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Language And Gender: Celebrity Chef Talk!
The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship among gender, language, and celebrity chefs. An issue that often surfaces in the study of gender is the fact that an individual's social legitimacy or normalcy is evaluated according to whether this individual conforms unambiguously to one of the two genders - male or female. This illustrates that gender norms are extremely salient and oppressive in every aspect of society, and thus the crossing of gender boundaries is strongly discouraged and even despised upon.
I chose to study "celebrity chefs" because cooking can be both a male and female domain - most conventional chefs in the kitchens of restaurants and hotels are males, while most of the "heads" of domestic kitchens are usually females who take on the role of a housewife. This makes the kitchen a very ambiguous arena and hence an especially interesting topic of discussion in gender studies. Such ambiguity might also be precisely the reason why chefs have to make an even stronger statement about their own gender. Furthermore, being a celebrity chef on television and the only (lead) character of one's own cooking show means that every characteristic - speech, behaviour, race, and gender - is magnified and enlarged for all to see. The pressure of being in the media spotlight and consequently getting accepted by the mass audience is even more reason for celebrity chefs (and their show producers) to exaggerate their genders on television so that they successfully distance themselves from the opposite gender. Thus, the core of the analysis in this discussion will centre on how celebrity chefs use language to achieve this effect, with specific focus on two chefs - Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson. Before the linguistic analysis is presented, it is critical to first understand and appreciate the dynamics between gender and the media. Gender is a cultural construct - the social creation of ideas about appropriate roles for men and women (Scott, 1986). This socio-cultural construction of gender is powerfully mediated by the media as the media reflect values and ideals about gender by portraying widely shared stereotypical beliefs about what it means to be a "normal" man or woman (Wood, 1999). For example, men are stereotypically portrayed as at least one of the following - active, adventurous, fearless, tough, hard, violent, physically or sexually aggressive, sexually dominant, sexually impulsive, powerful, independent, and largely uninvolved in human relationships. These stereotypes seem to be in line with those seen in the video "Tough Guise" (Katz & Earp, 1999), where media images of manhood reveal a widespread equation of masculinity with violence, toughness, and physical strength. On the other hand, women are portrayed as primary caregivers who focus on home, family, and caring for others, as seen in their enmeshment in relationships or housework. They are also often viewed as sex objects by dressing scantily and behaving provocatively. Besides reflecting gender stereotypes, the media takes it a step further by using individuals to reproduce such stereotypes (Wood, 1999). The idea of "reproducing stereotypes" illustrates gender as an activity or performance. In McElhinny (2003), we are reminded that gender is doing, not being, because according to the Activity Theory, an individual will articulate talk and gender differently in order to construct a social persona appropriate to the events of the moment. A similar notion is Judith Butler's (1997) theory of gender and performativity. According to Butler, performativity is the idea that "gender is a daily, habitual, learned act based on cultural norms of femininity and masculinity". Specifically, Jackson Katz in "Tough Guise" also reminds us that the essence of masculinity is controlled performance i.e. having to perform violence and aggression in order to be labelled as a "real man". Most of us constantly and consistently adhere to these learned norms so that we fall unambiguously into either gender category. The construction of gender is an ongoing process, and one of the resources that we draw upon to achieve this is language (Johnson, 1997; Scott, 1986). With the appreciation and understanding that language can be used by the media to reflect and reproduce gender stereotypes, I will now present my linguistic analysis on celebrity chefs. The analysis will focus on how male and female celebrity chefs each use language to construct a gendered personality that is consistent with existing gender beliefs. By Clarice K. - Born and bred on a lovely tropical Asian island called Singapore. I'm especially proud of the culinary adventures Singapore offers to the world, and of its peoples' ability to draw a mix of surprise, awe, an...
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