Food, gender, and language

Today we were at Umami burger and for the first time, I really saw how the restaurant industry plays up language and gender when referring to food. For example, there are fries called "make em manly." What makes them "manly" you may be wondering....the fact that there is bacon and onion straws on top. Umami also has a burger called the manly burger, which has bacon. Why are men associated with bacon? Because our society associates fat/meat/flesh with men. Bacon couldn't possibly be a food a woman could enjoy because it's too fattening. When I was looking at the menu, I got angry, I got angry because I like bacon. Being Paleo, I am no longer afraid of the fat that society tell us we, as women shouldn't enjoy. I eat a lot of fat, I eat red meat, I eat avocado, I eat ribs, I enjoy fish, chicken, pork and many other types of fruits and vegetables. I hate when people look at my plate judging what I'm eating and not eating. As a society, we teach our women they should eat lightly, especially on a date. It's frustrating that society is teaching us that we must eat only things that are low calorie to save our figures. I think I am proof that when you eat real food, your weight goes down. The other frustrating piece of eating out is this: When I order a burger with avocado and bacon sans bun. It's funny to watch the reaction from the server because they think I'm ordering no bun for my weight not for the fact that gluten is bad for you. I always chuckle to myself then remember, I'm the one that now wears a size 8 down from a 12/14 (16 at my heaviest). The reason I get so many looks from people when I order food they think is laced in fat is because we are all socialized to think that fat = bad. Fat is not bad. Fat is good. In fact, it helps you maintain a healthy weight. My cholesterol has gone down and I've been Paleo for 5 months. 

Gender and food are so conflated and I really didn't have any clue this conflation was also occurring outside of the mainstream media industry. It's so hard to swallow that a restaurant is buying into the gendered language around food. I now know that I will be paying attention that much more to the language on a menu and what types of food they are gearing towards women. Like all of the low calorie commercials are usually a hot man talking to some woman. There is one commercials in a diner and a woman is staring at a brownie and a man comes in and says "eat this, not that" (the this is a low cal, high fiber, processed brownie). Why can't a woman enjoy a brownie? Why must she obsess over her figure? Let the women of the world, enjoy what they want!

Yogurt commercials, candy commercials, and various other commercials are the same way. The marketing is toward a woman who only desires to loose weight but she has to do it by eating low calorie, man made, processed foods. I really struggle seeing these commercials and trying to not get angry because I just want to shake the world and remind them that people, humans, did not always eat like this! When did cancer start? When did chronic illnesses become something we all have/know about? I'm not saying that processed foods are the cause of cancer or chronic illness but it is something to examine. The US is the most overweight place in the world. Why? Because we do not place value on good, real food. We are constantly placing value on being thin and by any means necessary. We starve ourselves, do fad diets, live on Weight Watchers, use supplements, buy Jenny Craig and many other ways. Let's take the Paleo word out and just look at real food. This is how people in other countries eat. Real food. If you can eat only real food then weight comes off. When you eliminate preservatives and crap, you eliminate waste and other nasty things your body is holding on to. Not saying people in other countries don't have processed foods, they do but they take time to make good, nutritious food, they savor it and enjoy every bite. Here in the US we eat quickly and move on. We do not savor our moments with food. Thus the birth of fast food nation.