This weekend I’m at a conference called Feminism and Food, courtesy of CSWIP— the Canadian Society of Women in Philosophy. It’s happening at the University of Guelph, where Samantha works, and she’s one of the organizers. Thanks, Sam (and all the others), for such a great conference!
The talks have been so fun and thought-provoking (in very good ways), that I wanted to share a few of the tidbits with y’all. Here we go:
Maybe you’ve been thinking for a while now, “I wonder– is sourdough actually sexist?” Or not. But Vanessa Lehan-Streisel has thought a lot about it. She looked at the resurgence of sourdough bread and the rise of celebrity male bread bakers. What’s the upshot of all this: she says that they’ve injected technical terms (like algorithm) and use of super-fancy and super-expensive appliances that ignore the long ( I mean really long) tradition of women bakers, baking sourdough and all sorts of other bread without shouting about it or going on social media, etc. She’s got a point here.
Sourdough bread making at home. 
I don’t even know where to start about this pic.
Am I a compost pile? Well, no, but… Shannon Boss showed us that food is not only about health, but also about dissolution. We may not come from compost, but to compost we shall go. This may not seem like a happy message, but it was refreshing to be reminded that we are natural organisms, subject to the forces of nature.
What compost becomes– good dirt. 
Composting in progress.
There’s more to say, but the conference is still going on, and I don’t want to miss a crumb.
Sounds intriguing. The rise of celebrity status for…..waaaay more male chefs than female chefs..on tv, etc. is pretty obvious and annoying. Probably infuritating for career female chefs.
My thinking women have to constantly tell their public stories in a faaar more flashier way than many do now. I see it in many organizations whom I’ve worked for so far. Over and over. One almost nearly needs to make a statement in a compelling way.
Same for food and for those who are chefs.
Hi Jean– totally agree with you about the need for women to work on telling stories in flashier ways. Or at least constantly pointing out that whatever new-new thing someone is touting is really what’s been business as usual among the rest of us.