Foodie Culture And Personal Identity

1502 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How food reflects an individuals identity

Bibliography:

Almerico, Gina. 2014. “Food and Identity: Food Studies, Cultural, And Personal Identity”. Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies 8. The study examines how food studies is more than just about food itself. Rather, practices and behaviours surrounding food demonstrate the economic, political, cultural and social significance of food. Americo’s study begins by examining how food shapes individual identity, using the stereotypes attached to certain food and what popular restaurant choices reveal about individuals as examples. Furthermore, she explores how the symbolic meanings and experiences attached to particular foods can reveal further information about identity. Finally, food choices can define who one is and
Using data collected through qualitative interviews, they present the relationship between foodie culture and gender in three ways. Firstly, both foodie men and women view food as pleasurable in their lives, something that women struggle to collate with the social expectation of feminine restraint. Furthermore, foodie women also report a high affinity with cooking food food as a method of care, compared to foodie men who view cooking for others as a source of leisure. Finally, the possession ad pursuit of food knowledge is very significant to individual identification as a foodie, particularly among male respondents. There theories are supported by in-depth background research, as well as extensive qualitative interview data from a sample of the dominant foodie demographic: affluent, white, middle-upper class individuals. The author’s research and discussion will be very useful for an analysis of how food practices shape gendered identity, as they provide detailed research into a rising contemporary demographic and how gender influences their food choices and
While food consumption as affirmation of gender identity is supported through numerous documents, Furst discusses how the making of food plays a vital role in the construction of the feminine identity, as women remain proprietors of the kitchen. In particular, the ability to cook is seen as a fundamental part of the woman’s role in the family, both as wives and mothers. Furthermore, Furst suggests that cooking extends beyond part of identity formation to existing as a rationale, where women not only cook for affirm their femininity but to provide food for others. As cooking is a kind of no wage labour and is directly linked to the formation of gender identity, femininity is performed and maintained through the act of giving food and providing for others. Furst draws on a range of theories, including both feminist and neo-marxist ideas, to produce an informed and thorough argument as to how both cooking and providing food for others is significant in the formation of the female identity. The author’s research will be helpful to my own studies as it provides examples and theories about how gender is constructed not only though consumption but through production as

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of The American Paradox By Michael Pollan

    785 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pollan states that food is not just a necessity to survive, it has a greater meaning to life. Pollan explains how food can cause us happiness and health by connecting us to our family and culture. Warren Belasco, in “Why Study Food”, supports Pollan’s idea that food is something social and cultural. In Belasco’s description of a positive social encounter food is included, whether it involves a coffee date with a colleague or a dinner date with a loved one. Belasco states that food forms our identity and brings our society together.

    Read More

  • Themes In Wendell Berry's 'The Pleasures Of Eating'

    1015 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his essay “The Eco-Gastronomic Mirror: Narcissism and Death at the Dinner Table” Jordan Shapiro explores the psychological aspects of the human relationship with food. He comments on the ways in which the imperfections in the food are masked in the kitchen. The author reiterates his experience at the hands of older male chefs and the things he saw and felt while training in the kitchen. He endeavors to debunk the myth that cooking in a large kitchen is anything but noisy and infernal, as portrayed by movies such as “Ratatouille (2007)”.

    Read More

  • Lavanya Ramanathan's Washington Post Article: Why Everyone Should Stop Immigrant Food Ethnic?

    768 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Lavanya Ramanathan’s Washington Post article published in 2015 titled “Why everyone should stop calling immigrant food ‘ethnic’”, she discusses about people’s preconceptions on the type of food that should be labelled ethnic. Ashlie Stevens also touched on a similar topic in her Guardian article published in 2015 titled “Stop thinking and just eat: when ‘food adventuring’ trivializes culture”. She talks about how people assume that just by eating food from a certain culture, they are able relate to the culture as a whole. Both authors acknowledge the importance of appreciating authentic cuisines, but takes different approaches to convince the audience. Both authors establish credibility by using a wide range of substantiated evidences. While,

    Read More

  • Chew On This Summary

    567 Words  | 2 Pages

    Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson’s Chew On This explores the dark secrets of fast food. The authors first describe the background of fast food and their tactics with customers, and then elaborate on the impact of fast food on society today. Their view on fast food is a negative one: through describing various aspects of fast food, the authors ultimately reveal how the greediness of businessmen has caused the loss of individuality and the growth in power of corporations. They explain the effects of fast food on health, traditions, and animals, clearly showing fast food’s negative impact.

