Recipes for Change? Patriarchal and Progressive Masculinities in Cookbooks for Men

Abstract

In this article, representations of culinary masculinities are analyzed. Through a textual analysis of two sets of twenty-first-century cookbooks—those targeted to “men” and those targeted to “dads”—I show that two contrasting hybridizations of hegemonic masculinity are represented. The men’s cookbooks present a patriarchal masculinity that supports men’s structural dominance over women by framing men’s cooking as distinct from routine care work. This is achieved by portraying men’s cooking as an instrumental strategy for gaining sexual or romantic access to women, as a way of elevating the esteem in which others (usually nonfamily members) hold the male cook, and as an irregular activity that is performed on special occasions or due to special circumstances. The dads’ cookbooks present a progressive masculinity that challenges men’s dominance by framing men’s cooking as a form of routine care work. This is achieved by portraying men’s cooking as a daily endeavor, as an activity that is attentive to the nutritional and emotional needs of children, and as an aspect of a larger parenting project that encompasses household management and children’s social development. This analysis contributes to the debate over whether hybridizations of hegemonic masculinity perpetuate or challenge men’s dominance by suggesting that the multiplicity of hybrid masculinities provides for the dual possibility of a movement toward gender equality or a retrenchment of patriarchal power.