Food and Popular Culture

Quickwrite #11

• Each of the essays we read for today talks about a trend related to American ideas about food. (“An Expert’s Theory of Food Television’s Appeal” discusses the current popularity of Food TV, and “Heat, Tray, Love” discusses the significance of TV dinners in the author’s childhood.)

1. Do you watch “food television”? If so, what are your reasons for watching? Do you agree with the author’s theory in “An Expert’s Theory of Food Television’s Appeal” on p. 110-111 about why we watch food TV?

2. OR, do you eat “instant meals”? Can you relate to the author’s experiences/memories in “Heat, Tray, Love” on p. 114-115? Did your family eat them when you were growing up? Why or why not?

Discussion of Readings

• What were some of the theories about the popularity of Food TV that the author of “An Expert’s Theory of Food Television’s Appeal” (p. 110) put forward? Does any one of these theories make more sense to you than the others? • What was the author’s attitude toward TV dinners

in “Heat, Tray, Love” (p. 114)? What ideas about “instant food” is this author responding to?

Questions for Discussion

• What are some images of food that you see in popular culture? • What are some images of cooking that you see in

popular culture? • What are the various messages that these images

of food send? (In other words, what do these images of food/cooking encourage us to think about food?)

“Freedom from Want” by Norman RockwellThis painting was published in the magazine The Saturday Evening Post on March 6, 1943.

What do you notice about this image? About the food? About the people?

What assumptions is this painting making about American families? What values does it represent?

How might a Thanksgiving today be similar? Different?

Fig. 1: In Norman Rockwell’s painting “Freedom From Want,” a middle class American family typical of the 1940s enjoys a meal together. Image from the Norman Rockwell Museum website.

Discussion of Painting

• Do you think that people who haven’t had experience like these (with family traditions related to food) are missing something? Is there something that can be done to reverse this trend that has led to a generation of people who, for the most part, do not cook? Should there be? What do you think the authors of the essays we read for this class would say to that question?

More Images of Food/Eating in Pop Culture• The next three slides contain three different

advertisements. For each ad, ask yourself what the message of the ad is. What does the ad want you (the audience) to think about food/eating? What are the assumptions and attitudes about food that are present in each ad?

Using sources

• How will (or do) you introduce the source? How can you tie it in to what you have been talking about in the paragraph? What does your audience need to know about the source before you use it? (Information about the study, how recent the research is, etc) • What quote from the source will you use? Do you use

enough of the source to give your audience a thorough understanding of the source’s ideas? Do you use TOO MUCH of the quote? • How will you respond to the source? Remember, this is the

most important part. You can agree, give another example, disagree, compare the source’s idea to another source…