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The Activist Diet
Jun. 15th, 2014 11:55 amSomething I've noticed, although I haven't kept statistical track, is how frequently a "call to action" delivered by a woman includes a non-sequitor into dietary advice. For example, today I was listening to a speech trying to recruit mentors for impoverished black children. Lots of statistics about reading levels and incarceration rates, lots of anecdotes about mentors and mentees, shout-outs to community groups working for the same goals. And then: And do yourself a favor and stop having a bagel for breakfast in the morning; you make yourself a protein shake with flax seed, so you can nourish your body. Here is my recipe.
What stood out to me is not just how unrelated this was to the rest of the presentation, but how familiar it is. We need to fight the patriarchy and also not eat refined sugar. Stop gun violence and while you're at it go paleo.
I don't know whether this frequent coincidence is because women's activism and political consciousness-raising has tended to happen via women's lifestyle magazines, which alternate female-focused journalism with diet and exercise tips, so that this has been internalized as a sensible narrative structure. It seems possible. You could try to argue that "well, we need to change ourselves, be transformed." Yet I do not see the same number of intrusions of "and here's how to dress for your body type" or "and switch to a henna hair dye," both of which also seem physically transformative and are also women's magazine staples.
I also don't see this amount of recipe-giving in activist speeches by men on topics not related to diet and exercise.
My current theory is that diet advice is a way of appealing to the essential feminine by people whose self-identity is closely tied to their gender. I think this because men's nonsequitors tend to be direct appeals to masculinity: "we have to do this to be men." Sometimes there will be a discussion of a war zone or sports. What is the core of me? That I am a woman, where woman is defined more than anything else to mean mammary. Here, I feed you. Here, feed yourself. There is no way I can speak deeply to you, woman-to-woman, without talking about eating. There is no way I can talk to a man without talking to him as a warrior or defender. I am not sure that the people who do this could put into these words why they are doing this - I suspect they couldn't. However, I also suspect they would say "Amen" to my description if I presented it as something that resonated with me (which it doesn't).
What stood out to me is not just how unrelated this was to the rest of the presentation, but how familiar it is. We need to fight the patriarchy and also not eat refined sugar. Stop gun violence and while you're at it go paleo.
I don't know whether this frequent coincidence is because women's activism and political consciousness-raising has tended to happen via women's lifestyle magazines, which alternate female-focused journalism with diet and exercise tips, so that this has been internalized as a sensible narrative structure. It seems possible. You could try to argue that "well, we need to change ourselves, be transformed." Yet I do not see the same number of intrusions of "and here's how to dress for your body type" or "and switch to a henna hair dye," both of which also seem physically transformative and are also women's magazine staples.
I also don't see this amount of recipe-giving in activist speeches by men on topics not related to diet and exercise.
My current theory is that diet advice is a way of appealing to the essential feminine by people whose self-identity is closely tied to their gender. I think this because men's nonsequitors tend to be direct appeals to masculinity: "we have to do this to be men." Sometimes there will be a discussion of a war zone or sports. What is the core of me? That I am a woman, where woman is defined more than anything else to mean mammary. Here, I feed you. Here, feed yourself. There is no way I can speak deeply to you, woman-to-woman, without talking about eating. There is no way I can talk to a man without talking to him as a warrior or defender. I am not sure that the people who do this could put into these words why they are doing this - I suspect they couldn't. However, I also suspect they would say "Amen" to my description if I presented it as something that resonated with me (which it doesn't).
