Reading the chapter on "Food Rules in the U.S." by Carole Counihan, I kept thinking, "That is so true!" over and over again. The author made it clear that the thoughts and actions of college students concerning food, greatly reflects stratification in the U.S. I found it entertaining that the most important aspects of food known to college students were nutritional qualiatities, especially calories, appetite temptation, its ability to make one fat and emotional associations. This was amusing because this is exactly how I think of food! Reading about the gender differences in food appalled me, because, once again, they become very real in society. Women are expected to eat daintily, men can eat heartily, it's accepted for a man to get big but a woman must remain small, men eat meat, women eat salads... And the list goes on in a binary pattern. Thus distancing men from women in all areas of life. I also liked her discussion of thinness as a form of self-control. Society judges people by their looks and being thin has become a standard of beauty, of self-control, something to be proud of. This manner of eating sparingly and watching ones weight has become proper behavior in the US (unless it becomes obsessive
). I think that the article also deals with class heirarchy really well. "The higher one's class, the thinner one is likely to be." Food in the US is something both loved and feared, and college students, who reveal the injustices in society are just adding to the problems. The continued pressure on thinness and nutrition will continue to harm the nation for years to come.
wow, its crazy to read something that sounds so much like us college students. haha. Anyways, I do see the whole argument thinness as a ways of control over their lives, if it happens that a person wants to eat as much as they want, or as little as they want. I see a lot of girls doing this is college, more specifically, ones that have a full time job and a full time class schedule. It does seem that people who dont have a good grasp on their lives because they are so busy tend to regulate their eating habits more than most.
Another point that I found interesting was the whole thought on lighter foods including salads and chicken as being female and the heavier foods like beef and potatoes as being male. It also said that if a woman eats a lot in front of a man, she is considered masculine. I guess this seems to be the norm in some cases, like on first dates, but after that, I dont really know that it applies. Or maybe its just an individual thing, and it varies among each person.
In the article, "Food Rules in the United States", I think that each word is relatable by college atudents. As the film "What's Cooking" portrayed (as well as in this article) junk food is often shown as comfort food, for people in our society. In the film the comfort food that was used was pie, when the women had to come to terms with the fact that her husband had an affair. In the article is is described as "splurging on sweets or other special foods is sanctioned as a crutch for dealing with emotional distress.."
The theme of thinness in the United States rings clearly. It is portrayed in any mainstream media. The picture of the model is advertised with the weight loss product. I also think that there's strong relations between: men eat meat--heartily (to show strength), women eat fruits--sparingly (to show weakness/non-empowerment).
I was a little bit confused when I read ‘Food Rules in the United States’ because Counihan stated in the opening of the article that she didn’t want to focus on “differences in the food rules of male and female students” but to “illustrate what I believe are food rules in common to a large segment of Euro-American society” but I felt like she did focus on male and female roles. This isn’t a bad thing, I still found the article to be very interesting, particularly since it highlighted issues that are very common and easy to relate to, but I was hoping that she would address the different roles by class more. She only touched on it briefly and I never really felt I was getting enough information about on food rules in our society help fix social classes. I think that I understand from my own experience how that may be true but I guess I was hoping that she would explain more directly in her article how food rules between classes are different and how this maintains the class structure. I felt like I was able to get that more from the other article since it focused on poverty in the U.S. But aside from my small critic of the reading I felt that the article was very interesting and touched on a lot of truths and I do feel that the target audience of college students was particularly interesting.
Posted by: Lara at July 25, 2005 6:44 PMI totally agree with Erica that it is crazy to read something that really sound like us college students. However, when I heard about the reading today in class, I already have this thoughts that the reading might involve what some college students think of their foods now a day, so I wasn't that suprised hearing what i see in reality about us college students. I think what Carole M. Counihan say about college student's view of foods is really true. I agree with her that foods becomes a vehicle of power where some students have controls over acess to food and other do not. I see this happen a lot in college too. There are college students that are too busy to cook for them or pack thier own lunch, where they often eat out and losing out on the healty food. Or there are those who are too busy with work and school that they rarely eat. I think that this two situations kind of goes with what Carole was talking about the belief that success comes from individual hard work and taking controls of one's life are manifest in college student's food rules...where she end with the privilege define worth(pg. 114). Carole also talk about food having meaning according to what it does to the body weight, feeling of strenght and weakness. I think that she made a good point on that, but when she talk about women eating foods like salads that made them thin to attract men's attention and where men eat mostly meat to be healthy. I think that she is excluding the point where women who eat mostly salads and no meats are missing out on thier serving of nutrients that are making the women unhealthy. This doesn't fit in the meaning of food which give out strength because if one doesn't eat thier required amount serving of foods,then they wouldn't have the metabolism to stay strong and do work in college. I like the part Carole talk about how food signifies pleasure and celebration for college students, but also justify that eating that way in college is define as bad. I like it when she talk about the food habit of contrasting between the bad-tasting foods that other students think of it as good for them and food that good tasting as bad for them. I agree with her on this because as a college student myslef, I like to eat like other college do, such as eating vegetable, salads, fruits, which are not really tastey, but healthy for my body. And I don't like to eat hambuger, fries, or fat foods which are tastey, but not healthy and also have a lot of fats. Over all, her article was interesting,knowledge, and it give me a chance to implies it to my college life with foods and other college students too.
