Although it is not directly evident, the Food Network stereotypes based on gender—it is underlying each and every show. The themes, decorations, and even kitchenware are geared toward the host’s gender. The names of most shows sound either feminine or masculine, not both. For example: Big Daddy’s House, Throwdown, Boy Meets Grill, Grill It!, Rescue Chef, Guy’s Big Bite, Guy Off the Hook, Ham on the Street, Hungry Detective, Dinner Impossible, Food Detectives…Who do you think is the host of these shows—a man or a woman? And these: The Cooking Loft, Chic and Easy, Healthy Appetite, Everyday Italian, Simply Delicioso, Home Cooking, Best Dishes, Semi-Homemade, 30 Minute Meals…Man or woman?
One can clearly figure out which are hosted by men and which are hosted by women.
Today’s society typically associates grilling with men because it is considered “manly”. Subsequently, baking is considered “motherly” or “grandmotherly”, and the quintessential housewife is pictured with an apple pie in hand. This gives an example of how these hidden gender roles are built into our everyday culture and passed down from generation to generation. This notion of the housewife baking cakes and pies is almost something of the past, for more women are in the workforce and do not have time for these kinds of activities. Some Food Network shows still depict this idea. Sandra Lee, in her show Semi-Homemade, makes desserts and cocktails galore. Her dining room table and kitchen is always decorated according to her theme (such as Harvest Time, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, etc.) with tons of flowers and candles. Rachel Ray prepares “30 Minute Meals” so that the average housewife can make dinner in less than thirty minutes too. On the other hand, a lot of men prepare dinner, but most of the time the wife is the one doing all of the cooking. Of course there are exceptions to this, and the Food Network is a good example. Most of the male chefs on the Food Network cook intricate meals, including Emeril Lagasse, whose primetime show Emeril Live ran successfully for several years.
Although there does not appear to be gender inequality within food network television shows, stereotyping is certainly present. Men and women are equally represented, but the shows do include gendered themes and topics. This will probably never change; these concepts are built into our lives and television has certainly portrayed these ideas for as long as we can remember and nothing is going to change now.
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These shows seem to represent the longstanding roles of women and men in the house and the duties that come with them. The women should be home baking and taking care of the children while the man goes to work and comes home expecting dinner. In today's society this is not as prevalent but it can still be seen in these shows.
It is funny how no matter how far we have come, the media still stereotypes. It is true, the man hosted shows mostly take places out and about, or in a very savvy kitchen. The woman-hosted shows take place in a cozy kitchen. Recently I saw a commercial for a new Nintendo DS game with Lisa Kudrow. It is a game about cooking, and teaches recipes and the like. A little girl is shown with Kudrow playing the game. Nintendo usually shows a small boy playing the game system, but because this is a cooking game a little girl plays.
This post made some very interesting connections. I would have never put gender and food-networking shows together, but then again, we learned in class that gender is invisible to us at times. I think a good example of food-network and gender is Paula Dean's Home cooking. She always has her husband and son come try her meals and she always talks about how she loves cooking food to please the men in her family. This parallels to the past when an important role in women's lives was to cook for their husbands.
I hardly ever watch the Food Network, so the fact that there is still gender stereotyping going on in these food shows surprises me. Yet, this does not catch me too off guard because the media is always using subtle ways to enforce stereotypes. While one might think that the Food Network has come a long way because there are now male cook shows, they thought wrong because while there are male cook shows, they are more "manly" than the female cook shows.
I agree that there is gender stereotyping present in shows on the food network. I also am not a big fan of cooking shows, but from the original post it does seem as if the shows are geared towards certain genders. I also found it interesting that grilling is supposed to be "manly" while baking is deemed "motherly." I think this type of stereotyping goes beyond the food network. Think about Hungry Man dinners and Lean Cuisines. Which genders are these targeted to? It is interesting to think that food can be a part of gender stereotypes.
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