Thanksgiving.

Janet Siskind accurately describes Thanksgiving in her article “The Invention of Thanksgiving" by saying that “Thanksgiving is inescapably part of American culture” (Siskind 167).  There’s no way to avoid those big American holidays.  Christmas decorations are plastered around stored before Thanksgiving is even celebrated.  The holidays are part of being American which means that it is almost impossible to not know that a holiday is coming up soon.  Siskind says that “Thanksgiving is a day on which all persons who consider themselves Americans celebrate […] centered around a stuffed turkey” (Siskind 167).  Most families have a generic formula for celebrating Thanksgiving, like being surrounded family and eating turkey. Janet Siskind goes on to describe that traditionally “[f]ootball games are scheduled and televised throughout the nation; an elaborately constructed, now-traditional Macy’s parade may be viewed” (Siskind 167).  Another tradition that is often celebrated by typical families is the tradition of watching football games along with the televised parades all day.  Although there are some generic traditions that take place during Thanksgiving, some families have their own Thanksgiving traditions that reflect on their individual identity. 

Every year my family will get together at my Uncle’s house for Thanksgiving early in the morning and the celebration last all day.  As a whole we follow the typically traditions of having turkey, watching football and the parades on TV. Our family prepares mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, mac n cheese and other traditional “American” foods for Thanksgiving.  I call these food items “American” because they are supported culturally through media.  Although these items are typical, my family has their own recipes and traditions involved in the preparation of some certain items.  My Uncles usually cook the meats, like the turkey and the ham, while my Aunt and some of the other women in my family prepare the rest of the feast.  I think it is important to note the reason that the men prepare the meat in our family relates to the concept of meat has a masculine connotation.  In commercials, it is always the husbands who are involved in the cookouts, and the preparation of the meat.  We, like many families presented in movies that contain Thanksgiving, pray before we eat.  I’ve always grown up where the tradition was that the kids sat at one table to eat while the adults sat at another.  This particular theme is sometimes viewed in movies.  Although our Thanksgivings tend to be disorganized, I would have to say that for the most part we have a traditional Thanksgiving with very little variations.  

Manuel's

According to Julie Guthman in the article “Fast Food/Organic Food: Reflexive Tastes and the Making of ‘Yuppie Chow’”, “[h]undreds of millions of people buy fast food every day without giving it much thought, unaware of the subtle and not so subtle ramifications of their purchases” (Guthman 45).  Fast food has become part of our everyday culture.  Simple, easy and quick seems to be the most desirable way to obtain food.  We never stop and think about what we are eating, where the food can from, and the effects of the consumption of these items on our health.  We think about convenience over our health.  The distance that the food has traveled never crosses our mind.  

Organic is now beginning to become more prevalent in communities.  Local businesses are deciding to buy from local farms or community gardens.  Restaurants are now buying their own gardens for an array of reasons.  Some are making this change in order to create a local appeal, which attracts customers.  Others are deciding to make the conscious choice to provide customers with the ability to know where exactly their food is coming from.  These gardens provide the opportunity to not only make a connection with the community but it also provides the opportunity to reuse waste as compost instead of just wasting excess.  Manuel’s restaurant is a prime example of this shift towards more local grown produce.  Manuel’s owns the Blue Clay Farm in North Augusta.  This restaurant uses this garden for the reasons previously stated.  The Blue Clay Farms also contains animals, like goats, in order to appeal to the local families.  Manuel discussed with our Honors course that many people are unaware of where their food is coming from.  He also addressed the fact that many of the children who come to the farm are shocked to see what the produce naturally looks like prior to packaging for market consumption.  

 It is truly sad that some children do not know what broccoli looks like when it’s not on Walmart’s shelf or on their dinner plate.  We are moving away from our food and losing any connection with it that we use to have.  The norm is to buy apples from a grocery store rather than buying from a local market.  At the end of the day a shift towards owning a farm is a risk but restaurants like Manuel’s are gaining public support.

Measuring...