Reading Janet's article was somewhat a little confusing, but sad. I was quite suprised that other nations doesn't believe that malnutrition and hunger exist in the United States, but I think that we can't really blame them for not believing it because the United States are very dominant and have high economic. Janet says that in the U.S., hunger goes unnoticed because there is little overt begging for food and little obvious starvations because they are given government-issued food stamps, which I agree that it is true cause my family have food stamp too. I liked how she describe people with food stamp buying foods that are sort of expensive and popular so they can be noticed as rich American. She also talk about other culture with poorer income different eating habits and shopping habits. The part I like most was when she talk about how some poor people buy foods that are healthy and will be able to feed the whole family, and not foods that are tastey and expensive. I find it to be kind of true, but after reading the rest of her article..I am lose..what is the right way for poor people with food stamps to buy foods to eat to survive. Are they buying expensive foods for pride, or are they buying good healthy lesser price foods to survive poverty?
I felt this article by Counihan really relates to all of us in one way or another unless we have previously taken any intense nutrition courses otherwise. What was really interesting is how many of these college students individually defined what is "good" and "bad" foods and by controlling how much and what kinds of food to eat was a way of control. Especially in college I feel this is very true for college students being away from home. Suddenly students feel like they don't have to eat anything they don't truly want to, for instance, vegetables. I agree with Counihan that people will do this not that they know it's rebelling against the "Food Rules" but it's a way to be different or independent. Another point is how men can gain control over women by simply making comments about their appearance and/or weight. Women, being the more emotional creatures that we are, "...are more likely than men to be targets of judgemental comments." (p.125) Then I really like this point. "The acceptance of this fact and its constant reproduction by women as well as men reinforces the subordinate position of women..." This goes back to our discussions in class about the dominant sex and class roles because this is simply saying the same thing except this is in relation to women being thin.
I think we are sometimes too hard on ourselves as people in general trying to achieve more and more, whether it'd be our image or job status or academic performance.
What a disturbing article?
Well the reason why I say the article is disturbing is because it is the truth. Food is unfortunate divided between the genders. Women are eating as light as possible and men are allowed to eat as hard as possible. Especially she exams that more girls look at the calories as guys, because they have to keep their figure and be as thin as possibly, many pay the price for it. College students deal with different levels food, for some it is a stressful annoying part of their life. In terms what they can eat, what should they avoid. This concerns more girls then guys, the author also highlights that too. Which is sad, but the think is that media and pop culture primary spread like fire this thin image of a women (Hollywood actress) and many women and girls go after this image. Which is sad, but what can you do.
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I don't know. I haven't lived in a dorm, and I realize that the people I live with, the college students that I know are maybe not 'average' in every way, but I have to say that I was shocked by Counihan's research on college students. If these things are true, then there seems to be a serious issue that needs attention ASAP!!! I understand what she says about taking one's life into one's own hands, and it seems obvious that this would extend to the diet, but I still can't imagine so much thought going into 'bad' and 'good' foods, especially eating around a sexual potentiary. It is my observation that college students do not eat very healthfully, but I understood that the average student knew a lot more about nutrition than Counihan lets on. Especially what the one student says about having less respect for fat people, and seeing it as a lack of self-control just shocked me.
