Synopses & Reviews
This wide-ranging study is the most inclusive exploration available of women's relationship with food. Cairns and Johnston examine idealized 'food femininities' and culturally-constructed feminine food practices; in doing so, they link food to issues of family, childhood, embodiment, politics, and patriarchy. They probe vital questions: How do women channel their desire for social change through food practices? Why do gendered inequalities persist? How are established notions of food and femininity being challenged?
With lively analytical overview and original research, including interviews and focus groups, this book is indispensable for students and scholars of sociology of food, consumer culture, and gender studies.
Synopsis
Over the space of a few generations, women's relationship with food has changed dramatically. Yet despite significant advances in gender equality food and femininity remain closely connected in the public imagination as well as the emotional lives of women. While women encounter food-related pressures and pleasures as individuals, the social challenge to perform food femininities remains: as the nurturing mother, the talented home cook, the conscientious consumer, the svelte and health-savvy eater.
In Food and Femininity, Kate Cairns and Josee Johnston explore these complex and often emotionally-charged tensions to demonstrate that food is essential to the understanding of femininity today. Drawing on extensive qualitative research in Toronto, they present the voices of over 100 food-oriented men and women from a range of race and class backgrounds. Their research reveals gendered expectations to purchase, prepare, and enjoy food within the context of time crunches, budget restrictions, political commitments, and the pressure to manage health and body weight. The book analyses how women navigate multiple aspects of foodwork for themselves and others, from planning meals, grocery shopping, and feeding children, to navigating conflicting preferences, nutritional and ethical advice, and the often-inequitable division of household labour. What emerges is a world in which women's choices continue to be closely scrutinized a world where 'failing' at food is still perceived as a failure of femininity.
A compelling rethink of contemporary femininity, this is an indispensable read for anyone interested in the sociology of food, gender studies and consumer culture.
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About the Author
Kate Cairns is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Childhood Studies at Rutgers University, USA.
Josée Johnston is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, Canada.
Table of Contents
1. Introducing the "Feminine Palate": Ideals of Feminine Food Consumption
2. Feeding Your Organic Baby
3. Caring through Consumption: Organic Milk, Fair-trade Coffee and Ethical Eating
4. Eat Your (Organic) Greens: Health and Embodiment
5. The Feminine Foodie
6. Happy Meat: The Shifting Relationship between Femininity and Eating Animals
7. Trolling the Aisles: Food Shopping as Leisure
8. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index