"Sex on a Plate"

[rhythmaning]

Sex and food: they go together, really. And in the media, too.

A while ago, white_hart wrote on her journal about an article in the Observer food monthly, which was trying to say that men and women ate different food in a different fashion. (I think it was white_hart; it may have been someone on gastrogasm; and if it was you, I apologise!) This created a lot of debate – almost all of it saying that the article was a load of tosh.

Not to be outdone, and clearly desperate to stay ahead of the pack – or maybe they just thought that no-one who reads the Observer would also read the Independent, last Sunday’s special food issue of the Independent on Sunday had an article about… the way gender defines our dining habits: “Sex on a plate”.

It says more or less the things as the Observer article – men choose meat, women choose salad; women count calories, men like quantity; and women have “so many hang ups about food… For too many women, food is either a chore to be undertaken, or a challenge to be beaten.” (It was written by a woman – Miranda Sawyer. Credit where credit’s due…)

It concludes that food is wonderful, and to be enjoyed and relished; but it seems to reinforce the view that there are real gender differences.

It is strange. Maybe all these journalists live on a different planet?

x-posted to gastrogasm

Comments

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

The problem with sex on a plate is the woman always has to do the washing up...

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I think this is a conversation we should have at another time, in a different medium...

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I really shouldn't post under the influence of Messrs Littleton, Cryer, Brooke-Taylor, Garden and Hardy.

[white_hart]

I think it was oursin's post about the OFM article; I read the article and was annoyed by it, but saw no reason to add my rant to all the others.

I think there *is* often a difference between male and female attitudes to food. Miranda Sawyer's article describes the phenomenon well enough but utterly fails to look at why that might be (complicated cultural wossnames to do with ideals of thinness=beauty, goodness=repression of various sorts). It's certainly not as bad as the OFM article, but then that was written by Polly Fucking Vernon, who is so mind-bogglingly vapid I completely fail to understand how anyone ever gave her a job in journalism; I can't remember if it was her or Mimi Bloody Spencer who wrote in the OFM a couple of years ago about how she'd completely by accident lost several stone, and was now a size 6, and it felt so fabulous, and not eating was just wonderful, and anyone who said she looked too thin or - heaven forfend - unhealthy was just jealous!

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mean this to get into a discussion about food and weight, but thin doesn't look healthy to my eyes.

[unblinkered.livejournal.com]

My mother's partner (ha!) has a habit of referring to any dish he gets served that he doesn't like on principle (risotto, anything involving couscous, that kinda thing) as Frauenessen i.e. women's food. It's just one of the many reasons I love him so.