Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook:

Abstract

The first edition of Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook was an immediate best-seller in 1950, and remains the second culinary best-seller of all time. This article discusses the historical significance of the ideological discourse embedded within Betty Crocker. Using a framework derived from ritual studies, the author argues that the text reflects the cultural preoccupation with women's roles after the end of World War II. Through word and image, Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook symbolically connects the domestic practice of modern women's cookery to the birth of the United States and, in turn, to the postwar renewal of the nation. The postwar reversal of women's wartime gains in the workplace and in the public sphere can be contextualized as a ritual response to wartime destruction. The author argues that the cultural phenomenon later identified as the feminine mystique by Friedan can be seen as a ritual response to perceived crises of returning servicemen and postwar social upheavals. Through examination of popular texts such as Betty Crocker, the ritual mechanisms for social change can be imagined and discussed.