macho macho man

[docmanhattan]

A new research article suggests that men* are highly apt to make "gender-congruent" food choices. Though there are "feminine" foods, women are not nearly as likely to choose a signifying food over what they would simply prefer to eat. A woman is as likely to eat a burger as she is a salad

Comments

[wickedrad79]

That reminds me of thisrecent post on Sociological Images.

Women do sometimes have more freedom to choose some options because a woman choosing something considered masculine is less stigmatized than a man making a choice for something perceived as feminine, but that can be seen as a function of the overall devaluing of things which are associated with femininity.

[docmanhattan]

What's interesting (and wisely noted by the reaction blogpost I linked) is that in the case of Western food, the sociological/androcentric pluses of "masculine" food is almost directly proportional to health/biological/financial negatives of this diet. Our culture is... an equal-opportunity employer when it comes to messing up people's lives over their diets, albeit in many different ways.

(Aside, not to be glib, but "baby blue" is "girly"? Really, Sociological Images? Can you think of a sociological image in which baby blue is exactly the opposite of girly? Like, a sociological image reproduced every fifteen seconds in the US?)

[sidebernie]

Traditionally, pink is a masculine color, associated with health and vigor. Blue is associated with the Madonna, and is therefore feminine.

[wickedrad79]

I just read this interesting Explainer article about gendered clothing for small children this week. I'd read something else about it fairly recently but I can't remember what.

[shashalnikya]

Interesting! I'd suggest that while men may have a bit less social freedom in choosing WHAT to eat, they may have a bit more in deciding just how MUCH of it they eat.

[brainbuffet]

I'd chalk this up to the hunter attitude. You can even see it now, if you're a deer hunter, you're just cooler if you "get your deer" for the season. In the same way, you know, cake is fine, but you just feel more cool if you're eating a big fat steak for dinner.

[brainbuffet]

and while women are hunters too, I think that 10,000 years ago, they did less hunting than men, and were more ok with eating whatever.

[lietya]

Seriously? My first thought is "maybe in private, but as a public performance of food, the woman who eats ANYTHING is already taking a risk." The woman who orders a salad and picks at it even though she's starving is a cultural trope.

Also, I get the distinct impression that it is about privilege, but flipped - women may *lack* the privilege to turn down something they'd rather not eat, since they have to get what they can while they can. Since the study is somewhat elided (I did follow the link), there's no real way to tell enough to judge how privilege might be a confounding factor, though.

"This tells me that there are significant pressures on men to watch out for what they shove into their mouths whereas for women, who really gives a stuff?"

Er, really? I trust I can make WTF face and move on rather than elaborate on the angry estrogen rant. ;)

[docmanhattan]

There's the trope of the woman barely picking at a salad, but there's also the trope of the woman who eats like "just one of the guys," knocking back White Castles and Schaefers by the six-pack, which is highly prized *IF* she still looks like she only picks at salad.

So women get ground down about body image whether or not they eat a potentially androcentric diet. Maybe the "freedom" to choose from a wide range of foods is less a win and more making the best of a social catch-22?

[lietya]

Yeah, that's true - it's a big "if," all right, but you make a good point.

"Maybe the "freedom" to choose from a wide range of foods is less a win and more making the best of a social catch-22?"

That does seem alarmingly plausible.