June 14, 2012
Why Do Men Grill?
Image courtesy of Flickr user Another Pint Please...
Food-wise, what will you be doing to fete your father this weekend? This time of year, you start seeing ads promoting grills and all the fun toys that go with them—tongs, brushes, mops, novelty aprons—and an internet search for Father’s Day fare will bring up lots of ideas for how to pull together a meal over an open flame, with the paterfamilias gladly taking the food prep reins. But why do we have this idea that grilling is a guy’s thing?
Globally, it seems that this gendered division of cookery is an American phenomenon. Across cultures, women generally do most of the cooking, period. In some parts of the world—such as Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Serbia and Mexico—you will see female street vendors selling grilled food. The cost of starting up a barbecue business is nominal: charcoal, a grate and you’re good to go.
Is it a matter of territory? At the first barbecue I attended this season, the guys were quick to declare the patio a “men only” area, which elicited a fair bit of eye rolling from the wives and girlfriends in the bunch. In my family, women generally have rein over indoor cooking spaces, but when it comes to outdoor cooking, it’s the guys’ turf. (And when men try to help out on indoor cooking projects, arguments over their technique will likely ensue.)
Meghan Casserly offered her observations in a 2010 Forbes article. There’s the element of danger—fire! sharp tools!—and the promise of hanging out with other guys. But she also finds that the tendency for men to grill is a construct of the mid-20th century and the rise of suburban living. In the United States, family dynamics and attitudes toward parenting were changing and there was an increasing expectation for fathers to spend their free time with their families instead of with their buddies at the local bar. Why not hang out in the back yard? Weber sweetened the prospect of outdoor cookery in the early 1950s when the company introduced the first backyard grill—basically, a streamlined and easy-to-clean fire pit.
In the book Catching Fire: How Cooking Makes Us Human, Richard Wrangham points out that in hunter/gatherer societies, the sexes each seek out different types of food: women forage and handle dishes that require the most preparation, while men go out to find foods that are more difficult to come by—namely, meat. Furthermore, they tend to cook on ceremonial occasions or when there are no women around. “The rule,” Wrangham writes, “that domestic cooking is women’s work is astonishingly consistent.” His observations don’t directly link men to the grill, but it makes one wonder if guys are just somehow primed to cook that way.
Sign up for our free email newsletter and receive the best stories from Smithsonian.com each week.
How does the matter of commercial kitchens being primarily run by men factor into all this?
There is never a lack of “boys club” mentality in any of the kitchens I’ve found myself working in; and for better or worse, the pastry department is usually run by women.
I have long sensed that it has more to do with ego and attention seeking in a group gathering.
Comment on you statement:
‘Globally, it seems that this gendered division of cookery is an American phenomenon’
Absolutes self indulgent hogwash. Based on whatI ill informed self centered, blinckered research is this based. I am afraid if I one criticism of the Americans it is that you seem to genuinely believe that the world revolves around you and the things you think and do are done by you and you only.
You seem the think the world stops at your shores and anything beyond does not count and is not relevant. So self centered that it is most annoying.
Whoever researched this article and came up with this statement should be sent back to whatever kindergarten they studied at.
Look at any BBQ or Braai in Australia or South Africa respectively, and you will see exactly the same phenomenon occur. Please get you heads out of you arses and don’t think you are the only nation on the planet, it is most annoying and this is typical of what annoys the world about America and the Americans.
Men grill because women prepare the veggies to go with the MEAT, make the dessert, keep the kids from getting burned, set the table, clean up afterwards and, congratulate the male on preparing a womderful meal.
In a total of 12 weeks visiting Australia I saw not a single woman at the Barby. Was this experience anomalous?
In this day and age of blending gender rolls, the only prerequisite I have for the food I eat is that it is (1) nutritious, (2) fresh, and (3) Tasty. The sex of the person that prepares this food is of no concern to me.
Please amend your article to read “North American phenomenon.” Canadian men are also outdoor chefs. It is every bit as pervasive an activity here as it is in the U.S.
Could men be in charge of “cookery” because ingredients are mostly added by instinct, or ‘by guess and by gorry’? Whereas in baking, more attention to measured precision is often needed.
