Food and Gender

I'm sitting here watching Rachel Ray on the Food Network and the theme of her episode is "guy food" for women to eat. I thought about this for a long time, thinking, "Wow, I didn't know food was segregated by the gender of the person eating it" and then I realized that it is. How many times have I heard it stated that "real" men don't eat quiche? There it is right there.

Why is food assigned a proper gender? If it's delicate, it must be for ladies. If it's messy and hearty, it must be for men. Man food, woman food. Food is food. And sexism is sexism. It's too bad it has to bleed over into a topic that could and should remain free of such "isms". Food brings people together. Food is life and love and sharing. Food should not be sexist too. All this does is continue to reinforce negative body image in women and establish between both genders that there are foods they "should" and "shouldn't" be eating based on what they are. So, a man should feel weak and emasculated if he likes quiche, and a woman should feel guilty and unfeminine if she likes a nice thick steak. This is just so wrong...

So when you go out and about in your life, look around for examples like this, and really think about it. If we're all for equality in our lives, maybe we need to fight for food equality too?