Bros Before Hos; The Guy Code

                                                                           Casual Dining   
Bros Before Hos; The Guy Code is a piece in a book by Michael Kimmel whom specialty is writing about masculinity and males. The piece talks about how society expects men to be masculine, tough, concerned about how big their muscles are, etc. The author talks about how most men aspire to be manly and tough and strong. "Never show your feelings, never ask for directions, never give up, never give in, be strong, be aggressive, show no fear, show no mercy, get rich, get even, get laid, win." (469)
         You might be thinking, how does this article at all relate to casual dining. With the "Guy Code", certain questions relating society expectations and the food industry can be very easy to talk about and answer.  Are there gender based foods? And are there societal expectations of gender in dining? Would guys prefer to eat at a sports bar with low quality food or a low-key restaurant with good food based upon the article we read? These questions are stereotypical questions that relate men to dining but it can share a lot of information and give a lot of insight.
"Yorkie bars, Nestlé has always told us, are "not for girls". They are to be growled from their wrappers and chewed in mouth-sized chunks by manly men, men with stubble, men with muscles that bulge like bellies. Flakes, however, are for ladies. Sexy ones, in lipstick and baths, who crumble off a feminine bite, before letting their eyes fall closed in pleasure." Says Eva Wisemen from The Observer. This shows that in society, there is in fact "gender based foods." Although that there is really no such thing as food that is specifically designed for just men or just women, there are standards and norms for foods that a guy would typically eat vs. food that a girl would typically eat. 
          "To Jenny Moon, the whole business of giving menus to women before men, taking orders from women be'fore men and clearing women’s plates first just didn’t make sense, not in the East Village in 2008". Frank Bruni wrote this article in 2008 about the restaurant called East Village in New York City, an upscale place to eat where upper class citizens tend to dine. The waitress believes that when she serves, she thinks everyone's plate should be cleared at the same time in an equal manner, instead she was trained to always make sure the women were taken care of first. "The gentlemen don't care where they eat, as long as they get food in their bellies. It's the women who care about what type of restaurant they attend and dine at". This was the message Bruni got when talking to dinee's at this restaurant and it shows that men tend to care less about the establishment they dine at compared to women.
          To conclude, Bros Before Hos; The Guy Code, in my opinion is pretty accurate with society and casual dining. I believe that in the food industry, there are certain expectations i.e, men eat more food then women, but for the most part there is not certain food designed for men or designed for women and that all food is meant for all people.
           
         






Bruni, Frank. "Old Gender Roles With Your Dinner?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 Oct. 2008. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.
Wiseman, Eva. "The Truth About Men, Women and Fiood." The Observer. The Guardian, 16 Oct. 2010. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.

Conspicuous Consumption and Dining

                Conspicuous Consumption is an article written by Michael Sandel is about the theory of Conspicuous Consumption, by Thorstein Veblen. The theory says that Americans buy many things that they don’t need. That people will just buy things simply because they want t to look prestigious and more than they actually are. Michael Sandel explains the theory more in-depth, pointing out that there is “a hidden side of everything.” (163) People also tend to pay way too much on random objects, objects that are realistically completely useless.

                When it comes to Conspicuous Consumption, the article, and relating that to the food industry, four questions can arise. What did advertising do to the food industry? What do people buy unnecessarily in the food industry? What does conspicuous consumption look like in dining?  The food industry is a great example of people buying things unnecessarily. Just watching the food channel on TV, you consistently see fine dining shows of people eating cow tounge, or liver, or pretty much anything that can be cooked.

                The first part is to see why this is. One major part of dining is that people will actually buy anything shown on TV. The job of advertisers is just to make people desire what they don’t need, they prey on this idea of Conspicuous Consumption. In the article Advertising in the Food Industry by David Ingram is all about this. He mentions that advertisers use a variety of methods to get you to buy what they are selling. On TV, they tend to sell things that you don’t need. Rarely ever will you find a TV ad for peanut butter, but it’s pretty common to see ads for stuff like giant televisions, game systems, or videogames.

                In another article, Food and Eating: An Anthropological Perspective, by Robin Fox, it is discussed what in the world do people actually buy unnecessarily. He mentions some great examples right at the beginning, turbot sauce mousseline, aspics de foie gras. There are many random food that people will just buy just to look elegant and above the rest.

                To sum up, conspicuous dining in the world is pretty obvious. People buy random foods just because they are ‘elegant’. I personally have seen on tv shows of people eating foods that quite literally made us all who watched want to vomit. Much of the ‘rich persons’ food is horrifying to think of someone eating, but we eat it just because other people do, and it makes us ‘prestigious’.

Works Cited

“Food and Eating: An Anthropological Perspective. “ Robin Fox.  Web.  17 September 2014

“Advertising in the Food Industry” David Ingram. Web. 17 September 2014

My introduction - sam eide

INTRODUCTION

My Introduction-Mariah Bauer

Mariah Bauer-Introduction