Sociology of Food Final Exam Questions
And All Correct Answers.
What are the intersections of gender, sexuality, and bodies? Discuss the connections between food and
pleasure, as well as food and denial - Answer Gender, sexuality, and bodies are all connected in that
they're influenced greatly by gender socialization. Those that are socialized and girls to be women are
told to repress their sexuality and their appetites, and that they need to keep their bodies small in order
to take up less space. In Hunger, Gay talks about how as a fat woman she has two identities that society
tells her she needs to keep contained and not be a bother, whether that's on a place, in a restaurant, at a
book talk, or in a relationship, she needs to not take up space. I often noticed this idea of not taking too
much space in college, especially at events that are open discussions, in that men will often dominate
the conversation and seem to not really think about it, but if I answer a question or talk in discussion two
or more times a woman apologizes. When men dominate conversations, my first thought is why are they
not concerned, I would be so concerned that people were annoyed or thought that I talk too much. I
then remember that as a woman I was socialized to not take up space physically (move out of the way in
a hallway) or verbally (don't talk too much). This rests on the idea that women are socialized to be in
control, you don't take up space, because you're in control of your body. In Appetites, Knapp talks about
how women have wants whether it's sex, food, money, or success, but that they control those wants by
suppressing them. This need for control is what led Knapp to her eating disorder. She like Becca in Food
and Culture ch. 19, it wasn't that they stopped eating to be pretty, that they needed to lose weight, or
any trauma, they just one day started a diet. The author of Food and Culture ch. 19 says that this idea of
atypical anorexia is why we need to de-medicalize--it's not a psychological pathology that led to their
mental illness
Take a sociological look at local foods, the globalization of food, and their intersections of the two -
Answer In Food and Culture ch. 22, the author talks about how slaughterhouses used to be prized jobs,
but now with globalization and the need for so much meat, it's now low paying dangerous work. This is
the personal trouble that goes along with McDonaldization, we think about everyone that gets sick by
eating infected meat, because the cows are on top of each other, the slaughterhouses are what
happened because of all that meet. Local food is almost the antithesis or the fix for this
commercialization in that it's safe, better for you, and individually handled. In Food Inc. instead of
packing as many cows into a field and feeding them corn, the farmer let the cows roam and eat grass,
and then he and his friends slaughtered them in a healthy environment. This McDonaldization is not just
hurting the works dealing with the meat, but also eastern countries. In Food and Culture ch. 26 the
author talks about how foreign influence and local authenticity in Belize are goin back and forth. There's
this dichotomy between the local and the global in that they are both fighting for power, and that local
and global are fluid. For example, foreign foods create local identity on a global stage, in that through
commercialization of global food, we are able to "view a culture". This is problematic in Food and Culture
ch. 27 in that wanting to eat or cook ethnic food has colonialist tendencies in that deep down it comes
from the idea of wanting to experience the "other."
And All Correct Answers.
What are the intersections of gender, sexuality, and bodies? Discuss the connections between food and
pleasure, as well as food and denial - Answer Gender, sexuality, and bodies are all connected in that
they're influenced greatly by gender socialization. Those that are socialized and girls to be women are
told to repress their sexuality and their appetites, and that they need to keep their bodies small in order
to take up less space. In Hunger, Gay talks about how as a fat woman she has two identities that society
tells her she needs to keep contained and not be a bother, whether that's on a place, in a restaurant, at a
book talk, or in a relationship, she needs to not take up space. I often noticed this idea of not taking too
much space in college, especially at events that are open discussions, in that men will often dominate
the conversation and seem to not really think about it, but if I answer a question or talk in discussion two
or more times a woman apologizes. When men dominate conversations, my first thought is why are they
not concerned, I would be so concerned that people were annoyed or thought that I talk too much. I
then remember that as a woman I was socialized to not take up space physically (move out of the way in
a hallway) or verbally (don't talk too much). This rests on the idea that women are socialized to be in
control, you don't take up space, because you're in control of your body. In Appetites, Knapp talks about
how women have wants whether it's sex, food, money, or success, but that they control those wants by
suppressing them. This need for control is what led Knapp to her eating disorder. She like Becca in Food
and Culture ch. 19, it wasn't that they stopped eating to be pretty, that they needed to lose weight, or
any trauma, they just one day started a diet. The author of Food and Culture ch. 19 says that this idea of
atypical anorexia is why we need to de-medicalize--it's not a psychological pathology that led to their
mental illness
Take a sociological look at local foods, the globalization of food, and their intersections of the two -
Answer In Food and Culture ch. 22, the author talks about how slaughterhouses used to be prized jobs,
but now with globalization and the need for so much meat, it's now low paying dangerous work. This is
the personal trouble that goes along with McDonaldization, we think about everyone that gets sick by
eating infected meat, because the cows are on top of each other, the slaughterhouses are what
happened because of all that meet. Local food is almost the antithesis or the fix for this
commercialization in that it's safe, better for you, and individually handled. In Food Inc. instead of
packing as many cows into a field and feeding them corn, the farmer let the cows roam and eat grass,
and then he and his friends slaughtered them in a healthy environment. This McDonaldization is not just
hurting the works dealing with the meat, but also eastern countries. In Food and Culture ch. 26 the
author talks about how foreign influence and local authenticity in Belize are goin back and forth. There's
this dichotomy between the local and the global in that they are both fighting for power, and that local
and global are fluid. For example, foreign foods create local identity on a global stage, in that through
commercialization of global food, we are able to "view a culture". This is problematic in Food and Culture
ch. 27 in that wanting to eat or cook ethnic food has colonialist tendencies in that deep down it comes
from the idea of wanting to experience the "other."
