I love eating. As a poor, starving college student, I would say eating is on my list of top 10 favorite things to do at school. But what does the way we eat say about us? A brief search of Youtube yielded plentiful results! While these videos represent only a small sample size, they also represent my individual findings, so I will build off of these.
The feminine image of poise and cleanliness is a social construction. I believe that the way that one eats is defined by the feminine/masculine image or self-image. It is acceptable for men to have strings of cheese hanging from their mouths while they smack their lips and show off partially chewed food because it is a play for attention and dominance in a social arena. However, the woman must remain docile and respectful, always reminded of her image. The woman is a docile body, reacting only to how she will be perceived as she eats a 'man-sized' pizza slice. The girls cannot even manage to hold their food in their hands without getting grease on their fingers and this is comical to them because it is unnatural to be unclean or like the men.
I argue that even if these girls had eaten like the boys had in their video, they would still be buying into social constructions of gender binaries. It would be an attempt to reject cultural constructions in favor of filling a "male" role, but ultimately she would simply be read as different. A woman attempting to mirror the male image. Her actions would be forced and unnatural because her entire life she has been taught that there are "right" and "wrong" ways to eat. Elbows must be off the table; one must chew with their mouth closed; etc.
These relegations upon the body and agency is also a culmination of Western values reinforcing the ideals of civilization versus barbarism. It is comical and unnatural to eat a certain way because we as Westerners have been taught correct and incorrect mannerisms that we must carry with us continually.
Amy, I really liked your post. I agree with you that girls and guys have self images that come out when we eat. Speaking as a guy, we don't really care how we eat around other guys, but if we're on a date or something, we immediately realize that we have to eat respectfully because that is what the girl is going to do. See how society and the opposite sex changes how we think and act?? Crazy huh? I will say this though, and you can correct me if i'm wrong, but don't girls ever pig out if they are with other girls who are close friends to them? Say maybe at a sleepover or something?? I just asked my cousin Mandy this question and she said that she definitely has eaten lots of food with friends at sleepovers and she didn't care if she was eating respectfully or not. I feel this was because she was around close friends who she trusted and knew wouldn't judge her on how she was eating because that's how everyone else was eating at the time...let's just say they ate ice cream...lots of it...! So it is very interesting how the different genders eat and I love how you compare and contrast the two. I've seen guys chow down food and finish in 10 seconds, where girls just nibble and savor. I also loved your social construction of how the feminine image is of poise and cleanliness. That is soo totally true, even though it may not be seen as widely today as it used to say 50 years ago and well before that. Back then women wore dresses more often...very rarely did they wear slacks or pants, so the dresses also added to their poise. Thus the eating with poise went along with it because the FELT elegant. Anyways, I just loved your post Amy and I will now be paying attention to how I eat and my own self image as I eat around others. WAY TO GO!!
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