Do Food and Drinks Have Gender?: Cultural Conceptions of Food Types among Emory Undergraduates Público
Stubbs, Sierra (Spring 2019)
Abstract
Gender performance affects various aspects of life, from clothing choices, to personal relationships and sometimes, as discussed in this paper, food choices. Therefore, the goal of this thesis was to better understand the ways that individuals conceptualize common foods and drinks in relation to gender, and whether they apply these conceptions to their gender performances. This thesis also strove to evaluate potential patterns in conceptions and gender performances across genders and races. This thesis focuses on college students because they are an excellent population to examine these cultural conceptions of food within as the population is racially diverse, and in the process of developing and solidifying their gender identities. The author conducted an exploratory free-listing exercise in order to discover which foods to interrogate in relation to gender. The author also conducted two online surveys, one large survey which received responses one hundred and sixty-five responses, and another smaller pilot survey that received thirty-five responses. Of the thirty-five pilot survey responses, seven of these surveys were conducted in person to allow for a deeper examination of the participant’s thoughts and opinions.
Both the first survey and the second survey allowed for an exploration of norms surrounding gender and food. The second survey allowed the author to further examine how individuals conceptualize the relationships between the free-listed foods and gender. The results of this thesis illustrate that individuals do conceptualize food as related to gender in the same ways that previous research has found, and some individuals follow the common food and gender norms, such as ties between femininity and salad. However, although the results indicate that people are aware of food and gender norms, they also break these norms frequently, and many individuals do not think that these norms should exist. Finally, these results indicate that the resistance to these norms and stereotypes is not simple, as respondents gave conflicting answers about the ways that they break gender norms, and they speak about the difficulty of actually breaking norms and stereotypes. Incorporating this connection between gender and food may help healthcare professionals create more targeted nutritional interventions.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION 1
Inspiration 1
Background and Overview 2
Rationale and Anthropological Connection 3
Positionality 4
Study Location 5
LITERATURE REVIEW 7
Culture and Gender 7
Race and Masculinity 10
Food 10
Settled and Nomadic Sensibilities 11
Structuralism 13
Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche 14
Food and Gender Studies 14
METHODOLOGY 20
Project Goals and Questions 20
Hypothesis 20
Step One: Participant Observation 21
Step Two: Free Listing Exercise 21
Step Three: First Online Survey 22
Step Four: Larger Online Survey 23
Methods Table 25
Study Population: Only American Born For the Analysis 26
FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS 27
Respondent Profile 27
Free List Results and Analysis 28
Quantitative Results of the Larger Survey 30
Feminine-Sorted Foods 31
Masculine-Sorted Foods 33
Neutral-Sorted Foods 34
Dark Chocolate as an Outlier 36
Qualitative Findings and Discussion- Themes of Resistance 37
“Menu” Choices 37
Food and Gender Norm Resistance 38
Further Resistance Analysis 40
Social Context 41
Race and Masculinity 43
International Student Qualitative Findings and Analysis 46
LIMITATIONS 47
Sample Size and Demographics 47
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 48
Future Research 48
Conclusions 49
References 51
Appendix 54
Links for the Pictures Included in the Second Survey 54
Google Forms Survey (Online Survey #1) 56
Qualtrics Survey (Online Survey #2) 59
About this Honors Thesis
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