Diners, Dudes, and Diets - (Studies in United States Culture) by Emily J H Contois

About the Book

"In Diner, dudes, and diets, Emily Contois examines contemporary food culture and a variety of its consumer products to reveal how the food, marketing, and media industries sought to create new markets by catering to men through the idea of 'the dude.' Contois identifies today's 'dude masculinity' as arising from a late twentieth-century crisis in traditional gender roles at a time of major social, cultural, and economic change. Though the term 'dude' originated in the late nineteenth century as a term for dandyish men overly concerned with fashionable appearance, Contois defines today's dude as a man who doesn't meet traditional standards of economic and social success or manly self-control but nevertheless retains a degree of masculine privilege. As Contois shows, food culture has been on the front lines of producing and deploying this dude masculinity. Her study uses methods from history, media studies, and gender studies, and she draws on a broad popular culture archive that includes print media, television, social media, and sports talk radio"--

Book Synopsis

The phrase "dude food" likely brings to mind a range of images: burgers stacked impossibly high with an assortment of toppings that were themselves once considered a meal; crazed sports fans demolishing plates of radioactively hot wings; barbecued or bacon-wrapped . . . anything. But there is much more to the phenomenon of dude food than what's on the plate. Emily J. H. Contois's provocative book begins with the dude himself--a man who retains a degree of masculine privilege but doesn't meet traditional standards of economic and social success or manly self-control. In the Great Recession's aftermath, dude masculinity collided with food producers and marketers desperate to find new customers. The result was a wave of new diet sodas and yogurts marketed with dude-friendly stereotypes, a transformation of food media, and weight loss programs just for guys.

In a work brimming with fresh insights about contemporary American food media and culture, Contois shows how the gendered world of food production and consumption has influenced the way we eat and how food itself is central to the contest over our identities.

Review Quotes

"As an analysis of power dynamics and masculine fragility, Diners, Dudes, and Diets has much to offer. Contois promises her readers a complicated story about contemporary American life, and indeed it delivers. . . . A well-written, accessible volume about consumer cultures dynamic tensions, this ground-breaking study is suitable for undergraduate students and scholars alike. . . . [A] must-have for the shelves of readers."--Journal of American Culture

"A fascinating work of cultural studies that makes evident the continued power and threat of explicitly gendered food production and consumption in the 21st century. Recommended broadly for students and scholars of fields related to gender, culture, and consumption."--Library Journal

"A sharp-as-hell dissection of how cultural notions of masculinity and femininity are weaponized in the kitchen, the grocery store, the dinner table, and everywhere else. Fascinating, mordant, enraging, illuminating."--Helen Rosner's 'Great Food-ish Nonfiction 2020'

"As a survey of a generation worth of food marketing and messaging, the book offers a useful overview of how corporations package food, identity, and gender norms for consumption. Perhaps even more valuable, and hopeful, is the closing section, 'Dude, What Happened?' which explores how the election of Donald Trump, the MeToo movement, and the pandemic have caused many of the companies with the most egregiously gendered approaches to food to seek more neutral, inclusive territory."--Civil Eats

"Focusing on the concept of dude foods, the book follows the evolution of food marketing for men. In doing so, Contois shows how industries used masculine stereotypes to sell diet and weight loss products to a new demographic. She argues that this has influenced both the way consumers think about food and their own identities."--Food Tank

"In an important new book, Emily J.H. Contois expands our understanding of food and masculinities in 21st-century North America. In fresh and lively close reading of food media and advertising . . . Contois very convincingly demonstrates . . . if we do not stop to ask ourselves why the diet soda 'for men' is in a grey can and claiming not to be a diet soda, she warns, we are going to miss a lot of what passes for common sense around gender identity."--International Journal of Food Design

"Positioned at the intersection of media studies, gender studies/masculinity studies, and marketing and advertising, this book offers insight into the ways in which food media promises that the way to a cisgender, heterosexual man's heart--and his sense of masculinity--is through his stomach."--Journal of Consumer Culture

"The 'dude' and the 'weight loss closet' provide two unique analytical tools to explore the gendered nature of food culture as well as trends toward a more inclusive food media. Contois offers a lens onto the recent past as well as the current food trends that fill our television screens, making it possible to be more critical of the way we approach food and the underlying assumptions of how gender is acted out through food media."--Men and Masculinities