    Read More

  • The End Of Cooking

    533 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Michael Pollan’s “The End of Cooking” shares the message of what we are losing something important in this day and age because of all our pre-made and processed foods. This can be compared with Kothari’s “If You Are What You Eat, What Am I?” and her argument that food is part of one’s own identity. By using the examples from these two texts you can analyze the state of food and culture in the United States today. All of the processed and pre-made foods are causing people all across America to lose their sense of Culture. We no longer know what it’s like to make one of our cultures specialty dishes from scratch which can help people identify with their culture. This process helped newer generations see what it was like for those before them to cook on a daily basis and could help them identify your sense of culture.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Geeta Kothari's The Unexpected Lessons Of Mexican Food

    814 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the writing “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?” Geeta Kothari describes the differences in the American and Indian cultures through her unique description of the food differences. As a little Indian-American girl, Kothari curiously wanted to eat what of kids her age ate, tuna salad sandwich, hot dogs, and foods of such nature. Kothari describes her first encounter with a can of tuna fish as it looks “pink and shiny, like an internal organ” (947). As Kothari ages, it becomes clear that she sees American food much the way her parents saw it- “repugnant… meat byproducts… glued together by chemicals and fat” (947). Even though Kothari describes American food as strange, disgusting, and foreign; it was also “infidelity” to eat it (951).

    Read More

  • Hunger As Ideology Susan Bordo Analysis

    1566 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Hunger as Ideology” by Susan Bordo has numerous sections that deal with the same concept. She focuses on the idea of image and perception, which she describes in her brief as “reading” images. Bordo digs deep into issues of class, gender roles, and ideology. Although Bordo makes many important points throughout her essay, there are four in particular that I generally agree with and think are correct, that I will point out and elaborate on throughout my response. I will discuss the targeting of women at a young age, sexual appetite operating as a metaphor for eating pleasure, how women are never shown in the act of eating, and the concept that men eat and women prepare. As I discuss these points, I will explain issues of class, gender roles, and ideology, and the roles they play in our generation’s cultural change.

    Read More

  • Summary Of In Praise Of Fast Food

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rachel Lauden’s essay In Praise of Fast Food presents a fresh point of view by taking a look at the way the poor fed themselves throughout history and comparing it with the reality of today’s fast food industry. The current thinking about fast food is that it is unhealthy and leads to diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, when it is eaten without moderation. The argument Ms. Lauden proposes is that, due to the difficulties in procuring and preparing healthy, sanitary food for the lower classes, fast food is a positive development. She pointed out that as recently as the 1930s, poor children were cooking for themselves in outdoor shanties in extremely unsanitary conditions, and she emphasized the idea that upper classes invented ethnic dishes.

    Read More

  • The Sociology Analysis of Food and Food Ways

    1827 Words  | 4 Pages

    Scholliers P (2001) Meals, Food Narratives and Sentiments of Belonging in Past and Present and Chapter Two Commensality and Social Morphology: An Essay of Typology Claude Grignon in Food, Drink and Identity Cooking, Eating and Drinking in Europe since the middle Ages by Berg in New York, America

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in Alice Munro’s "Boys and Girls" and Bobbie Ann Mason’s "Shiloh"

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    Up until recently, the definition of what a man or a woman should be has been defined, with boundaries, by society; males should be strong, dominant figures and in the workplace providing for their families while females should be weak and submissive, dealing with cleaning, cooking and children. Any veering away from these definitions would have disrupted the balance of culture completely. A man playing housewife is absurd, and a woman being the sole provider for the family is bizarre. In Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls” and Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh”, conflict arises when expectations based on gender are not fulfilled by the characters. According to “Boys and Girls”, there are certain things women should not be doing as defined by their gender.

