Over at The Bitter Southerner blog, Kathleen Purvis (food editor at the Charlotte Observer) sheds some light on what she calls “The Testosterone Takeover of Southern Food Writing.” It has provoked a lot of discussion in food writing circles; I found it to be very interesting.
I’d like to preface my thoughts by noting that there’s also been a testosterone takeover of Southern cooking. The “elevated Southern” trend that is both much loved and much maligned starts with the food prepared historically by women. The boys who adored their mothers and grandmothers grew up to be mustachioed and be-flanneled professional chefs preparing the food of their foremothers in their own restaurants. Most girls just grew up to prepare that food for their families. I am, of course, generalizing. Some women (notably, Andre Prince Jeffries of Prince’s Hot Chicken) stepped out of their home kitchens to prepare foods for eager customers. Me? I've never fried a chicken in my whole life, despite my mother's best efforts to interest me in it (that is, before it was too late).
So I suppose it only stands to reason that as Southern food preparation was taken over by men, so, too was Southern food writing. Purvis certainly knows it better than I, but I have definitely observed much of what talks about (though, while speaking at the Southern Foodways Alliance's Food Media South this past weekend, she acknowledged that the SFA is working on the issue). Still, there is a whole lot of bro’-in’ goin’ on. Eventually, however, publishers are going to realize that women’s voices need to be heard and not just about pie versus cake (as if a good Southerner would ever force a person to choose). There are only so many think pieces, soliloquies, panels and books one can bear on the testosterone-fueled trifecta of “bourbon, barbecue and pork belly.”
Purvis’ piece is worth reading regardless of your gender. She’s entertaining and even drops the “c bomb”: carpetbagger.
