Foodie Films & Feminism

This past week I've twiced ducked into the air-conditioned paradise that is the local movie theatre to check out the latest in foodie fare, Julie & Julia and Food Inc. Food Inc. is good but nothing terribly new if you're familiar with Michael Pollan, author of the Omnivore's Dilema and In Defense of Food. Industrial food will kill us all, we ought to know where our food comes from and understand the difference between food and "food", etc. Pollan appears in the film, along with the author of Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser. Pollan also wrote an interesting piece for the nytimes magazine last weekend re Julie & Julia, and the shift that has taken place in cooking to become a spectator sport. Top Chef, The Next Food Network Star, Oprah's BFF Gayle eating sandwiches all get huge ratings, but the majority of those tuning in don't view these programs as educational but as entertainment. They are not inspired to pick up a ladle and shop for fresh ingredients but rather are happy to sit back and watch, eating take-out or frozen entrees. What's with the disconnect? Pollan of course argues that we ought to be getting back in the kitchen, and this sparked retaliation from the feminist blogosphere.

This passage is drawing particular ire: "Curiously, the year Julia Child went on the air — 1963 — was the same year Betty Friedan published “The Feminine Mystique,” the book that taught millions of American women to regard housework, cooking included, as drudgery, indeed as a form of oppression. You may think of these two figures as antagonists, but that wouldn’t be quite right. They actually had a great deal in common, as Child’s biographer, Laura Shapiro, points out, and addressed the aspirations of many of the same women. Julia never referred to her viewers as “housewives” — a word she detested — and never condescended to them. She tried to show the sort of women who read “The Feminine Mystique” that, far from oppressing them, the work of cooking approached in the proper spirit offered a kind of fulfillment and deserved an intelligent woman’s attention. (A man’s too.) Second-wave feminists were often ambivalent on the gender politics of cooking. Simone de Beauvoir wrote in “The Second Sex” that though cooking could be oppressive, it could also be a form of “revelation and creation; and a woman can find special satisfaction in a successful cake or a flaky pastry, for not everyone can do it: one must have the gift.” This can be read either as a special Frenchie exemption for the culinary arts (féminisme, c’est bon, but we must not jeopardize those flaky pastries!) or as a bit of wisdom that some American feminists thoughtlessly trampled in their rush to get women out of the kitchen."

Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon and Kate Harding at Salon cried foul at this but I can't abide by their reactionism. Yeah, I get that cooking and other domestic work can be oppressive, depending on the situation. But cooking has never been that to me, nor do I think it was for Julia Child or Julie Powell. Housewifery was a woman's domain, restaurant kitchens were for male chefs. In the film, Child forcefully enters a man's world with no apologies. The only woman in her Cordon Bleu course for professional chefs, she doesn't sink but swims, and manages to successfully share this previously guarded realm of haute cuisine with the average American women. Child was named a Grand Dame by Les Dames D'Escoffier, an international organization of female chefs, restauranteurs, winemakers and producers dedicated to the advancement of women in the male-dominated (to this day) field of culinary arts (review of their incredible new cookbook coming soon). Cooking brought Julie Powell literary success and personal fulfillment.

In my mind, providing wholesome delicious food is as valuable as bringing home the bacon (note: not mutually exclusive!). My views are of course shaped by my own experiences: I had the luxury of a stay-at-home dad throughout most of my childhood, who I know did not view himself as chained to the stove but rather took pleasure in making great food and teaching me to appreciate it. I don't think only women should get back in the kitchen, and neither does Michael Pollan-everyone should have basic kitchen skills (beyond using a can-opener and setting the microwave), whether they are an amateur gourmand or not. Cooking does not need to be intimidating, labourious, expensive-but fundamental skills need to be instilled before this point can be reached. Though my junior high home-ec classes were nothing earth-shattering, I'm glad they were there and am sorry to see these programs being phased out. Couldn't we have more shows like the French Chef, taking the fear out of cooking, explaining all the mystery and magic rather than watching Guy Fieri eat and eat and eat?

In light-hearted conclusion, I give you the fantastic Sarah Haskins: