By Rachel Szachara
One thing I have learned in my short eighteen years of living is that gender biases follow you everywhere—including restaurants, your kitchen and most recently, your college dining hall. My dining hall, rated seventeenth in Princeton Review’s study of Best Campus Food in 2016, consistently serves men more food than women. Whether it’s two to three scoops of rice as opposed to one, extra chicken on sandwiches or nearly twice as much pasta from the coveted macaroni bar, a man in line in front of me will often get more food than me, and asking for more gets me maybe a couple extra pieces of macaroni or half a scoop of rice and a dirty look. Gendered nutrition is a thing and it needs to stop.
From a young age, girls are taught to eat less. We are told, whether consciously or not, that women are supposed to be thin and frail to be beautiful. Even in 2016, where women are taught to be strong and independent, we are consistently reminded that we need to “watch what you eat” and asked if we “really need that cookie.” As a college student, I spend probably too much time browsing the internet and re-watching shows on Netflix, which only allows me to see how these biases are supported in media. The internet is filled with countless memes and trends: some funny, some strange, and some I really just don’t understand. One of these includes the somewhat odd, yet fascinating thread of women laughing while eating salad. If you look at the photos, the women are always put together, pretty and happy. This solidifies gender stereotypes that women should always be pretty and happy and—you guessed it—eating salad.
I’ve seen this issue in the show Friends, which has seen a resurgence in popularity thanks to Netflix. In the episode “The One Where Rachel Dates Joey,” two of the characters who live together, Rachel and Joey, go on a date. When they return, Rachel discusses still being hungry, despite just going out to dinner and tells Joey, “Now don’t judge me, I normally wait until my date leaves, but you live here. I’m ripping into the [leftovers].” This feeds into the advice generally given to women that they should never finish all of the food put on their plate when on a date. The writers of Friends probably did not do this intentionally, but instead subconsciously accepted the fact that there are different guidelines around the eating habits of different genders. Whether it comes down to the actual food, like salad being considered a “woman’s food,” or the amount we are told to eat, women are given unfair standards in the nutrition department.
This is a problem that needs to be stopped, but first needs to be recognized. Most people don’t consider the possibility that these gender biases even exist at all, never mind that they strongly impact people. With excuses like, “Men just eat more than women, and we don’t want to waste food,” it is difficult to see the damage being done by gendered nutrition. Women, in general, have more issues with their body than men. According to NEDA’s website, females represent 75% of individuals with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa and 64% of those with binge eating disorder, even though they make up only 50% of the population. While gendered nutrition is obviously not the only factor that contributes to this haunting statistic, it is a factor that can’t be ignored.
People should be allowed to eat what they want. I should be able to eat as many scoops of rice, or as many chicken sandwiches, as I want without getting dirty looks. Any man should be able to eat salad without being ridiculed. Poor body image already sucks and we don’t need the media, dining hall employees or even our parents making it worse. People need to be healthy and not feel guilty for eating something “wrong” for their gender.