Boston University students can study the “ways in which language and behaviors around food both reinforce and challenge gender hierarchies and restrictive norms around sexuality,” in a “Food Studies” class.
“Food, Gender, and Sexuality,” helps students explore the concept of “queer food,” according to Professor Megan Elias. The university recently profiled the professor and her course, along with a book she helped write, titled “Queers at the Table: An Illustrated Guide to Queer Food (with Recipes).”
The professor (pictured) gave some examples of topics of discussion in her “food studies classes.”
Students might consider “how [their] food choice is representing [their] gender identity,” she said in an explanatory video produced by Boston U.
“How is that different if you’re gay? How is that different if you’re non-binary? How is that different if you’re polyamorous,” she asked.
All these questions help “disrupt kind of ideas about foods that really obscure human experience,” she said.
Queer food is not a new concept, according to Elias.
“Queer food has always been,” Elias said in an interview with the university’s Faculty Angle series. “Queer people have always been cooking, they have always been eating, they have always been part of the food landscape. And so to acknowledge that is really to show us a new way of thinking about food.”
“We really feel that talking about queer food is a way to disrupt ideas about food that really obscure [the] human experience,” she said further. “That is what we do in food studies—we use food to understand the bigger picture of human experience.”
Elias said she does not have a definition for what “queer food” is but wants “recognition” it exists.
“So, to understand that queer food has always been, that queer people have always been cooking, they have always been eating, they have always been part of the food landscape,” she said in the YouTube video.
“Gender norms” can infect the way people think about food and cooking, Elias said. For example, “the idea that there’s a ‘mom’s home cooking,’” is not inclusive because some homes don’t have a mom, she said.
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