Study Review: Domestico Divo? Televised Treatments of Masculinity, Femininity, and Food

So after delving into a ton of research, I was lucky to find this study in the reference list of one guy's blogging attempt to carry out the same study.  Conducted in 2008, Rebecca Swenson's  Domestico Divo? Televised Treatments of Masculinity, Femininity, and Food hit exactly on my topic-- dissecting gender roles on Food Network, so I was anxious to see what her conclusions were.  Swenson watched about 200 hours of original programming and found 4 types of shows that emulated traditional masculinity: flexing professional muscle, cooking as leisure entertainment, cooking as a journey, and cooking as competition. She then contrasts how women typify traditional domesticity in these categories. 
   
Swenson first starts by discussing the gender theory she will use in proving that Food Network employs traditional gender roles-- namely, that gender is a social construction.  Therefore, the kitchen becomes a gender-embedded space with deep-seeded ideologies about natural feminine and masculine behaviors.  She points particularly to cookbooks for women in the 1940s and 50s, which focused on cooking as natural, maternal, and altruistic, whereas for men, the stress on grilling helped to preserve masculinity. 

Onto the categories!

      Flexing professional muscle can be characterized as shows with male hosts being professional chefs, or adopting the role of 'science' instructor.  Some examples include Emeril Lagassee, Tyler Florence, and Bobby Flay, who demonstrate their professionalism by talking about their training, donning chef’s coats or referencing their restaurants.  Alton Brown exemplifies the scientist with his meticulous measurements, food experiments, and pie chart-infused lectures.    

Women are dressed more casually, and always preparing food for family and friends.  Their instructions are never at the scientific level that Brown demonstrates. Giada De Laurentiis and Ina Garten make gifts for friends; and Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals epitomizes traditional domesticity, promising "great food on the table and still time to enjoy family and friends."

 

Cooking as leisure entertainment are mostly men's shows which present men as cooking in the traditional domestic scenario, but with a few tweaks: the cooking is voluntary, relaxed, and temporary. The main example for this is Guy Fieri’s Guy’s Big Bite, which presents a never-ending party atmosphere exhibited through Fieri’s rocker fashion, tattoos, and kitchen equipped with full bar, drums, guitars, a pinball machine and a television screen. This is rare for women's cooking shows.

 Cooking as a journey is a category for when chefs and cooks go on the road.  Even though no kitchen is present, Swenson still believes that such shows reinforce traditional feminine-masculine roles.  For example, Rachael Ray's $40 a Day is about finding affordable meals abroad, which Swenson likens to a budgeting homemaker. Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, on the other hand, presents a much more adventurous and assertive narrative.  

Cooking as a competition characterizes shows such as Iron Chef America, ThrowDown with Bobby Flay, and Dinner Impossible.  Swenson analyzed these as maintaining masculinity because they are sports shows, in a way.  Sports, which occurs in the public sphere, promote hierarchy, success, power, speed, stamina, etc.  And so, by having cooking competitions as a version of a sports show, they combat any notions of men taking charge of nurturing, familial cooking.     

(exaggeration.. but definitely similar)

It is a bit disheartening reading Swenson's study.  I can definitely see evidence for her conclusions, but I wonder if perhaps they are skewed in some way? Maybe some shows don't fit into these 4 categories (Two Fat Ladies?!! Down Home with the Neely's). And I have also seen Guy Fieri and Bobby Flay talk about their kids a few times... although I don't want to jump to any conclusions since I don't watch the channel 24/7 anymore.