The Cook, the Mediator, the Feminist, and the Hero

Abstract

A feminist interpretive approach to mediation metaphors reveals the feminist jurisprudence in two cooking and conflict resolution films. Chocolat and Fried Green Tomatoes both feature strong female mediators “disguised” as cooks who help others resolve their disputes. Chocolat and Fried Green Tomatoes construct women mediators as feminist heroes and offer feminist jurisprudential commentary. The films’ jurisprudence demonstrates that different kinds of feminism can successfully work together and that the power of patriarchal master narratives can be resisted by employing mediation instead of turning to law. The women mediators in Chocolat and Fried Green Tomatoes maintain their ambitions, obtain legitimacy in the midst of patriarchy, use talk as a resistance technique and narrative as a way to mediate power dynamics, and, in so doing, emerge as fun, feminist heroes.