Emily Contois: Food and Gender

Why are salads considered feminine? Why is steak seen as a manly meal? Gender and the roles they have come represent is one of the many factors that shape the way our culture perceives food, thus dictating our relationship with eating.  Emily Contois has spent her career as an interdisciplinary researcher and teacher exploring the ways in which gender, power dynamics, marketing and media contort our views on food.  Her recent book, Diners, Dudes and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture is an analysis on the rise of the “Dude" and how Diet culture and marketing companies changed their messaging to target the dude demographic. 

In this episode of Amuse-Bouche Emily Contois joins host Kae Lani Palmisano to discuss food and gender, how the Great Recession changed the way marketers position diet programs, how Guy Fieri fuels the dude machine, and ways we can challenge the patriarchy through the media we consume and produce. 

You can find more of Emily’s work on her website EmilyContois.com and at @EmilyContois on Instagram and Twitter. And you can buy Diners Dudes and Diets wherever books are sold! 

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