by society to associate foods to a gender in terms of the food itself and even packaging of the products, along with establishing a general gendered expectation on the rituals surrounding food. In this manner, the gendered nature of food and food rituals within society will be explored within the realms of family and body ideals.

Family is greatly associated with traditions surrounding food such as eating dinners together on a daily basis, going out to eat on special occasions, or participating in holidays such as Thanksgiving. These traditions regarding food all somehow involve a gendered relationship towards what the family members consume. For example, on a field work study at a dinner experience in a family home conducted on November 25, 2016, the mother (a homemaker) prepared the dinner of spaghetti and meatballs and set the table when the father arrived home from work and summoned the two children to the table to eat. This ritual represents a gendered relationship of the “normalized” familial dinner experience. Women have the expectation within American society as the food maker or food distributor within a family home, while men are the bread winners and provide the financial resources to provide for the consumption of the family. Carole Counihan and Steven Kaplan, in their work Food and Gender: Identity and Power, refer to this notion as, “…women as ‘gatekeepers’ of food into the home…” (Counihan 4). The field work study is a perfect illustration of the women (mother) preparing the food for her family and having it ready in time for her husband as he arrived from work. This social implication of the gendered woman having the role of caretaker of the family is that the woman is inferior to the man in some way because of the “need to serve, satisfy, and defer to others” (Counihan 4).

Though the field work study may not have been blatant with this idea, the “subordinate” status of the mother as a woman being the “distributor” of the food still exists. Her purpose of making the meal was for her family, her children and husband. The expectation (which was fulfilled in the case of the fieldwork study) of women as the “distributors” reveals the gendered roles within everyday rituals of food. In the “typical” household (the standard which was set by society), women have a direct association to food, making it for others, while men are expected to provide the financial means to support the consumption of the food by the family.

Progressing from the idea of family, gendered food can also be associated to different class levels within a society. All people within a society are somewhat aware of certain body images and beauty ideals. Women, at least in American society, have the ideal of thin yet toned body types, while men have the ideal of muscular and macho body types. Yet, at the same time, different foods like sweets and salads are marketed towards women, while foods like meat and beer are towards men. With all of these gendered perspectives towards food, the expectation to maintain a certain body type for each gender is associated with the food that is consumed. In this way, these gendered foods are limited to certain social classes, inclusive of those who have the resources to invest in certain diets and exclusive to those who cannot. For example, there is Special K with their products, packaging, and online dedication to women empowerment. Special K products are geared towards women, who are seeking to improve their figures by providing healthy yet fulfilling foods for weight loss (to maintain figures). The foods come in the forms of little granola bars, cereals, and cracker pastries, which mostly have berry and sweet flavorings. The packaging is usually in varying shades of dark pinks to reds with an occasional green or blue. Moreover, nearly all ads regarding Special K products only feature women (all of these examples are shown in the included picture below-citation in Works Cited).

Weight loss and improving the figure are often associated with women. Lack of control or “compulsiveness” (directly contributing to one’s physical structure of the body) has negative relations to femininity as society tended to view this as one of the “uncivilized” inferior attributes of women to men (Parsons 108). Thus, the control of the intake of food for the “thin ideal,” as described by Parsons, is another relation of gender to dietary foods (Parsons 108). The Special K dietary products’ purpose of “improving the figure” is focused on the social expectations of women’s ideal body types, which also fulfills the gendered notion of delicate and weaker nature of women in contrast to the dominant and protective man. There is a certain exclusion of men, though there are men who do purchase the products, in the overall marketing scheme of brand. Moreover, it is important to realize that those who are only able to afford the products have access to them, so in a way, these dietary food products targeting body ideals have social class exclusions also within the gendered binary.

On the other hand, there are the dietary products geared towards men to “bulk up” their bodies with enhanced muscles in deep contrast to the women’s expectations of a lean figure. For example, there are protein shakes like Optimum Gold Standard Protein shakes that feature and very toned and muscular male body on most of their packaging (shown in the photo below).

Men have the societal expectations of being domineering, muscular, and rough, which are all attributes of the masculine ideal set in society. As mentioned before, the societal view of “lack of control” over the body and “weight loss and a loss of control over rational masculine self” is often relevant to the expectations of men within society as a dominant and “control over situation” figure (Parsons 108). The packaging of Optimum Gold Standard Protein provides a literal image of the full and toned man’s body, which insinuates strength and ability through the physical capabilities of enhanced muscles of the man. This shows a clear representation of societal ideals of men’s bodies, but it also pushes the boundaries of men being the dominant figure versus women in society.

As one can see, food is not simply for enjoyment and basic human nutrition. There are extensive implications as to why certain items are consumed and marketed towards specific genders, as well as, the rituals surrounding food in general. Family relations and body ideals are only two of the various cases of exemplifying the gendered nature of food in today’s society. Family settings, related to food in regards to preparation and eating, contribute to the overall gendered roles of the consumption of food in a society. The housewife and bread winning husband reinforce the idea of the domineering man and subordinate woman in society (constructed by society). On the other hand, dietary food products bolster society’s standards on body images with the notion of the delicate and thin woman and the muscular and strong man, which also contribute to certain levels of class exclusions in society. Overall, food illustrates a more complicated picture than simply “eating” and is gendered within society to reinforce certain roles and ideals within varying social relationships and communities.

Works Cited