Masculinity Vs Traditional Cooking

Gender is a defining characteristic of a person’s identity. This social construct provides the basis of understanding what society expects from a person and how this person should behave. In many cultures, gender falls under a binary categorization of feminine or masculine. Traditional femininity subscribes to the older notion that a woman’s ultimate role is to be a wife and mother meaning she cares for her family by being the sole contributor to the domestic chores (Friedan, 1963 and Hochschild, 1989). Traditional masculinity or hegemonic masculinity describes men as strong, controlling, powerful breadwinners who do not participate in domestic duties because domesticity is a feminine concept (Johnston, Rodney, & Chong, 2014). These traditional …show more content…
2010; Furst, 1997; Szabo, 2014). However, cooking does not possess the same emotionality for men. According to Sherrie Inness (2001), the relationship between men and cooking is defined by the male cooking mystique, a twentieth century list of assumptions stating that men should only cook masculine foods such meat and such cooking endeavors should be applauded as artistry. The assumptions also warn men to never become attached to food because attachment is effeminate. The key aspect of the male cooking mystique is the desire to justify cooking for men in order to alleviate fears of being effeminate. Although these justifications are not as heavily relied on today, they do highlight the entrenched notions that men cook as an artistic enterprise and entertainment, while women cook for duty and family (Cairns et al. 2010; Harries, 2015; Szabo, …show more content…
Professional chefs look down on meals of home chefs because the meals are repetitive and order while female hosts constantly reassure the audience they are not a judgemental chef (Chao, 1998). There seems to be need for constant division between the worlds of domestic and professional cooking, and one of the ways the division appears is through the gender of the television culinary personas. There have been many articles and studies discussing the existence of gendered culinary personas like Rebecca Swenson’s (2009) study where she discusses how men approach culinary television as a way to display culinary skills and to compete. Elizabeth Nathanson (2009) similarly discusses how male chefs display their dominance and expertise through competition show while self proclaimed female cooks still convey advice in the home kitchen trying to distance themselves from the loud and brash male culinary