Gendered Foods by Callie

Steak, hamburgers, bacon, and hot sauce: manly food.

Cupcakes, chocolate, salad, and fruit: girly food.

This is the impression that many people of America have about food. There are a number of foods that can be categorized by gender. Of course, there are many “gender-neutral” foods such as spaghetti and meatballs, and pizza. “Man food” is characterized by anything particularly meaty and/or that can be eaten by using fingers and hands as utensils. “Girly food” is only eaten with a fork or spoon, is a small portion, and/or involves packaging advertising low fat and the word “diet.”

How did people come to associate chocolate with woman and steak with men? It has to do with America’s standards of each gender. Women are supposed to be delicate while men are supposed to be powerful and aggressive. It has always been this way. Men and women have always been separate and men have always been the more powerful of the two. It’s both sad and ridiculous that what a person eats makes them more manly or more girly. Yogurt is for women, chili is for men. Tea is for women, beer is for men. According to Man’s Law #26, all men must eat meat to be a man. What happens if a man doesn’t want to eat meat? does that mean he’s not a man? What if a woman loves to eat meat? does that mean that she’s more manly than women who don’t eat meat?

There are foods that have recently been invented that are specifically and exclusively meant for men only, such as “manwiches” and “mancakes.” A “manwich” is simply a sandwich, but stuffed with extra meat. “Mancakes” mostly have alcohol baked into them and meat toppings to seem more manly than a traditional cupcake. Companies also used manliness to sell their products. Burger King had a commercial advertising their double whopper with men singing about how they are man and must eat meat instead of “chick food.” There’s even a brand name called “Hungry-Man” with a television commercial of a fisherman being blown away in the wind because he had an un-manly dinner.

Both genders are expected to stick to their own foods. If a man drinks tea, he is considered fairly feminine, and if a woman eats steak, she is considered fairly masculine. Why does food have to determine this? Shouldn’t what people eat be determined by nutritional value, not on a masculine-feminine scale?