OG brings home the meat. He and TROG cook it over the fire.
Wives Miriam and Esther enjoy (?!!) the meat. Any thing beyond meat is the women’s responsibility.
My great-great-great………………… fathers did it this way and I am merely following suit. Just be glad we are no longer doing Goat meat, or at least most of us are not.
Discussion ended.
This article is exactly why Americans are considered ignorant. It is because they are ignorant! I am from the US, currently live in the US, but fortunately have not always done so. Perhaps the author – and editors!- should travel not only to Australia and South Africa, but should travel to Argentina, Colombia, and any other South or Central American Nation and look around when they see a fire or charcoal barbeque. They can then ask, “Where are the women?” They will be watching after fixing the rest of the food – or not, as the men may well have helped with that, also. This country needs to get over itself and quickly before the ignorance grows even further and our wars keep us poor.
We lived in Sicily and the men there take their grilling very seriously! Like America the women do the indoor cooking.
This is sadly misinformed and amateur armchair anthropology at its worst. As others have noted above many other cultures have male-oriented grilling cultures. This is simply lazy. Pick a thesis, support it with some anecdotes, sprinkle in a few unfounded generalizations, compare apples to oranges (experience at an American backyard BBQ vs. street vendors in Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Serbia and Mexico), and your thesis is confirmed. The author also tries draw a connection between the low start-up costs associated with grilling and female street vendors. It certainly could be true and would be an interesting finding, but without a shred of supporting evidence it is pure conjecture masquerading as fact.
Hey Andy and Arnold
Chill out man and enjoy father’s day. Take the article for what it is- a light hearted look at a “GUY THING”. Sorry it ruffled your feathers!
Red meat sizzling on a hot grill, beverage of choice in hand- that’s livin’! Anywhere in the world.
Here in Texas we grill year round. I do admit my husband will almost always grill the main course but I have taken on the grill before and made a meal or two on my own. I think the main thing is that we both enjoy a little reversal of roles where he is now the one cooking, teaching and spending time with the kids and I get to kick back and relax inside. TV Watching optional…
Obviously the article refers only to a backyard barbecue where homo americanis prepares overdone hot dogs and corklike hamburgers. However, when talking about grilling meat as in ribs, steaks, entrails, kidneys, etc. for more than two people then the reason why men tend to be the grillers is apparent. At least for anybody who has done it. It is hard physical work when grilling with wood or coal: it requires to keep a separate fire to feed embers to the grill, raising or lowering the loaded grill, is hot and takes a long time while making sure that flames don’t ruin the meal. This is why men do it; women prepare other dishes, set tables and in general make sure that everything else is under control. A sensible sharing of tasks.
Men love grilling because it’s outside. The major benefit is being able to smoke a cigar while you grill. Of course, a good Scotch or other suitable drink can be had also. Can anyone imagine what the women would say if we tried to smoke a cigar in the kitchen while we cooked?
I understand that this was meant to be a “light-hearted, feel good article,” however, it borders on pure ignorance. Saying that men cooking on outdoor grills is an “American phenomenon” is apparently severely under-researched. Did you throw this together in like an hour? Shoddy “journalism” such as this only fuels the global perception that all Americans think that they are soooo smart and that they are special, and that no one but us does anything of much intelligence or importance. I expected better from this magazine, but apparently you’re right on track with the false information and propaganda campaign to try to make Americans believe that they are what make the world go ’round. Shame on you.
This article should be taken as opinion rather than fact. Anyone who spends more than four sentences arguing against it will waste their time on a lost cause of gender role bigotism.
Most street vendors of Mexican origin (be it in America or in Mexico) who sell meat, especially in tacos, are men. This is because they do not have to prepare the tortillas, they buy them. Women street vendors tend to sell more time and skill intensive goods such as candied fruits, yams, tamales, hot drinks, and gorditas (a pita-like pocket made of corn and filled with meat).
Yeah, old traditions. We only follow it coincidentally. Women get the kitchen (because men can’t figure where to put anything back), men get the grill (because it’s either too hot, too cold, or raining outside), women do the garden, men do the lawn, women fill the garbage cans, men empty the garbage, women put food on the plates, men do the dishes that won’t fit in the washer.