Being thin is emphasized in our American culture.  Social media bombards the citizens with images of individuals who are thin and our culture tells us that this thinness is beautiful.  The size of someone’s waist becomes a major determining factor on whether society views that person as beautiful or not.  These images convince people that they need to look this way in order to be accepted and people start striving for this “beauty” in any means necessary.  Starvation, purging, and over exercising become a way to obtain this image.  This mentality causes a stereotype against those who are thin.  Being naturally thin can be a curse because people automatically assume that if you are thin then you must be starving yourself.  Dr. Jennifer Trunzo brought up the argument that fat genes and skinny genes actually exist and that these genes are switched on in part due to environmental factors.  When faced with starvation, like anorexia, the fat gene may switch in order to prevent death and when this occurs in the situation of an eating disorder this can be dangerous.  The people suffering of anorexia are desiring to become thin and beautiful and when weight is gained drastic measures to lose weight may be taken.

Many myths and stereotypes surround eating disorders.  Growing up I was taught that women were the ones that had eating disorders.  The thought that a man could also suffer from a disorder had never crossed my mind because our society’s image of beauty is focused primarily on women.  When I took wellness my freshman year of college, my textbook Fitness and Wellness by Werner Hoeger and Sharon Hoegar stated that “eating disorders are not limited to women.  Every 1 in 10 cases exist in men” (Hoeger 146).  This shows that the myth stating that only women have eating disorders is incorrect.  It is important to realize that there is an effect on men because the signs are typically ignored.  There is also a stereotype that eating disorders are found only in middle class white women.  Growing up in a middle class white family, I was never told that I needed to watch how I ate.  There is one situation that strongly sits at the front of my mind when someone brings up eating disorders.  In middle school and high school, I had a Hispanic friend that was constantly told by her family that she needed to watch her weight or no one would find her beautiful.  In “Not Just ‘a White Girl’s Thing’” by Susan Bordo, Bordo argues that family dynamics influence eating disorders (Bordo 470).  My friend was not white yet she struggled with weight issues due to certain dynamics in her family.  In “Not Just ‘a White Girl’s Thing’”, Bordo describes a young Japanese female named Jun Sasaki who developed an eating disorder after a friend commented on Jun looking pregnant even though Jun was already thin (Bordo 46).  There is a stereotype towards eating disorders developing in those individuals who are either average weight or larger.  Jun’s story not only disagrees with the fact that eating disorders are for white girls along with contradicting that naturally thin women do not develop eating issues. 

It’s important to note when facts challenge stereotypes.  Stereotypes limit peoples’ understanding of situations and in the absence of these myths issues can be properly mended instead of being pushed aside.

Cooking with Rations!

Cooking with rations did not sound appealing to me especially when I usually do not like to cook in the first place.  When I looked at the list of recipes with rations, I could not find anything that sounded too appealing to me.   I honestly just decided on cornstarch pudding due to simplicity of ingredients along with the fact that I already had all of the items, except for cornstarch, on hand at home.  Upon reading how to make the recipe, I realized that I had no idea what a double boiler is and thanks to a friend’s help I was able to make one as close as possible.  I had little faith that cornstarch pudding would turn out right let alone taste well enough to eat.  I was hesitant to taste my creation but once I did I was shocked by its resemblance to the typical pudding I eat.  Out of excitement and pure curiosity I grabbed a pudding out of my pantry and discovered that many of the ingredients were similar.  The best thing I could compare the cornstarch pudding and normal pudding is the similarity between name brand and off brand items.  A lot of the difference was the amount of sweetener that was used in rationed item; rations included sugar so many food items lacked the typical sweetness Americans are used to.  Rations also limited the weekly food intake that people could consume.  Americans are not use to limitations on how much food they can enjoy which makes rations even more difficult.  In Amy Bentley’s article “Islands of Serenity, Gender, Race, and Ordered Meals during World War II”, Bentley states that as Americans there is an “expectation of abundance” when it comes to food consumption (Bentley 172).  Prior to entering college and being forced to live on a tight budget, I had never thought about limiting how much I consume.  As Americans, limitations towards food consumption are not typical; we have all you can eat buffets and buying items in bulk are cheaper that smaller portions.  Our culture encourages our unlimited consumption via bulk items and buffets and because of this, it is hard to stop and understand how individuals were able to have little to no meat, sugar, butter and other items that I can easily go to the store and purchase with minimal effort.  During times of ration, like World War II, ration books were handed out and people were limited by these books.   I could not imagine having to not only pay for an item but also have to plan out how to use my ration stamps in order to survive. 

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.