laurenfelton

Ever notice how often women call themselves “bad” for eating in a certain way? “Oh, I’m being so bad right now!” or “I can be bad, just this once…” or “I was bad today, I shouldn’t eat this.” I do this to, as much as it bothers me. If I was “good” today (read: ate under x calories, burned x calories at the gym, etc.), that means I can eat dessert and not feel like a terrible person because of it (but I will, anyway).

A lot of us will probably justify this by attributing these feelings to not wanting to be greedy (reasonable), or attempting to be health-conscious (also reasonable), but it’s interesting that you rarely hear men talk like this. I’m sure part of it is about greed and gluttony, but only in the sense that women are brought up to believe that their desires are somehow wrong or that they should feel guilty for having any desires in the first place. Men don’t necessarily have a particularly healthy relationship with food in our culture, either, but they’re less likely to feel like they don’t deserve to “indulge” or take what they want. We women, on the other hand, seem to believe there’s something intrinsically wrong with food, that there’s also something wrong with us for wanting it, and that taking what we want will result in an immediate and obvious weight gain that will show the world how awful and undisciplined we are. We’re basically taught to be ashamed for taking up space.

That’s not to say this craze about being “healthy” in a fast food nation is unreasonable, but it certainly manifests differently according to gender. Men don’t just want to be healthy; they want to bulk up, be more muscular, take up more space. Women don’t just want to be healthy, either; we want to be slim, toned, and often, even invisible.

(Note: Men are not immune to disordered eating, but women are much more likely to actually develop eating disorders… and I’m willing to bet that even the types of eating disorders they tend to develop show more gender distinctions. It would be an interesting topic to do more research on, but I just wanted to point out that I’m not saying men can’t or never do develop eating disorders.)

I was reading Jennifer’s blog about Highland Park’s Farmers Market, which I also sometimes go to on Fridays, and was intrigued by some of the points she brought up about the social divide when it comes to healthy available foods. Aside from the Farmers Market, the divide is pretty obvious to anyone who has attempted to go grocery shopping in New Brunswick (where I go to school, at Rutgers). The only supermarket here is C-Town, which is basically a fly-infested shithole full of “food for savings,” which isn’t all that surprising given that the supermarket is geared towards low-income families. That’s a demographic that’s very easy for grocery stores to take advantage of… and they do.

Between weekly sales, manager specials, discounts for buying in bulk, and coupons that come out with each purchase using a store card, it’s actually a lot easier to save money by shopping at Stop & Shop, which is geared more towards its white, largely Jewish population, and therefore cleaner, healthier, and more vegetarian and Kosher-friendly than C-Town. However, it’s not always possible for New Brunswick families to shop there, either because they don’t have the transportation to get there or can’t afford to buy in bulk, regardless of the money it will save them in the long run.

As the Racialicious article I posted before mentions, Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation elaborates on the harmful effects of labor that particularly affects people of color, but makes no mention of race in relation to food justice... or the fact that most proponents of the food reform movement are wealthy white men.

(Be sure to visit Jennifer’s blog for more great posts about food and chai and other lovely things!)