After several postings on this blog combining a (US) Memorial Day theme with a phallic hot dog theme, Pinterest recently moved the calendar forward from Memorial Day to (US) Fathers Day (June 18th this year), while preserving the focus on hot dogs, as a characteristically masculine food. Fathers Day and Mothers Day are not just (absurdly commercialized) celebrations of male and female parents, respectively, they are also massively gendered holidays (with a hefty infusion of class (middle) and sexuality (hetero) in the gender mix).
I’ll have more to say on the gendering of Fathers Day; here it’s just the hot dog thing, and more generally the gendered food thing.
My text is from the Pink Pistachio site by Missy, on Father’s Day dinner: “Let’s Be Frank”:
It’s the one day of the year we can show our guys how much they mean to us. And for mine, that means hot dogs. I’ve tried thoughtful sentiments and special gifts; but his favorite is food. More specifically focusing on one of the “Triple D’s”: dogs, donuts, or da’ fries. HA!
So that’s what he got… a smorgasbord of dogs.
His favorites in order: #1 Breakfast #2 Mango #3 Guac #4 Greek #5 Chicago #6 Mac Attack
If you’re scratching your head, yes we celebrated early because we’ll be traveling. And no, he didn’t eat all of those in one sitting. I love him enough to restrain him from himself.
Happy Father’s Day to all the special guys in our lives.
The illustration, with the dogs peeping out from their under their toppings:
(#1)
(The font variation in the labels is a nice touch.)
Details:
(#2)
Hot dogs and hamburgers are Man food, because they’re grilled, and grilling is Man cooking. Women sauté, make soups, and create fancy desserts.
Men drink beer, and hard liquor straight. Women drink wine, and foofy cocktails.
Men like hearty food with strong tastes (Mexican, Greek, spicy)… and on and on.
And men like hot dogs because they’re phallic. Men (are supposed to) like prairie oysters, too. That’s magical thinking, of course.
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