Food Ideology

1066 Words5 Pages
Food consumption is used to communicate particular ideologies that work to reproduce inequality or to challenge and resist it as seen through the works of S. Margot Finn, Psyche William Forson, and Dylan Clark. Drawing upon S. Margot Finn’s two works titled “Incompatible Standards” and “Aspirational Eating” within her book titled Discriminating Taste: How Class Anxiety Created the American Food Revolution the portrayal of how food ideology work to produce false representations and inequality in the American food revolution. In addition, surfacing from William Forson’s work the argument that racial stereotypes surround foods is brought to the forefront of the larger argument that food consumption is used to communicate particular ideologies.…show more content…
Finn argues that the ideology of the food revolution can be understood within the bounds of four ideals; sophistication, thinness, purity, and cosmopolitanism. This alone solidifies the argument that food consumption can be used to communicate particular ideologies. Sophistication can be understood as gourmet food, thinness associated with healthy food and dieting for weight loss, while purity is paired with natural and organic foods, and cosmopolitanism is tied to ethnic food. All of these ideologies, feelings, and anxieties surrounding food derived from the food shifts from between the 1880s and 1920s to today. Through two specific pieces in her book titled, “Incompatible Standards” and “Aspirational Eating,” Finn introduces a historical foundation to the American Food Revolution. She delves into the four ideologies of the food world by first understanding where they came from during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. These ideals first emerged during this time and were proven to have a true effect on food consumption during 1880 to 1920. After this time period Finn argues that these ideals began to decline around the 1930s until they re-emerged in the 1980s, during which they were seen as…show more content…
She addresses “the myth of the discerning palate, the uncertain and elusive health benefits of thinness, the fallacies in the local and organic orthodoxy, and the misguided pursuit of authenticity and exoticism,” by explaining what the meaning of each phrase was societally in comparison to its legitimate meaning. Finn argues that, “the myth of the discerning palate,” was perceived as gourmet food tastes better, however, in reality taste education is limited and therefore, “there is no such thing as objective taste.” “The uncertain and elusive health benefits of thinness,” can be understood that being thin is what is healthy, when in fact dieting usually does not result in weight loss that is long-term and that fat people live longer than thin people. “The fallacies in the local and organic orthodoxy” can be understood in the terms that natural foods are better for the environment, but it is not proven that organic , locally grown products are better for the environment. “The misguided pursuit of authenticity and exoticism,” is portrayed through a lens that perceives it as authentic food is real, when in reality it distinguishes people from the rest of the community or population. Through these beliefs and misguided phrases Finn asserts that mainstream influences were the cause of the distinction between good and bad food. The term, “good food,” came about from class and
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