'Steaksism': A little more sexism with your spuds?

BOYS eat potatoes and steak, and girls eat salad, right? Not according to Nora Bouazzouni. In her book "Steaksisme," the author explores our conditioning around food, revealing more about how we eat and bringing a new perspective to our eating habits.

Many a parent will tell you that boys want meat and fries, while girls want fruit and salad. This dietary difference which begins at a very young age prompted French journalist and author Nora Bouazzouni to ask questions. For her, we are all, at our own level, victims of "steaksism," or society's tendency to push people to eat certain foods according to their sex. According to the author, girls are made to feel guilty from an early age "a minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips" while boys are given an easier ride.

Sexism on a plate, but who's to blame?

It's hard to root out the chicken from the egg, because beliefs around food are so firmly rooted in society. One of the most obvious sources analyzed by the journalist is advertising.

Television commercials, radio ads and even print advertising have been driving home the diet message in more or less veiled ways for several decades. From low-fat yogurt to skinny lattes and low-cal or "lite" alternatives, everything pushes women to understand that they should not eat the same way as men, and especially, that they should "be careful."

Women come over all orgasmic while eating yogurt, while men growl with virility when tucking into a steak. Men are also seen as "bon vivants" when they like a good tuck-in, qualities that do not apply to women.

Similarly, men can like a drink (but they're not alcoholics).

In addition to advertising, the media, and particularly women's magazines, are full of stereotyped messaging about weight: from the "bikini body" to diets and the search for pleasure with fewer calories... These precepts are numerous and untenable.

Quantities count

These differences start from the earliest age. The author cites the work of the anthropologist Françoise Héritier, who observed, during the Second World War, the way women served meals to men before eating the leftovers.

This highlights differences not only in the types of food, but also in the quantities deemed appropriate. "Don't you pay a little more attention to the quantities on girls' plates?"

Even if mothers don't want to pass on what they have experienced, they still pay attention to the contents of their daughters' plates. Especially since women often hold the reins of the kitchen, without their efforts being recognized.

They are the ones who most often provide for the family's needs, fill the fridge and cook, with little or no thanks. Meanwhile, a man is quickly praised for grilling chops, as soon as the barbecue season comes around.

Virile vs veggie?

However, men are also subject to dietary stereotypes. In her book, the author questions the belief that a vegetarian man is somehow less masculine than a man who eats meat.

Because, in the end, this food carries a strong symbolic value, that of the "protein myth," of being essential to life. Just as thinness is synonymous with success for women, so is eating meat for men.

In short, whether you're a man or a woman, eating isn't always a piece of cake.