My Year of Meats...

Image from Amy Wagliardo on Flickr.

In My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki, the show My American Wife was meant to depict the true American experience through meat to the Japanese audience.  In a memo, the Tokyo office gives the staff for the show a list of desirable qualities which included qualities like attractiveness, a warm personality, obedient children, and attractive friends and neighbors (Ozeki 4).  The memo also goes into detail about undesirable things like obesity and second class people (Ozeki 4).  This memo shows that the concept of being “American” is interpreted differently in the eyes of the Japanese.  This concept of what is desirable and undesirable to show to the Japanese audience is a reflection of the Japanese culture.  Jane is asked to find families throughout the US that fit the specifics that the Tokyo office desires.  In these families, the woman is the one who prepares and cooks the meals for the family and when Jane finds a Mexican man named Bert who prepares the meals, the office shuts the idea down.  This moment is important in showing the difference in how the Japanese think being an American means along with the what it means to be a mother and how Jane sees being an American through the eyes of being an American personally.  The office has a strict view of what it means to be American while Jane is open to the variability and freedom of choices that comes with the American culture.  Being from America, Jane knows that American families are not cookie cutters of each other.  The Japanese culture is known to be strict as described the writings of Allison when she describes obentos.  From the writings of Allison, it can be concluded that in Japan obedience is a highly important quality along with tradition (Allison 81).  In Japan, the preparation of the obento is a symbol of her love for the child which in My American Wife is translated through the mother providing nourishment for the family through the consumption of meats.  As discussed in both My Year of Meats and in Allison’s writing on obentos, in the Japanese culture the men are typically not present which is why in My American Wife there is a strong emphasis on showing that the husband is kind and helpful around the house (Allison 81).  For me, this description of what the office was looking for reminded me of our own cooking shows in America.  In an array of cooking shows, the woman is cooking and the atmosphere is happy and in many of the shows there is an emphasis on old-fashioned cooking.  On a show called the Pioneer Woman, the host, Ree Drummond, has an emphasis on how the recipes make me family happy along with emphasizing how hard her husband works.  The show depicts the family as happy and constantly shows scenes of the family smiling and laughing which is the same concept that My American Wife attempted to get at.  I think it is interesting to point out how the American culture is portrayed in a way that a wife cooks in order to maintain her family’s happiness.  This concept shows how even though in most American families do not fit the cookie cutter role that is portrayed, shows depict this middle-class family in a similar fashion even across cultural lines. 

McDonalds

 Image from Kenjonbro on Flickr.

In high school, I worked at a McDonalds for 2 very long years.  Just as mentioned in the video Fast Food Women, the majority of those who work there were female and management gave each and every single employee a specific way to do tasks, including what to say to each and every customer (and on a side note this makes working miserable because there is no change day to day).   But to get back on topic, even within America McDonalds can vary from place to place in order to accommodate local interest.  This change in products is not a specific trait of McDonalds, Coca Cola and other big companies that are found throughout the globe adapt, but McDonalds is an easy example due to the fact that most Americans know what products American McDonalds supply which makes the differences from place to place easily recognizable.  I decided to look into what differences a McDonalds in the UK has compared to the norm of American McDonalds.  Although the Big Mac is a consistent item, other items like a variety of breakfast wraps and an item called a bacon roll.  Instead of apple slices like in America, the UK serves carrot sticks.  One similarity I’d like to point out is that in both the US and the UK breakfast items are typically sold until 10:30 am.  One thing I was interested in was seeing whether or not there were more McDonalds within a given area here in America or in the UK.  Upon using the store locator, I was disappointed to see that there is an equal amount of stores in London as there are in my hometown of Lawrenceville.  I expected to see a larger number in American compared to elsewhere because of how America is known to enjoy convenience.   In Yan’s article “Of Hamburger and Social Space”, Yan discusses the fact that food conveys social aspects of a culture.  On the UK McDonalds website there is a tab that leads users to get information of how their football, or in American terms soccer, team can be sponsored.  The fact that this source is associated with food demonstrates the idea that the context of food reveals culture of any given area.  Football is huge in European countries and therefore should not be a shocker that the sport is endorsed in many ways, including food consumption.  Yan discusses that when a cultures adopts McDonalds, the culture will adapt the food and other aspects of the company in order to make McDonalds fit into their culture instead of just adopting the American version.  The culture changes the food choices in order to fit the area and culture.  Another element that can be altered is the architecture.  Upon doing further research about UK McDonalds, I stumbled on the detail that is used on the building of the McDonalds.  The fact that UK went through the effort to make the building look more like other typical building demonstrates the fact food consumption is a social aspect of culture.  This small change in design of the building allows for it to be more appealing to the population while also giving the appearance of being an original piece of the culture, in the same way that spaghetti is accepted to be an American dish when in fact it is not.

Globalization through food...

In Wilk’s Home Cooking in the Global Village, Wilk is concerned about the effects of globalization on our food consumption.  Wilk brings up creolization and appropriation of local cultures across the globe.  He uses the example that through appropriation, Americans can consume sushi and other items considered Japanese without culturally becoming Japanese (Wilk 7).  With appropriation, dominant cultures can consume other cultures without destroying local cultures.  This can be seen with the diversity of Coca-Cola produces around the globe.  If you’ve ever visited the World of Coca-Cola, then you’ve seen appropriation first hand.  Although Coke was originally produced in Atlanta, Coke has become an item of global consumption.  Instead of not allowing Coke products into a country, the country instead changes the flavor of the drink to correspond with the country’s culture.  Instead of drinking Coke being an American thing, countries adapted the drink’s flavors to make it fit into their culture instead.   The World of Coca-Cola hosts five continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe.  The flavors at each of the continents give a small glimpse into how food and drinks can be unique to each country.

America is a country that contains a wide variety of cultures but instead of destroying local cultures that have appeared. America has instead adapted these cultural diversities without losing the identity of being American.  This can be seen through local food festivals, like the Atlanta Greek Festival.  Although I do not have a drop of Greek blood in my body, I have attended the Greek Festival for years but just because I have attended does not mean that my culture has changed.  the same can be applied to eating Chinese food without becoming culturally Chinese.  Attending these festivals shows that while America has these festivals that consist of different cultures, America is a dominant global culture and thus can contain other cultures but resist foreign cultures from taking over.  Instead of seeing these festivals as a threat to American culture, these festivals continues to represent Greek culture, food and dance because America has made the festivals fit into our history. 

           

Food?

Publicity photo for The Lactation Station Breast Milk Bar, Jess Dobkin, 2006. Photo by David Hawe.

The image above can be seen as shocking but that is exactly the point Dobkin wanted to make in her Lactation Station Breast Milk Bar piece.  In this piece, Dobkin set up a bar that served pasteurized break milk and allowed people to taste the milk donated by six different women (Esterik 20).  Honestly, I am not sure if I would have tasted the break milk that was being provided.  The thought of drinking breast milk is weird but at the same time I would feel pressure and curious to know what breast milk taste.  When the words “breast milk” are brought up the typical thought that comes to mind is an infant.  Only infants can consume breast milk without any judgment placed on them.  Certain foods, like breast milk, are associated with a certain age group and consumption outside of that age group is considered weird. 

From what I understand there is a lot of standards that are set for women.  Women are almost expected to feed their newborn breast milk because of the health benefits and thus if a women does not do such she is often viewed as a bad mother.  But while there is a pressure to breastfeed there is also the pressure from our society to only perform breastfeeding at home or in a bathroom.   This pressure to stay hidden eventually causes mothers to turn to formula in order to get away from the shame of breastfeeding in public.  It’s bizarre to think that we shame women who breastfeed in public while breast can be accepted in various other situations.  It is also interesting that pregnancy is seen to be beautiful but feeding out in the open is considered disgusting in American culture.  Mothers in America typically do not breastfeed after the age of a year old.  This could be related to our culture making public breastfeeding shameful.  In other countries, breastfeeding in a public setting is considered normal along with breastfeeding past the age a one. 

In the end, mothers are often pressure by society to preform specific tasks.  In the Japanese culture, mothers are pressured to make obentos for the children and make their child’s life easier.  Women are expected to be good mothers and the society sets the standards to what a good mother is defined as.