User:Mattiaboleyn

= Dude Food = “Dude food” is a recent food trend concerning food that is assumed to appeal to men, mostly heavy, greasy, and meaty dishes like hamburgers, hotdogs and bacon.

Development
Allegedly, the origins for this particular food trend are considered to be born during the first years of the 2000, in the United States , supposedly in the southern regions of the state.

According to the most common theory, the trend has been exposed thanks to its affinity with the food trucks and street food movements, defined by their goal of selling “comfort and good quality food” accessible and easily consumable and for their affinity of assortment, with food like hotdogs, hamburgers, french fries etc, which can be considered belonging to each of the above mentioned trends.

The link between the trend and its target could be considered traceable to the hegemonic Western cultural system view, in which meat and its consumption have always been attributed culturally and socially to men and in which consumption of meat-based food and its related portions by women is viewed as a rather out-of-the norm situation.

The trend furthermore expanded as a social media phenomena, becoming one of the new most used words being added in the year 2016 to the Collins dictionary.

Furthermore, the trend has inspired a growing number of academic and non-academic literature with titles like “Dudefood: A Guy's Guide to Cooking Kick-Ass Food” and “Dude Food: Recipes for the Modern Guy”.

Geographical Diffusion of Dude Food
The trend is said to have originated in North America, moreover, following its success the trend has geographically expanded into other countries, reaching during the following years Europe, Oceania and also at last Asia. Indeed, the trend seems to have arrived, following its North American origins, at first also in the United Kingdom, where it has allegedly influenced a number of “dude food” inspired restaurants, that have therefore mixed their British national dishes with “dude food” characteristics.

The same seems to be happening also in Australia, combined with the unsatisfaction with fast food and the demand of higher-quality, but not necessarily per se healthy food.

Lastly, dude food is considered to be one of the next biggest growing trend for the year 2018, to be arriving also in Japan , influencing the usual healthy, rice and fish based cuisine and combining it with the more heavy and greasy dude food methodology.

Dude Food 2.0
Albeit the core characteristics of the trend are only now reaching new Countries and regions, it is, at the same time, suffering a deep reshaping change. Indeed, following a growing increase in the affection for eco-sustainable and animal-rights movements, such as vegetarianism and veganism; and after the rise of the attention for health consequences of high cholesterol and unhealthy eating habits , especially considering findings in recent scientific researches that show that men suffering from heart attacks and fatal coronary heart disease are twice the level of women suffering from the same diseases , and that  also obesity rates is higher among the male population; “dude food” may be going through a change in terms of its heavy and meaty characteristics, becoming more lighter and vegetable based instead.

Gender Binary
Dude Food advertising and representation tends to follow the traditional gender binary and can be analyzed from a visual perspective, that is by taking into account how gender identity is represented in the food field. Thus, food is considered to be part of those products which are “gendered in a practice of normative sexual dualism reinforced and maintained within (…) cultural institutions of marketing communication and market segmentation”. According to this, advertising plays a significant role in defining this dualism concerning gender identity since its language represents a tool contributing to the creation and reflection of social norms. The American sociologist Erving Goffman, in his study “Gender Advertisement” (1979), deeply stresses the correlation between images and the reproduction of gender identity. However, “[a]dvertisement depict for us not necessarily how we actually behave as men and women but how we think men and women behave. This depiction serves the social purpose of convincing us that is how men and women are (…) not only in relation to themselves but in relation to each other”. This depiction, hence, is essential socially as it helps maintain order. Furthermore, through various practices, such as food and product consumption, individuals construct their identity.

Food trend advertising follows also education and societal attitudes. While in Europe and USA men are stereotypically supposed to eat meat, outside these countries eating meat is not strictly connected to masculinity. At the same time, men are never portrayed eating yogurt or diet products.

Dude Food Advertising in the U.S.
According to Katherine Parkin, the gender binary in advertising took shape in 50s, following the theories of Ernest Dichter. She believed that “by convincing Americans of a food’s sex and its resultant gendered identity, as well as its sensuality, advertisers could suggest their foods to meet consumers’ need to fulfill their gender roles” and “Dichter believed that many people categorized the sex of foods. However, his own subscription to a gendered taxonomy of food is evident in his assessment of the findings”.

Food advertising in America follows the stereotype of “meat cooked on fire” or food that is simple to eat.

Dude Food Advertising in England
As example of advertising in England, there is the Ginsters advertise of a beef pasty accompanied by the hashtag #FeedTheMan, in which there is a man that tells a joke in front of his girlfriend’s bosses; but he is talking about Ginsters, thus she has nothing to worry about, because it’s a type of food that makes everyone agree.

