Men in the Kitchen: Where Do Women Fit in the Consumer/Producer Cycle?

This week’s reading, Femininity as Mas(s)querade, discussed, broadly, the importance and role of women in mass culture. The author, Tania Modleski, believes that all too often women and men, in matters of popular, mass culture discussions, fall into the traditional “polarities,” where the men (or masculine figure) symbolizes production and work, and the female role is that of consumption and passivity.

Our in-class discussion got at the roles of men and women in the culture and how accurate the stereotypical consumer/producer roles are. To look at the advertising of the culture and most mass marketing, the things we see are very gendered. For example, if you’re watching a sporting game, most of what you’ll see are manly things (electronics, cars, razors, etc) marketing towards men. It is unlikely, however, that men will be as swayed in their opinions about such items. On the other hand, if you were watching a show more geared towards women, like something on HGTV or TLC, you’d see all kinds of feminine things (health care products, minivans, laundry detergent) marketed towards women. You’d rarely find feminine products (not meaning pads and tampons, but things such as minivans and detergent) marketed to men, even though men clearly drive minivans and perhaps do laundry on occasion. The opposite could also be true—how often do we see manly products marketed to women, even though they’ll likely use them as well?

Historically, and perhaps stereotypically as well, when it comes to the view of the mass culture concerning food, it seems that the roles have switched—the women work and produce the food and the men sit passively by and consume. Consider the typical caveman narrative—man hunts and brings home meat which woman cooks. We can see this idea reinforced in many kitchen appliance commercials. Rarely do we see a man in the kitchen, preparing the meal (no matter how simple or complex it may be) for the family.

While personal experience and evidence shows us that men clear cook, not only in many restaurants, but in homes across America, and indeed the world, the general rule is that men more often consume than produce food. Yet it could be said that the men produce the food indirectly — they, as we see in the caveman/hunter story — bring home the meat, or at least the money to purchase the meat, and then the woman cooks it. Looking at it in those terms, perhaps nothing has changed. Perhaps it is still the men who ultimately produces the raw meat or produce for the women to “consume” (that is, for her to remake the raw products into a dish for consumption) only for the man (and woman, and family) to consume. Does this make the man both the consumer and producer, leaving the women as the middle “man”? In the event that the man cooked the food, he would own the entire cycle, from bringing in the raw ingredients, cooking and remarking them, and then consuming them, while perhaps sharing some with the woman.

Of course this discussion is all based on broad generalizations and stereotypes, but it still begs the question—where do women fit into the consumption/production cycle? Some would say nowhere, and some would say everywhere.