Posted by: Lora at July 25, 2005 8:46 PMTo begin, I am very glad that there are people who notice these mechanisms of hierarchy and subordination in places that people would not necessarily think to look. It appears that pop culture does not necessarily take an eating disorder seriously, but rather parodies it and makes it the center of cultural humor (if you want to see an example, watch any teen movie, genuine or parody; they're rife with examples!). Coulihan takes this concept in a provacative direction in her conclusion when she states that maturing people in transition to adulthood come to understand eating as being tantamount to moral purity (126). I remember reading somewhere that whereas in previous eras, the virtuous girl was chaste, now the virtuous girl is thin. Both symbolize control over oneself as demonstrated through control over one's body. Ironically, for a person demonstrably loses all control over oneself by trying to embody the appearance of control.
Posted by: Jenny Fine at July 25, 2005 8:49 PMJanet Fitchens article is another example of the Racial Contract. Obviously if you are poor it's your fault, but not only are we going to stand in judgement of your being poor, but also every food choice you make. If you are trying to eat like us, thinking you have some sort of choice in the matter, think again. You want to eat steak, oh no way you don't deserve steak, your poor, save your money and buy something you can afford like commodities. Oh my god, you are eating chips and soda pop, only we get to eat those, you shouldn't be wasting your welfare money on such things. All your buying is commodities like cheese, pasta, pototoes and bread..oh my god, no wonder you are all obese, don't you know anything about nutrition!!! Damned if you do and damned if you don't. This is what happens when you are not allowed to have agency. Not only that, these so-called welfare programs are so punitive that they don't even get to most of people who might benefit them, because they are so stigmitized by them..."poor people cling to and may even exaggerate dominant American food preferences because, despite ppoverty, they are american--by culture if not by riches...and spend their scarce money on...status foods becuse they continue to classify themselves first of all as Americans and only second as poor Americans." Even though the Other didn't get to underwrite the Racial Contract, nor are they beneficiaries of it, they still uphold themselves to some imposed, racist, classist, sexist defination of what americans are supposed to be, when they weren't even included in that defination to begin with. And what most Americans don't understand, is that most welfare programs benefit middle to upper-class Americans, like the food stamp program which was introduced to subsidize farmers.
Posted by: lesli asher at July 25, 2005 8:52 PMThe reading, "Food Rules in the United States" is quite interesting and in fact, i that i actually like it and agree with most of what Carale says in it. From my understanding, she is saying that food plays a role in what it means to each individual or group of people, such as college students, men and women and the different levels of class. In the previous articles that we have read, i did not agree on how they were saying that food shape us and that it is a apart of what were are, now, from reading this article, and especially with the examples about college students, i found this quite true. Food does give you an authority to control something, especially with what Carol talk about what it means to women. I never realize this but it is true that we control our body figure through food, my limiting the amount of food we consume. But, what i find kind of disturding is what it means for women with this idea that thiness is that beauty or attractiveness of attention from men. Like if this is how it really is for most women, then they may have the control over the amount of food they consume to control their body, but then this may mean that they do not have any control over how men and society view them?
Posted by: MaiChong Lee at July 25, 2005 8:53 PMI think I understand what Counihan is tryin to say, but i'm not entirely convinced. I think she makes a good point that eating restraint and thiness are a social symbol for personal control and moral superiority, but im skeptical about a couple of her other asserstions. Like her claims that "ties to men are the most important social ties for women...[so women] link their self-worth to men's attention" and therefore, "female students' desire to be thin so as to be attractive reinforces their secondary position in the gender hierarchy". Maybe because I'm a dude its harder for me to relate to this, but I didnt think a woman's self worth was still so deeply determined by male evaluation...that sounds naive, genderblind huh? Is it? I believe there a many body types and and that body and consumption discrimination is bad, but i have little pity for people who subscribe to norms of thinness or really unhealthy diets. It seems like a symptom of the overprivileged United States, especially in comparison with some other nations where people cant even get enough food to eat and probably dont hold such strict codes of beauty. Am i harsh? is my mind colonized?
Posted by: Juan at July 25, 2005 9:28 PMI am in understanding with what Counihan is saying and I definently believe that it still holds true today, for females, that their self-worth is infact related with how a man evaluates her. I believe females do not put on make-up and revealing clothing solely for themselves, but also to impress others- and that would be men. DO NOT GET ME WRONG! I am in no way saying that means it is mans duty to control or rape or eye google her or assume she is doing this for him entirely so he has the right to do whatever he wants with it. NO WAY. What I am saying is that women still want acceptence from man and it can be for the wrong reasons. That is it. It is still there.
The obsession with thinness still holds true in our culture and Counihan expresses that in her writing with the way food controls us still. Bulemia and anorexia are still present in the Western culture. It is still there and just because it is not on Fox news or in the Strib does not mean that it isn't happening.
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