Patriarchy: Bad For Everybody

Becks points to this post by August, who notes another dimension to the recent run of “Prove your heterosexual masculine heterosexuality by, after you’ve burned your minivan, eating all the meats you can, maybe lots of sausages with nice big balls of mashed potatoes and gravy” ads. The other side to the “prove your manhood by eating huge amounts of fatty processed foods!” campaign, of course, is the “prove your femininity by living in ascetic terror that you might enjoy good food” campaign:

I used to think American culture was merely gluttony, but I think it’’s becoming more than that. What we’re seeing is a misogynist theme of suggesting that men are symbolic of dominance and excess while women are told to prove their subservience by withholding themselves food. As I can actually hear the sound of many of your eyes rolling at that sentence, allow me to offer two words as evidence: Lean Cuisine.

Contrary to Burger King’’s celebration of men being revered for shoveling food into their mouths, Lean Cuisine molds women as such: a group of woman brag to each other about how shitty their dinner was last night. ”Last night I had a half bag of microwave popcorn.” “I ate three leaves of lettuce.”” ““I just ate right out of the cat’s litter box.”” But lo- the uppity one deigns to speak- “I had a delicious meal that actually tasted good.” Astonished, she must then pacify her friends, ready to eviscerate her for her audacity. “Relax, girls! It was just a Lean Cuisine! A shitty frozen microwave dinner. I mean, Jesus, you don’’t think I’d actually enjoy eating, would you?” And then they all giggle and discuss the latest corset styles and what it would be like if they had the right to vote.

Burger King wants to shame men who choose not to be gluttons; Lean Cuisine wants to shame women who don’t starve themselves. That pretty much sums up the hypocrisy in the expectations of each gender to be physically appealing to the other, doesn’t it?

So it does.