Notes on: Silva,
E. (2000) 'The cook, the cooker
and the gendering of the
kitchen', in Sociological
Review, 48 (4): 612 - 629.
Dave Harris
[This article claims to draw upon some
high-powered theory, in the form
of post structuralism and actor network theory,
and ordered to analyse
the interactions between domestic cooking
technologies and gender
relations. Whether you need such high-powered
theory remains to be
seen.]
Technologies incorporate processes by which
gender is constituted, as
recent feminist analyses suggest. It becomes
apparent that both gender
and technology are processes or performances.
This leads to analyzing
ways in which cookers both embody and constrain
gendered relations.
Classical actor network theory tends to neglect
gender, however, and so
post-structuralist feminist analysis is also
required.
In ANT, technologies themselves are both
configured by human agents and
are themselves social agents. Such an argument
enables analyses of
interactions which can be seen as the result
of 'the inscription
of interests, politics and power' (613).
However, it is a
'taken-for-granted scenario of male power' that
tends to dominate in
ANT, and while power as capacity or
effectiveness is studied, 'power as
domination remains invisible' (613).
Gender can also be seen as an appearance or
performance, and
'Many women's gender identity is still located
through household tasks'
(613). At the same time, there are social
changes in gender identities.
Conceptions of gender are also 'embedded
in the instruments of
housework' (613), and changes in these
conceptions can be studied.
There are two developments in particular that
have brought significant
change -- the thermostat oven control, and the
microwave oven. The
various manuals, sales leaflets and articles
describing these machines
can be researched. These machines have not
simply reproduced a stable
gender identity for the cook.
Scott argues that gender becomes
'implicated in social processes'
at four levels (613): 'culturally
available symbols that
evoke multiple (and often contradictory)
representations...
normative concepts that fixed dominant meanings
of such symbols...
institutional complexes in which these are
articulated... ways in which
the relevant symbols norms and institutions are
implicated in the
construction of subjective gender identities'
(quoting Scott, 613).
This work can be used to guide analysis of how
gender appears
historically, especially when combined with
insights from ANT.
In particular, it is possible to use the notion
of the script, or
'framework of action for agents' (614) [I
thought this was a
symbolic interactionist term]. Scripts are
involved in relating
technologies to relations in households.
Operating instructions can be
seen as scripts, while recipes are attempts to
regulate their
interpretation and use. These activities can be
seen as operating at
levels 3 and 4 above. Activities take place
against the background of
the domestication of technology in households.
This constitutes a
'household "moral economy"' (614).
It is clear that cooking is only one activity
involved in feeding a
family. Emotional and ideological notions are
involved, and these are
connected to technology. Cookers help to
determine what can be cooked,
when, how, and to what standard, interacting
with limits imposed by
time and money.
Deciding a cooking temperature used to be a
matter of craft and
experience, and so the introduction of
thermostatically controlled
cookers in the 1920s and 1930s had a
considerable impact. These cookers
were marketed in particular at 'the
middle-class housewife who
had to run her home largely or entirely unaided
because of the growing
shortage of servants' (615). Instructional
materials and sales
materials claimed that thermostat provided for
fully automatic cooking,
although it was acknowledged that considerable
monitoring of the
cooking process was involved in real usages. The
cook's role was simply
not acknowledged, however [and many
examples are given of actual
instructions and recipes]. The claims to
automaticity therefore offer a
false universalisation of the cooking
experience, embodied in the
middle-class housewife without servants. These
people are to be
innovators, but also are expected to display the
classic 'cheerful,
fresh, nourishing image of proper womanhood'
(617).
Some cooking innovations, based on electricity,
were withheld because
they were seen to clash with this conventional
female role. Electric
cookers initially simulated solid fuel and gas
cookers, and it took a
further 50 years to develop the microwave oven
from the invention of
the magnetron in the 1940s. This too was
presented as a great time
saver. Microwaves were sometimes introduced
alongside other
conventional cookers. Ownership spread rapidly
in the Eighties and
Nineties, and growth might be connected see the
availability of
convenience foods and working women with
dependent children.
Cooking with microwaves also requires some
technical proficiency, and
it is common not to cook with them but to use
them to re or preheat.
This pattern may be produced either by limits of
the technology, the
increasing role of the cook's tacit knowledge,
or some
incommensurability are two in the technology and
the user. There have
been many attempts to redress the latter, in the
form of designing
control panels or issuing guides. New
technologies include temperature
probes and moisture sensors to guide cooking
time. The technology is
limited and probably does not really save much
time. It also requires
an unacknowledged cook to perform the essential
monitoring. This time,
the intended cook is 'a busy
professional... or an overworked
parent', however (619). The cook does
require tacit knowledge,
but there is an alternative in that certain raw
materials, including
particular types of potatoes or rice, can be
used to produce the effect
of automatic cooking, and the 'engineering
of agricultural
products' will make this more possible in the
future (620).
These scripts contain gender identities. Further
connections between
gender and cooking have also been discussed.
Cooking has been
associated with female caring, or those
relationship has changed over
time. Both the technological developments
discussed have brought
changes, for example microwave technology has
enabled a more diverse
set of identities, which now include
'men (young and old),
children (girls and boys), women who do
not like cooking
(or do not know how to cook), women who are good
cooks, and people
living on their own and families [sic]'
(620). Both technologies
do not acknowledge the role of a monitor or a
cook with tacit
knowledge. This is part of the general view that
females are expected
to give care freely. Even if cooking saved time,
women were expected to
undertake other labours, such as sewing or
gardening. Where cooking
skill is acknowledged, 'the cook appears
gendered as woman'
(620). It is women who are advised to make best
use of the new
technology, by cooking and freezing portions of
food, sometimes so that
men and children can reheat them.
Men still only cook on the margins, heating up
food, or becoming
involved wherever there is a chance to
display, 'such as in
barbecues and dinner parties' (620). The
technology reflects these
expectations.
Changes in the gendered nature of cooking have
also been affected by
much wider networks involving 'the use of
restaurants, school
meals, and hours of employment outside the home,
as well as utensils,
washing up, convenience foods, etc' (621).
Machines have not made a
difference on their own, although advertising
material can sometimes
render the cook absent. There is an
attempt 'to address neutered
cooks' (621).
There is thus a complex pattern of interaction
between gender practices
and technology, especially between the identity
of carers and the
technological development of cookers. Scripts
are embedded in the
instruction materials for cookers, but users of
the technologies also
depart from these scripts. Scripts assume a
wider social context
[such as the absent but skilled female cook].
It is possible that the cook is now perceived
not so much as a woman
but rather as a stupid person -- 'absent
minded, clumsy,
"as a child" and technically ignorant'
(621). To this extent
only, microwave technology has been responsible
for the
'democratization and deskilling of the cooking
process: it therefore
becomes possible for either man or woman to be a
stupid cook' (621).
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