In America, food often defines social class as pointed out by Sue Mattheson’s critique and Margaret Visser’s detective novel. They way citizens of a culture behave towards their food often defines social roles in that culture. America has defined the family celebration to take place around food. Sometimes the celebration is a special holiday or just the everyday dining experience. Generally, dinning does not happen alone and women are the preparers of this food. American society considers dining alone by choice a peculiar habit. Not only does whom a person chooses to eat with, what they choose to eat determines place. The poor eat hot dogs made with fillers and the wealthy eat free-range steak. In both of the author’s writings, the role of food preparation traditionally belongs to females of society based on former Puritan heritages. Women usually dine and prepare wealthier and healthier foods, such as, low fat chicken, salad, and white wine. References
Matheson. S. (2008). Food is never just something to eat: Sue Grafton's culinary critique of mainstream America. Retrieved November 12, 2009, from. The Journal of Popular Culture, 41(2008)
Trinity College Dublin. (2009).Good eating habits. Retrieved November 28, 2009, from. http://www.tcd.ie/collegehealthweek/good-eating-habits
I enjoyed reading your journal article analysis. Upon seeing the picture, I thought it was going to be more about the types of food we eat according to the food pyramid and I was pleasantly surprised. The foods we consume greatly affect our cultures around the world. I especially enjoyed and understood the relationship between foods eaten and social class. At times when I see that the poor eats hot dogs while the rich eats steak, I feel sorry because in all reality all nourishment should be equal among social classes. Thank goodness for programs to help with this in our nation.
ReplyDeleteYou did a nice job evaluating some of the main components of your article. It is odd that dining alone is viewed as an unusual habit. America is a country where most families are so busy that finding the opportunity to spend one meal together is a miracle! You'd think that dining alone would be more commonplace than dining with others. I enjoyed your post!
ReplyDeleteI had thought this article was going to be about changes over the years to the food pyramid. You analyzed the article well. I have also thought the type of food eaten relates to social class. In one of my jobs I see a lot of homeless people. ManyYou might think they are going to look like they are starving, but actually many are considered obese. Just like you mentioned about the poor eating hot dogs, I think more people with higher incomes can afford better quality food. I found that because the homeless have no kitchens to prepare food, they eat a lot of "junk." Higher income families usually have all the gadgets to make preparation easier.
ReplyDeleteTravel outside of the U.S. and you will find that in many countries a person is assumed to be wealth if they are overweight, because everyone else can't afford to eat "extra" food. You did a good job of summarizing the article, and it is easy to see that what and how we helps to determine how other people view or social standing.
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