Foodwork or Foodplay? Men’s Domestic Cooking, Privilege and Leisure

Abstract

Market research documents a rising passion for cooking among men. Yet, some feminists argue that men see cooking as ‘leisure’ in part because they have distance from day-to-day care obligations. However, empirical research on men’s home cooking is still limited. This article investigates the relationship between cooking and leisure among 30 Canadian men with significant household cooking responsibilities. Drawing on interview, observational and diary data, and poststructural conceptualizations of leisure, I ask, to what extent do these men understand cooking as leisure and why? Opposing the notion that women’s cooking is ‘work’ and men’s, ‘leisure’, I find that these men experience cooking as ‘work-leisure’ complicated by worries about others’ preferences, health and approval. However, I also argue that participants create leisurely cooking by manipulating cooking spaces and time(s), and it is in the ease with which they do so that gender (as well as class and race) hierarchies become more visible.

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