Food as a Medium for Emotional Management of the Family: Avoiding Complaint and Producing Love

Abstract

Key studies within the sociology of food have explored the gender division of labour in the family and household, observing the construction and persistence of asymmetrical power relationships between men and women within the domestic context of food provision (DeVault 1991; Charles and Kerr 1988; Murcott 1982, 1983). Several other contributions to this volume have continued to explore these themes with a similar methodological approach. This chapter adopts a rather different route, examining some of the ways in which that domestic context is constructed in cultural representations of the work of feeding a family. In so doing, it follows those such as Parkin (2006) and Warde (1997) by focusing upon the content of women’s magazines, and developing a nuanced understanding of the environment of food provision as constructed in such material.