Can your appetite be gendered?

What if I told you that how society perceives your appetite and your "love for food" depends on whether you are a man or a woman?

Society, for the longest time, has told women that there's a ladylike way of eating, chewing and also choosing what to like. And when you as a woman defy that, you no longer fit their stereotype and you no longer are "attractive."

As the recent trend goes, as a woman you have to be "Very Mindful, Very Demure, and Very Considerate" and society applies these standards to women's eating habits and appetite as well.

Patriarchy and sexism taint everything- from your gender at birth to your attire, profession, friendships, and romantic relationships. They leave no opportunity unexplored to turn your identity into a pawn on the chessboard of society. Is there sexism in a woman’s appetite for food, though? Unsurprisingly sexism and patriarchy also permeate your food platters and dining tables.?

In fact, you would be surprised (or maybe not so surprised!) to know that 60% of people experiencing food insecurity at the moment are women and girls. In nearly two-thirds of the world's countries, women are more likely to go hungry than men.

As a woman who also loves to eat, explore all sorts of cuisines and at the same time, read about food and how food affects cultures, for the longest time, the sexism in food and appetite didn't hit me until much later in my teenage life when one day my grandmother asked me to not take the chicken leg because my father might like it more. It's a different story that my father passed it to me rather and told my grandmother how wrong it was of her to save the best pieces for the men of the family. But it was only in my early twenties when I read more about gender and its intersections that I realised it wasn't really my grandmother who was wrong but it was rather her conditioning which also made her always sacrifice the best fish pieces or chicken pieces for her husband or sons and she continued to pass on the same to her future generations too.

In this context, I’m pleased to share my latest essay, "Flesh/Bones," published by Usawa Literary Review. In this piece, I explore how deeply ingrained patriarchal norms manifest on our plates, shaping food distribution, advertising, and even the expression of personal culinary tastes. If you're interested in the intersection of gender and societal norms, this essay offers a fresh perspective on how these issues permeate our daily lives. You can read the full essay below.

In fact, stereotypes around women's appetite is also exploited in marketing and advertising where brands try to show a more "ladylike" approach when it's a woman enjoying a specific dish. I wrote about how marketing is extremely skewed from a gendered approach in one of my previous editions of the newsletter. You can read it here:

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