    Read More

  • Gender Characters In Food Network And Cooking Shows

    1176 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cooking shows are great entertainment for food lovers, but these shows often display two types of culinary personas: the female home cook and the male chef. Although more women are being recognized in the world of professional cooking and more men are cooking at home, there is still a portrayal of women in the home kitchen and men in the restaurants on popular cooking shows. Food Network and Cooking Channel are the two largest cooking networks and displays the greatest number of food personalities. By examining the different gender persona of the hosts on Food Network and Cooking Channel shows, this study aims to see if there are any divergence to the traditional feminine and masculine culinary persona.

    Read More

  • Essay On American Food Culture

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    American culture is changing dramatically. In some areas it’s a good thing, but in other areas, like our food culture, it can have negative affects. It is almost as if our eating habits are devolving, from a moral and traditional point of view. The great America, the land of the free and brave. The land of great things and being successful, “living the good life.” These attributes highlight some irony, especially in our food culture. Is the American food culture successful? Does it coincide with “good living”? What about fast and processed foods? These industries are flourishing today, making record sales all over the globe. People keep going back for more, time after time. Why? The answer is interestingly simple. Time, or in other words, efficiency. As people are so caught up in their jobs, schooling, sports, or whatever it may be, the fast/processed food industries are rapidly taking over the American food culture, giving people the choice of hot

    Read More

  • acting like a lady

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since the 1950’s, women have been seen as very dainty and sensitive creatures who are meant to be silent partners to their mates. A woman’s place was in the home-cooking, cleaning and watching after her children. Women were to get up every morning and prepare lunches for their breadwinning husbands, as well as wake and dress the children for school, cook breakfast, do housework and have a hot meal on the table when her husband was to return home. Women have stepped down to their traditional roles as housewife and caretaker, and it has raised many issues in society today. It was considered a woman’s job to be a good cook and be a whiz with a broom, in fact, it is what made them so darn attractive. Times, they are a changing. In fact, the U.S Department of Labor states that in the year 2008, women will make up 48% of the work force. That means that more women will be going to college and getting and education, as well as heading out into the workforce to make a name for themselves.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In Cooking

    1017 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many magazines, including Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle and Fitness, are focused on men of all ages who yearn to enhance their physical appearance (17). With the standards put into acquiring the ideal body type, the food industry is providing men more convenient ways to improve and maintain their body image (23). In the three magazines that were mentioned in the article, the idea of cooking continues to be gender biased. The author mentions that the use of food in these magazines is also associated with gender roles. Most of the articles and advertisements focus on ready-to-eat food and food that requires nearly no preparation time. Parasecoli states, “Cooking food seems to constitute a threat to the reader’s masculinity; men consume, they do not get involved with the chores related to food” (35). It obviously implies that cooking is associated with women in these magazines and is thus a threat to masculinity. The idea of gender role is heavily emphasized from the traditional ideology to the modern food advertisement. Even though this phenomenon is not directly related to Mexico, the idea it presents corresponds with the gender roles in Mexican food

    Read More

  • Consumer Culture Essay

    1919 Words  | 4 Pages

    By representing fashion as an “exploitative consumer industry which limited women 's choice about who to be and encouraged them to think about clothing in terms of how other people perceived them” (Hollows, 2013, p. 9), Spare Rib tried to portray the idea of a responsible feminist consumer as active, informed, concerned, and conscientious. Spare Rib even went to the extreme and touched upon one of the key notions of this movement: disidentification from the identity of a housewife. In relation to food shopping, one of the main duties of a housewife, an article in Spare Rib in 1974 argued that “an attempt to remove responsibility for food shopping from the sexual division of labor by noting male partners’ equal participation in the work of the food co-op. [There are] joys of learning to shop at Spitalfields market, hunting for bargains and working co-operatively, divorcing responsible consumption practices from associations with asceticism and separating the pleasures of consumption from the role of the housewife” (Hollows, 2013, p. 10).

    Read More

More about Foodie Culture And Personal Identity

Open Document