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In 2008, on behalf of the UK supermarket brand PurAsia, The Future Foundation released a report titled The Emergence of the Gastrosexual. Among other things, the report suggested we’re living in a newfound age of enlightenment where “men are confidently claiming a stake in the kitchen, a place which has historically been seen as the woman’s domain.” The report—which surveyed British males age 18 and older—suggests that men are increasingly cooking fancy fare, and enjoying it, for mostly one reason: women find it sexy. The gender role implications are troubling to say the least. And they’re wrong.
Check out this Wikipedia list of famous chefs throughout the annals of human history. It’s a pretty incomplete amalgam, but notice how it’s mostly made up of men. While it may be historically true that women have dominated the domestic kitchen, men have taken much of the credit for the culinary achievements of the past few-hundred years. My point is that this supposedly new trend of “gastrosexuality” is not recent. The men who can skillfully cook do, just as they always have.
The report also includes a smattering of weird factoids about Asian cuisine, how popular Chinese and Thai food is in the UK, how “skilled gastrosexuals” prefer Asian fare…wait a minute, PurAsia, the company that funded this study, sold ethnic cuisine meal kits, right? Then this whole study is probably an ad. Think about it: What’s with the focus on how cooking impresses women? Why the Asian food motif? Even the word “gastrosexual” itself aims to invoke all the Sex-and-the-City charm of the word “metrosexual,” as if throwing together a boxed meal could transform a man into a modern day Mr. Big. If my hypothesis is correct, this study was likely conducted in an attempt to sell what amounts to Pan-Asian hamburger helper to young bachelors, and they used the oldest trick in the book to sell it: sex appeal.
Naturally, PurAsia’s lackluster attempt at some social media buzz failed to make a dent in, well, much of anything, and in 2009, parent company Mars UK dropped the brand from its product line. Case closed? Unfortunately, no. The word lived on.
A Google search for “gastrosexual” turns up some dubious results, like an old Washington City Paper article, a blog post on Psychology Today and the world’s shortest Wikipedia article that lists the Future Foundation study as its primary source. If it’s all adspeak and marketing drivel, why am I talking about it now? Wouldn’t the best course of action be to ignore it? Well, here’s the problem—it’s still not going away.
Canadian celebrity chef (and Nick Nolte mugshot impersonator) Ted Reader has recently come out as a proud gastrosexual in an April press release. “I hope that the work I do in the culinary arts allows the gastrosexual group to grow and understand the joy of cooking,” says Reader, presumably while grinning and sticking a meat thermometer into the oversized rack of ribs from “The Flintstones.” Now, look, it’s okay to enjoy cooking, and it’s even okay to latch on to fun little buzzwords in order to market your personal brand. “Foodie” is overused yet at least widely acceptable. But “gastrosexual?” Come on, guys. We’re better than this. The bait is still being nibbled on, even if there’s no rod to reel the catch in. It’s an overblown marketing term stuck to the underside of the public lexicon like a tick. It’s also a term probably invented to sell Chinese food. Can’t we just let it go?
