The Community Table: Eating and Gender at Swarthmore College
Date
2016
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Swarthmore College. Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology
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Thesis (B.A.)
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en_US
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Full copyright to this work is retained by the student author. It may only be used for non-commercial, research, and educational purposes. All other uses are restricted.
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Abstract
This thesis explores approaches to and concepts of food held by students of binary
gender identities on a college campus. Based on testimonies from focus groups and in-
depth interviews with students attending Swarthmore College, this study was conducted during the Fall of 2015. The findings show more frequent dieting and concern for health in women, a trend established in existing literature. These results also suggest that men tend to interpret health in terms of nutrition rather than weight, viewing health as a matter of adding nutritious elements as opposed to restricting intake. Further, women were more likely to directly criticize gendered expectations related to body image but often did not relate these norms to their own experience of eating. Food was identified as a source of social connection and readily linked to culture and community. The analysis presented here provides a preliminary foundation for assessing gendered eating both on college campuses and in the United States more generally.