Caring through Food? The Gendered Work of Eating for Change

• In Event: 113 - Regular Session. Consumers and Consumption 1

Abstract

It is now common to view food shopping as a political act with social and environmental implications, yet scholars continue to debate the political efficacy of popular appeals to ‘eat for change’. While environmental issues are prominently featured in this discourse, what’s often missing from these conversations is attention to the labour required to shop and eat in politically mindful ways – e.g., researching ethical options, travelling to farmers’ markets, cooking from scratch – as well as the question of who is shouldering this burden. The historical association between femininity and foodwork, and the fact that women continue to be the primary food-planners, shoppers, and cooks within the home, raises important questions about gender, care, and consumption. Probing the oft-overlooked gender dimension of food politics, this paper explores how ethical consumption operates as an extension of women’s care-work. While women have long been deemed responsible for the well-being of loved ones, these care expectations now extend beyond the home to include myriad social and environmental concerns – the well-being of farmers, animals, ecosystems. Drawing upon extensive focus group and interview data with Toronto food consumers, we analyze the feminist implications of this extension, as well as its connections to gendered (and patriarchal) ways of being. The paper bridges scholarship on neoliberalism and the politics of social reproduction, in order to develop a feminist analysis of consumer food politics that takes seriously the problem of neoliberal downloading and the political potential of caring through food.

Authors

• Kate Cairns, University of Toronto

• Josee Johnston, University of Toronto