Gender, Food and the Body

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Gender, Food and the Body
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Reeves-Sanday reading

• pulling train in college fraternities
• Reinforces cultural values of patriarchy
• Creates solidarity between fraternity members
• Rite of passage into manhood communitas
• A behavior that is not acceptable by society.

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Disordered Eating

• Reinforces the thin body ideal, in Western
  cultures, especially for women.
• Perceived as primarily a female problem, related
  to female identity.
• A form of solidarity between women.
• 1993 Canadian study of adolescent women
• Is a resistance to the role of social
  reproduction through the control of consumption
  of food.
• Refusing food breaks down social relationships,
  especially the family
• It reflects the control of food as power.

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Role of Food and Eating

• Are of interest to anthropologists regarding the
  role they play in systems of subsistence,
  exchange, ritual and the negotiation of social
  relationships.
• Important means through which human beings
  construct reality.
• Reflect social concerns.
• Instrumental in the construction of gender
  identity.

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The Power of Food

• A primary resource for human biological survival
• Integral part of forming social relations
• Kinship
• Gender
• Alliances between individuals, families, states
• Creates inequalities
• Enables humans to adapt to their environment
• A tool to transmit culture

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The Canada Food Guide
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Food and Gender

• Division of Labor
• Historically, women have been assigned the role
  of social reproduction, which includes both the
  production of social relations and biological
  reproduction.
• Procreation and nurturance of future generation.
• Food preparation, family nutrition.
• Subordinate status private or domestic realm.
• Historically, men have been assigned the role of
  provider and protector.
• A position of power.
• Dominant status - public realm.

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Stereotypical Gendered Roles
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Gender and Food

• Women and men are associated with different types
  of foods and portion sizes
• Men heavy foods like meat and potatoes large
  portions
• man-sized meals
• Foods that stick to your ribs
• Women light foods like chicken and salads
  small portions sweets
• Dainty
• Creative and intricate preparation and
  presentation

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Food Across Cultures

• Is coded as feminine
• Women associated with the preparation and serving
  of food.
• Men associated with the eating of food that
  others have prepared
• Creates a gender hierarchy
• Socialization of gender roles associated with
  food
• American example (Roos, 1995)
• Gurage example (Shack, 1997)

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Socialization of Gender Roles
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3rd World Market Women
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Life Cycle Rituals

• Enforce and reinforce gender status
• Rites of passage
• Involves exchange of food
• Production and reproduction of culture
• Not static, varies across families, societies,
  and cultures.

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The Body, Food and Gender

• Food and eating habits as the embodiment of
  social issues.
• Disordered eating
• Anorexia
• Bulimia
• Obesity
• Type 2 diabetes
• Heart disease
• Hypertension

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The Body as Historical

• The body is a symbol social meanings are
  inscribed on the body.
• Social roles and statuses attached to maleness
  and femaleness.
• Changes in size and shape over time, especially
  for women.

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Victorian Women
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Modern women and pop icons Mid-1900s Betty
Grable, and Marilyn Monroe
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Late 1900s Twiggy and Cindy Crawford
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Early 2000 Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani
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Body Shape Across Cultures

• The thin body ideal does not hold across cultures
• Samoa, Fiji, Rural Jamaica
• Sociocentric
• Egocentric

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Recap

• Western cultures are patriarchal with capitalist
  economies based on production, consumption, and
  profit.
• Food is a pawn in the political and economic
  strategies of states and households.
• Food creates solidarity but also inequalities and
  subject positions.
• In industrial societies, there is a problematic
  link between food and body image.
• Issues such as fraternity gang rape and
  disordered eating are embedded in gender
  identity and thus socially constructed.
• Gender and food are sources of inequality and
  power