Purity and Danger/Male and Female/Economy and Environment: Communication of Binaries Related to Food and Gender

Food and customs related to eating are marked by the cultural and social context. In many cultures, certain types of food are taboo. The border between purity and impurity, sanctity and religious prohibition/repulsion towards certain foods is a powerful symbol for emphasising the dichotomy in the relationship between We and They, recognition and division into civilised and uncivilised ones. Rituals associated with growing, preparing and serving food have been part of the female cultural ghetto since Neolithic times, and the hearth where food is prepared is part of the female world, which can contaminate male warriors (Douglas, 2004). The hearth and kitchen are natural and symbolic places where women, beings from a less valuable world, are kept, so the food carries a lower symbolic value and is linked to nature, not culture. This chapter, using critical discourse analysis (CDS) including the analysis of language, context and interpretation (Fairclough, 1989), explored how 22 selected articles about food and gender from the regional lifestyle magazine Vogue Adria contextualise and connect food, women/men and the environment/nature and what messages are read from the analysed media content. Food practices not only delineate cultural boundaries but reinforce social hierarchies, where women are relegated to ‘natural’ roles of sustenance and care and men with artistry and innovation, mirroring how environmental resources are economically exploited. These interconnected systems of marginalisation perpetuate gender inequality while framing the environment as a passive resource to be managed rather than a dynamic entity deserving of respect.