It’s not that the taste buds of men biologically predispose them to disliking girly foods like yogurt or fish (or, for that matter, quiche). They were trained that way.
Tom Jacobs explains in Miller-McCune:
Boys learn at an early age that certain foods (red meat, beer) are associated with masculinity, while others (fish, vegetables, yogurt) are considered feminine. Eating gender-appropriate grub becomes a way of affirming one’s manliness. As they grow into men, those choices gradually become habitual.
That’s the conclusion of newly published research, which suggests the association of certain foods with masculine norms drives men’s culinary choices well into adulthood. David Gal and James Wilkie of Northwestern University conclude that for certain consumer goods, including food, men “tend to forgo their intrinsic preferences to conform to a masculine gender identity.” In contrast, women “appear to be less concerned with making gender-congruent choices,” they add in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Researchers observed men and women in different situations where they had to make food choices.
In one experiment, 163 undergraduates (51 males, 112 females) were asked to choose between 16 pairs of food items on a menu. Some had to make a choice within 10 seconds; others could take as long as they wanted. Each pair of items featured a “masculine” and a “feminine” dish. They were differentiated by ingredients (heavy gravy or white wine sauce), name (“Western salad” vs. “nature salad”) or descriptions (“hearty” vs. “luscious”). As expected, the “feminine” dishes were chosen more often by women, whether they had 10 seconds or all day to choose. But men who had more time to make up their minds were significantly more likely to choose “masculine” food than those who had to make an on-the-spot decision.
Why are dudes so susceptible to the genderization of noshing?
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Gal and Wilkie note that previous research has found boys are more likely than girls to be rewarded for gender-appropriate behavior, and punished for deviating from expected standards. In their view, such evidence suggests “the path of least resistance” for boys is to “choose options that best conform to gender norms.”
It begs the question: Who’s responsible for guys learning which foods are appropriate for, uh, guys? Parents? McDonald’s? Zagats? Personally, I blame Wheaties boxes.
CJ
We needed a study to tell us this? How about a study to determine whether or not kids like pizza.
Tallskin
“Boys learn at an early age that certain foods (red meat, beer) are associated with masculinity, while others (fish, vegetables, yogurt) are considered feminine.”
Really???
I’ve never heard of this before. Certainly beer drinking here in the UK is a laddy/macho thing, but yoghurt is girly??
Fish is girly? Nope, not ever heard that before.
Maybe it’s a cultural yank thing that we decadent, effeminate europeans don’t have.
Argos
I’ve never associated foods like yogurt as being a ‘feminine’ food, and I don’t recall anyone else that I know making that connection either. As far as steak, burgers, beer, I love them as much as any other guy, but eating ‘manly’ foods 24/7 is an excellent way to develop colon cancer, not to mention an excellent way to pack on lots of unnecessary weight. Yogurt and fish are both quite good for you, so I guess if someone wants to call me a sissy for eating them, they’re more than welcome to, but at least I’ll be a somewhat healthy sissy. =)
Brutus
@Tallskin: We don’t do the fish & chips thing over here, so there’s no real “worker’s lunch” fish to be compared. It’s “girls eat salad, boys eat steak.” Veggie burgers, salmon, etc. are seen as weak, effeminate, “liberal” foods. Guys are expected to eat rare hamburgers and a heaping plate of crisps. Girls are expected to have a small salad and some fruit.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
So what were those lesbians eatin’ who kicked the crap outta their neighbor for makin a pass at one of them?? :-p
Andrew
Fuck no. First we assigned genders to colors, now food?
Revemupman
This is dumb, never once did I hear someone say a certain food is feminie. And why are all the healthy foods feminine. Food is food, you eat it and digest it. Simple as fuck, stop complicating shit!
Please don’t believe these studies…. Food is food, if you eat healthy good for you. If you don’t, I hope your ready for hospital visits.
My Gay Rant
I remember going our with a girl friend a few years back; she ordered a burger, I ordered seafood pasta alfredo. When the waitress came out with the food, she handed me the burger and my female friend the pasta without asking us whose dish was whose… there obviously are stereotypes when it comes to food and gender.
Silas
Are you all kidding? Think of the commercials for these foods: those women who just adore yogurt and can’t get enough of it, with the commercials emphasizing their slenderizing properties. Think of that Burger King commercial a while back, where all the guys rebelled against the “chick food” that their girlfriends were making them eat and went to go get a meaty burger. Of course we have gendered associations with food. I don’t know whose fault it is though, the advertisers for perpetuating this or society for accepting it.
Republican
@My Gay Rant:
That has happened to me more times than I can count. Even if the person who brings out the food is the same person who took the order, they will still forget and start to hand me the beef dish. I swear I don’t look like a trucker or anything, so it must be entirely based on gender.
Devon
I can kinda understand the yogurt thing. I mean watching their commercials you’d think the only people who are supposed to be eating it are middle aged white women who can’t poop.
That said, I just eat what tastes good. I don’t really stop to think “is this gonna make me look giiirly?”
Syl
This is real, people. I remember my parents ranting about how in their day no man would drink light beer. Beer companies couldn’t give it away! Now look at any college campus and all the dumb brats killing themselves by guzzling gallons of Natty Lite.
Lamar
Why are all the healthy foods feminine and all the bad food masculine, all that results in is better health for women and worse health for men. It’s no wonder women live longer.
Vman455
@Revemupman: Whether you believe this should happen or not is a matter of personal opinion, but the study is merely documenting a phenomenon that already exists–it’s not a matter of whether you believe this is a trend or not, because it is. It would be far more constructive to say, “Now you know–go DO something about it!” (what I suspect you meant) than, “Don’t believe it.”
pete
I bet seeing a big burly man with a can of TAB and smoking a Virginia Slim would count as sissy……no?
L.
The study isn’t about what is healthy, or what men or women eat as *adults*, it’s about how we internalize some food/gender associations. It doesn’t mean we can’t act against those misconceptions, but simply that we get them.
And, indeed, commercials are so gender-skewed it’s mind-boggling. I remember it took me a time to figure out why one commercial seemed so weird to me, until I realized it was my first guy-eating-yogurt ad.
Plus, guys, think back and remember what for most of people is the one and only time we ever saw daddy cooking? Yep: barbecue. And you don’t barbecue salad or yogurt, do you 🙂
Carlton
Hence why men die at a farrrrr earlier age than woman. They been programmed to believe that if they eat sh*t they’ll be more a man…no, you’ll just die early whereas the woman who don’t eat a table sized amount of red meat and stick to salmon live long. Hence, again, most woman out live their husbands 5 to 1.
Phil
My kebabs tend to be vegetable heavy.
Ervs
What a load of crap. “Guy” food tastes good. And in America for many generations fish and other food came in a can for most of us and was terrible. Good Fish and other foods are new to us. All of us. We eat our protein from a sea of grass. Are we getting better? Of course we are. BUt there are plenty of women who enjoy “Guy” food and plenty of men who enjoy salads. This is a heterosexist study.