Move Over, Honey. I Can Help Too, Mom. This is How My Mother Made Good Food: Competing Voices in Family Cookbooks (original) (raw)

Abstract

Gender critics have long documented the imbalance of food-related work in the home. This inequity is visible in community cookbooks, which have long been a forum for women, by women as well as in professionally published cookbooks that address a primarily female audience. In reality, however, foodmaking practices are much more complex than these works suggest. Today, men and children claim their own right to not only cook, but to cook in their own way. This sharing of space creates competition and forces us to reconsider traditional gender roles. Unlike published cookbooks, which have predominantly female authorial voices and generally address women, family cookbooks are an authentic mixture of female, male, and children's voices. Drawing on past and current academic literature to analyse some of my family's cookbooks, this presentation draws academic attention to family food practices. While the cookbooks I analyse are still predominantly feminine, the many male and child voices included in these collections, voices that are usually excluded from such works, prove that, when given a chance, these often silenced groups not only impact a family's food habits but also alter our understanding of feminine and masculine roles.

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