In accordance with Lynsey Atkin, advertisement agencies and brands have honed in on a crisis of masculinity in our society and “in times of insecurity, brands can repurpose themselves as champions of the everyman, facilitators of the macho clean, however small. In other words, promising gender-traditional-prowess, like being able to kick a football in a straight line, could be the media-constructed equivalent of helping you grow a beard. Some stereotypes, like male dominance in social situations, are invoked as a nostalgia (a dream of the football-playing and bear-growing of days gone by)".

Dude Food Advertising in Canada
Generally, it is hard to find an advertisement of men eating chocolate, otherwise in Canada there is the advertise of chocolate bar Mr. Big produced by Cadbury, where the snack is oversexualized and it is associated to virility, in fact the slogan is “When you're this big they call you Mister”.

Dude Food Blogs
According to Guy Gourmet, the Men’s Heath cookbook, men eat differently than women and they need a coverage devoted to “dude food”.

As stated by data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, American men are spending more time cooking and eating than ever before. 82% of men cooking say they are enjoying their time in the kitchen, reports a 2011 survey by allrecipes.com. According to a 2012 survey, 58% of women admit that their husbands are better cooks than they are.

It is an indicator of this trend also the fact that food content continues to be considered as one of the most popular things that the magazine Men’s Heath publish.

Also in the food blog “Eat like a Man”, Esquire explain that “It's just that there are foods that men love and there are ways that men eat that are just different, and we celebrate it”.

Some critics attack this classification of food as regressive, but according to Men’s Health, it can be seen as a progression of gender equality in the home kitchen and a point of celebration when it comes to dining out. Men are exploring food like never before. They are open to trying new flavors and culinary experiences.

According to Men’s Health, the critics miss an important point: when the magazine publishes a list of the best men's supplements, or our 125 Best Foods for Men, they are simply serving their readers: men. Thus, “The Manliest Restaurants in America” competition is just a list of restaurants approved by men where they love to eat.

Dude Food: a Gender Studies Approach
The trend of Dude Food may offer several reflections regarding the association between food and gender identity and, thus, why certain types of food are considered to be either masculine or feminine. Particularly, it is possible to employ the tools and methodology of the Gender Studies in order to investigate this association and, as a direct consequence, the process of food masculinization.

Gender Performance and Food Habits
According to the feminist scholar Judith Butler, gender is “…an identity tenuously constituted in time (…) instituted through a stylized repetition of acts”. Hence, eating habits contribute to the formation of one’s gender identity. From this point of view, errors that may incur in this gender performance affect negatively this identity construction and social recognition. As for the relation between Food and Gender, this topic is usually dealt with from a more feminine perspective. It might be stated that “…performing food labor is intertwined with performing gender”, stressing again this link between food practices and gender performativity. In particular, several studies focus on how certain foods, drinks, or ways of eating and drinking are interpreted as “masculine”; a crucial example of this attributed masculinity to certain types of food is represented by Dude Food. Significantly, scholars have been suggesting that this masculinisation of food practices might allegedly be the expression of masculine privilege which “manifests around food and cooking in a myriad of ways”. In addition, food choices are to be interpreted as a source of social information and, at the same time, projection of a specific social image from part of the eater. As a matter of fact, it might be said that the type of food consumed may affect people’s perception of others, leading to the birth of stereotypes regarding food choices and Gender identity.

Food Masculinization
Meat is considered to be one of the most important ingredients of “manly” food, since meat conveys meaning of “…sexuality and virility…”. Thus, if masculinity is related to meat, a mostly vegetarian diet is inevitably interpreted as feminine. Not only the consumption of meat, but also the various ways in which it is cooked are associated with a specific idea of masculinity. For instance, barbecued meat and its consumption have always been seen as a rather masculine activity. There is an increase growing literature demonstrating how types of unhealthy food are interpreted to be masculine due to the presence, in our belief system, of cultural stereotypes according to which women tend to eat more healthily than men. According to a study conducted by Luke Zhu, assistant professor at the department of Business Administration at the University of Manitoba (Canada), this differentiation could also be attributed to the packaging of food products. Indeed, he demonstrated how these strong stereotypes are still deeply embedded also in people’s buying preferences. The cultural basis of these stereotypes regarding food choices and gender perception is the desire from part of our social system to protect and maintain its hegemonic masculine norms.

Direct Links
Masculinity

Meat consumption

Meat Consumption by Country

Gender

Gender advertisement

Gender identity

Junk food

Street food

Further Readings
Patel, C.Rajeev, Food Sovereignty: power, gender and the right to food, PLoS Med 9(6): e1001223. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001223

Sassatelli, Roberta, Consumer Culture- History, Theory and Politics, Sage Publications, 2007

Wardle, Jane et al, Gender Differences in Food Choice: The contribution of Health Beliefs and Dieting in "Annals of Behavioural Medicine", vol.27 (2): 107-116, Society of Behavioural Medicine, 2004