It’s been a while! Sorry about the absence, life has been kicking my ass lately! Anyways, feminism time. I usually find that feminism and vegetarianism have gone hand in hand in the past. I know that a lot of people who consider themselves an advocate for women’s rights also label themselves as an advocate for animal rights. I understand that a small portion of vegans have given the entire population of them the impression that they are hard-headed and stubborn people. I’m sure we’ve all seen various videos recommended to us on our social media feeds of vegans freaking out or something along the lines of that. And as someone who isn’t a vegan, I certainly wouldn’t like having ideologies about what I should or should not eat shoved down my throat, but I am aware that it’s fortunately only a vocal minority who act this way. Overall, I feel that becoming vegan is admirable and I know it’s not something easy at all to do. I do happen to admire people who do watch what they eat and think so carefully about what they consume on a day to day basis. It’s crucial to be conscious about our wildlife and livestock, and I personally do not think I could ever be capable of being a vegan myself.
Onto the image provided for this week, at first glance, this image seems rather simple. The way I interpret it, the small satutere of the figure could symbolize how much we rely on the meat industry in order to survive. Basically what I’m saying is that I’m connecting this to capitalism. I myself don’t really perceive this figure as male or female but that’s just me.
When it comes to gender and foods, I usually associate foods such as sweets or greens with women. Meatier foods I find myself linking with men. This includes the kinds of food made during barbecues or cookouts. I think a lot of this comes from the benefits of eating these kinds of foods. There is the entire concept of the ongoing diet culture that has consumed a large portion of our society. I feel like this has had a large influence on the kinds of foods associated with gender. Many dieting methods are primarily focused on girls, and there is such oppressive expectation on women to fit a certain body type and size, and because of this a lot of dietary and nutritious foods are associated with women. Or at least, that’s how I feel about the matter. This also applies to men as well, although with men the primary focus is on muscle build up rather than losing weight. This has its own handful of problems on men in society and we could certainly do without these standards and expectations. My father is a little old fashioned and usually is reluctant to eat “more feminine” foods such as smoothies or different kinds of pastries such as cinnamon buns. Unless smoothies are specifically meant for exercise and muscle building, my dad will often stray away from these kinds of foods. It’s rather interesting to think about but again, my dad’s a bit old fashioned.
Whilst reading Zoe Eisenberg’s article MeatHeads, I found that a lot of the ideas I already have were reinforced. A quote that stood out to me was, “it’s argued that the connection between meat and masculinity goes far beyond typical sexist advertising as it articulates the hidden connections between meat eating and patriarchy.” Advertising is a whole different story and brings another level of complexity into the equation. It’s been a while since I’ve watched actual T.V. but when thinking about advertisements relating to food I know there are a lot of advertisements catered to cookouts and barbecues. I’ve also seen a lot of beer and alcohol commercials as well. I don’t recall seeing many food commercials for women other than typical Valentine’s Day chocolate advertisements. But these adverts have certainly swayed us to think a certain way. Or atleast, they’re trying to.
Overall, this was another interesting subject to delve into! I’m looking forward to what you guys think too!
Hey Ateena,
As I was reading you blog I enjoyed the ways you incorporated the concept of diet culture. I found it quite interesting that now we view it as acceptable that women must eat salads and vegetables in order to loose weight, while men are constantly encouraged to eat meat in order to bulk up. Your example for me acted as the modern equivalent of Zoe Eisenberg’s within her article “Meat Heads.” Within the article Eisenberg depicts a dinner date in which the man stereotypically asks for the steak while his girlfriend gets a salad (scene we can all recognize). The author continues by specifically associating a man’s masculinity to his consumption of meat, stating “researchers found that after consumers experience a threat to their masculinity, the availability of a meat dish lowered their anxiety back to the level of an unthreatened control group.” However, later on in the article Eisenberg talks about a handful of successful male pro athletes who live the vegan/ vegetarian life and their “manliness” is never questioned. I wonder if your father were to learn about these athletes diet if he would be more willing to drink smooths that aren’t specifically made for exercise? Also while I agree that the image provided for this class does showcase how dependent our society has become on eating meat I have to say that I believe the figure is a male. This is only due to the fact that historically the culinary industry has been male dominated. Even to this day it is not as common to walk into a restaurant and see women cooking in the back. Thus, the picture also represented the sexist ideas our society has placed upon food. Lastly, I was wondering what your feelings where on the topic of pets. Do you have any? If so do you feel guilty after reading Great Gaard’s piece? I personally am I pet owner and felt quite conflicted after reading Gaard.