Just some ordinary old, ever present, pervasive sexism.
Idiot Savant links to a fascinating article in the Guardian which is ostensibly about Jamie Oliver’s new TV series, Ministry of Food, but is really a fascinating, and worrying, and sad discussion about the clear link between poverty and bad food. You should read it. The conclusion: the socio-economic group you are born into is one of the most significant determinants of how healthy you will be. This is a world-wide phenomenom – just living on the eastern side of South Road in Adelaide gives you about 10 years more life.
But in the midst of the cogent and distressing analysis of the effect of poverty on diet and health, there’s still time for a spot of mother-blaming.
Middle-class people in the series eat junk, too. Time, or lack of it, is their problem. Women getting home from work can’t find even half an hour to cook from scratch for the family, which Oliver can’t understand.
And what are the daddies doing, forsooth? Just maybe, if daddies were held responsible for cooking too, then daddies and mummies could take turns, so tired mummies coming home from work wouldn’t feel that they were always the ones who had to keep on going and going and going. Then they might just have the emotional and physical energy to cook a good meal. But that’s too complicated a thought, evidently. It’s easier to just blame the mothers.
And from the Adelaide Advertiser, a piece on a scanner that Adelaide Airport is planning to use, which:
allows screeners to detect non-metallic devices, objects and weapons concealed on a person’s body, but also to see a person’s organs and genitals.
Lovely. There’s no particular analysis of the invasion of privacy, nor any consideration of those of us who don’t want underpaid, bored security officers gawking at our bodies.
And what’s used to illustrate it? A woman’s body, of course. And a “perfect” one at that. I suspect the company making it thought that sex would sell.
Sigh.
14 responses so far ↓
innercitygarden // Thursday 2 October 2008 at 12:22 pm |
Sometimes Mummies, and Daddies, are so tired by the end of the day the idea of eating a decent meal feels exhausting, let alone cooking it. The whole way our economy & working lives are shaped is crappy and fails to accomodate actual bodies (who need to eat, sleep, have babies etc).
Mindy // Thursday 2 October 2008 at 1:23 pm |
Ironically I have found it easier to cook this week (school holidays) when both kids have been in vacation/daycare and I have been at work until 5pm. There is less time for them to be brats when we get home, so I have more energy for cooking something decent for dinner, than when I have been dealing with them from 3.30pm. I’m pretty sure it’s only the ‘change is as good as a holiday’ effect, but still at least we’ve been getting something decent for a change.
In my experience, father does a lot of faffing around and always needs help to get the dinner done, or kids ready in the morning etc. Watches cartoons with the kids in the morning and then wonders why he is late.
Che Tibby // Friday 3 October 2008 at 1:48 am |
hey, re:scanners.
it might be that men’s genitals are considered obscene, but the shape of the breast (without exposing the nipple) is not.
Che Tibby // Friday 3 October 2008 at 3:46 am |
and, i’m not sure that the problem with diet as outlined in that article is an issue of who’s doing the work.
the problem appears to be that people just plain don’t know how to cook, or, cannot afford to.
gender and who’s cooking is a middle class issue.
artandmylife // Friday 3 October 2008 at 6:21 am |
I agree – there are a frightening number of epople who simply don’t know how to cook. There was a course run by “super grans” in the area where I used to work that covered things like boiling potatoes and shopping for the basics (flour,milk etc). There were issues though, that a lot thought it was “too hard” and the food didn’t taste as good as the highly sugared and salted processed foods they’d been eating.
Ruth // Friday 3 October 2008 at 1:19 pm |
It is a fallacy that takeaways are cheaper. It is a matter of education. You can feed your family cheaply and easily with a bit of education. I can feed my family of 5 for $10 or less a dinner with my vege garden.
A lot of this is socialist nonsense.
Che Tibby // Friday 3 October 2008 at 1:36 pm |
ruth… can you explain the socialism aspect? do you mean the bit of the article where they talk about the extensive state intervention?
Stephen // Friday 3 October 2008 at 2:55 pm |
“You can feed your family cheaply and easily with a bit of education.”
If you had free time and were educated, sure. However, even then, the healthy choices are expensive and frankly, unpalatable compared to deep-fried delights.
Anyway, Deborah, men may only cook a) when highly paid b) in pursuit of successful seduction or c) when gay. Cooking is fatal to the manly faculties and can only safely be performed by unpaid women. The only exception is for single men who may mess up the kitchen with charming culinary ineptitude until rescued by a good woman. I thought everyone knew that.
toms // Friday 3 October 2008 at 6:13 pm |
“…You can feed your family cheaply and easily with a bit of education. ..”
Thus spake the brusque middle class, bristling with certainty and judgement.
George Darroch // Thursday 9 October 2008 at 1:42 pm |
I don’t think that either of these assertions are entirely true, at least not without heavy caveating and clarification.
I don’t think that using a class analysis of poverty and food means throwing out personal responsibility. These women are in at times difficult circumstances, certainly.
But not to the degree that their harmful negligence of their children can be discounted wholesale. The mothers have been lavished with attention, and taught how to cook in a non-patronising and participatory way. And at the end of the first episode, they’ve rebelled against Oliver, preferring to go back to the easy option. This whole series was brought about by the active rebellion of a section of Rotherham mothers against the decent food that Oliver was trying to introduce into primary schools.
Standing on your feet and cooking for half an hour after you come home from a long day of work is hard work. It is work that should be recognised, and supported. But parenting has always been hard work, and for the great majority of people on this earth it always will be.
(and of course, cooking needn’t always be hard work – many of the things in this series are quick, cheap, and easy)
Helen // Friday 10 October 2008 at 6:24 am |
But not to the degree that their harmful negligence of their children can be discounted wholesale. The mothers have been lavished with attention, and taught how to cook…
The point, George, which Deborah was making, is that it was all put onto the mothers, and you’re perpetuating that.
Where the dad exists, he too can learn to cook. And shop.
Helen // Friday 10 October 2008 at 6:25 am |
ROFL I suppose I meant “is present”, of course a dad must exist or your kid is Jesus and you’ll have a whole ‘nother set of problems
earlgreyrooibos // Saturday 11 October 2008 at 4:41 am |
There were issues though, that a lot thought it was “too hard” and the food didn’t taste as good as the highly sugared and salted processed foods they’d been eating.
That’s depressing.
When I’m in a busy travel period for work, and spend several days eating out, I cannot wait to get home and have a from-scratch meal. It always tastes better!
Che Tibby // Thursday 16 October 2008 at 3:39 am |
aherm.