Men Order Big Steaks to Avoid Cupcake Outing…

Gal, D., & Wilkie, J. (2010). Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche: Regulation of Gender-Expressive Choices by Men Social Psychological and Personality Science DOI: 10.1177/1948550610365003

Girls wear pink, boys blue, that most of us know if not necessarily accept (Gal & Wilkie, 2010, n.pag.). What I hadn’t given much thought to till now but am glad for the authors (2010) to have unravelled here, is that gender associations run much deeper and are more widespread than many of us would ever realise. Yes, I have experienced that curious phenomenon in restaurants whereby my female friend would get my gin and tonic and me, her Guinness. I mean, what sort of flowery fag drinks a drink that’s only claim to fame is that it makes women cry? Ditto, there are gender specific foods and ‘social stigma attached’ (2010) to any man who crosses over and tastes the purple cupcake, on the other side.

Gal and Wilkie (2010) confirmed through their study that men do tend to choose masculine food, such as big servings of meat, whenever they can. Women, on the other hand, seem markedly less hung up on ascribing to gender associations when it comes to what they eat (2010). This tells me that there are significant pressures on men to watch out for what they shove into their mouths whereas for women, who really gives a stuff? In food as in life, men get the message to never be girly and that means whenever in the public gaze, go manly and go hard. Masculine ideals, once more prove to be the great rip-off for any man so suckered to tag along.

Not given a glance in this article (2010) but front and centre all the time, is that the business of performing masculinity, according to the strict hegemonic rulebook, plays constantly upon the minds of most men. That a man must worry about whether his dinner is described on the menu as ‘hearty’ or ‘luscious’, before tucking in to eat it, is patently absurd. That men typically suffer far higher rates of diet-related maladies than women do, diseases like cancer, heart disease, and stroke, conflates the absurdity of restricting their intake to manly food and then fobbing off getting medical help when they succumb to too much meat, fat, booze, etc.

So, do the gender associations affecting food explain why men flee the kitchen like rats but swarm all over the barbie as if they were kings of the burnt snag…?