Complex Numbers

National Beer Day

Today is one of my High Holy days.

Well... truth be told, I just found out about this important day for the first time, but it immediately went on my list of important things to commemorate, right up there with the December 5 ratification of the 21st Amendment.

And it's related. The 21st, repeal of Prohibition, was passed in 1933. But before then, the legal limit for beer was raised from 0.5% to 3.2% ABV  , so this is a beer-specific observance. Plus, as the link above can attest (insofar as one can trust Wikipedia), this Holy Day got its start right here in Virginia.

So as soon as I post this, guess what I'm going to do. Go ahead. Guess. That's right -- have a beer.

This is a good time to segue gently into today's random feature article.

https://theconversation.com/how-steak-became-manly-and-salads-became-feminine-12...

How steak became manly and salads became feminine

When was it decided that women prefer some types of food – yogurt with fruit, salads and white wine – while men are supposed to gravitate to chili, steak and bacon?

And beer. Somehow, wine became a chick thing while beer became a dude thing. Fortunately, there's not much social pressure to conform to these idiotic genotypes (a word that means something else but I've claimed for this definition now), not like there is with the difference between soft, fruity mixed drinks for chicks and hard bourbon for dudes. I say fortunately, because while I talk about beer a lot in here, and I do love me some craft beer, I'm also an inveterate wine snob. And a gin snob. And a tequila snob. And a rum snob. And a whiskey snob... you get the picture (vodka I don't give a shit about, though I'll drink it).

In my travels to various breweries, wineries, cideries, and distilleries, I have noticed some gender segregation, but not as much as pop culture would have you think. In truth, all booze is gender-neutral.

But back to the food thing.

In my new book, “American Cuisine: And How It Got This Way,” I show how the idea that women don’t want red meat and prefer salads and sweets didn’t just spring up spontaneously.

Yeah, this writer is shilling a book. Again, this is a site for writers, and I don't begrudge anyone the opportunity to promote their book, especially if, in the process, I get to read a somewhat interesting article and share it.

It was during this period that the notion that some foods were more appropriate for women started to emerge. Magazines and newspaper advice columns identified fish and white meat with minimal sauce, as well as new products like packaged cottage cheese, as “female foods.” And of course, there were desserts and sweets, which women, supposedly, couldn’t resist.

As with everything else, it seems, marketing rules the day.

The 20th century saw a proliferation of cookbooks telling women to give up their favorite foods and instead focus on pleasing their boyfriends or husbands. The central thread running through these titles was that if women failed to satisfy their husbands’ appetites, their men would stray.

Look, ladies, your man's going to stray anyway. He can't resist it, any more than you can resist "desserts and sweets." ... well, at least that's what marketing has pounded into us.

Even in the 21st century, echoes of cookbooks like “The Way to a Man’s Heart” resound – a sign that it will take a lot more work to get rid of the fiction that some foods are for men, while others are for women.

As with most gender stereotypes, the only way to resist it is to reject the pounding of marketing, and be immune to social shaming. I eat salad when I want to. Never appreciated cottage cheese too much, but I do like yogurt, another food generally marketed to broads. And I happily drink wine, be it white, red, or rose. While there are probably some differences in nutritional needs between the sexes, in a very general sense, I have my doubts that they're as sharply divided as marketing makes them out to be.

And now it's Beer Day.