Diners, Dudes & Diets: How Gender & Power Collide in Food Media & Culture (November 2020)
“sharp-as-hell…fascinating, mordant, enraging, illuminating” —Helen Rosner
“engaging…a significant contribution” —Kathleen LeBesco
“a master storyteller…the perfect teaching text” —Warren Belasco
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The phrase “dude food” likely brings to mind a range of images: burgers stacked impossibly high with an assortment of toppings that were themselves once considered a meal; crazed sports fans demolishing plates of radioactively hot wings; barbecued or bacon-wrapped . . . anything. But there is much more to the phenomenon of dude food than what’s on the plate. Emily J. H. Contois’s provocative book begins with the dude himself—a man who retains a degree of masculine privilege but doesn’t meet traditional standards of economic and social success or manly self-control. In the Great Recession’s aftermath, dude masculinity collided with food producers and marketers desperate to find new customers. The result was a wave of new diet sodas and yogurts marketed with dude-friendly stereotypes, a transformation of food media, and weight loss programs just for guys.
In a work brimming with fresh insights about contemporary American food media and culture, Contois shows how the gendered world of food production and consumption has influenced the way we eat and how food itself is central to the contest over our identities. Understanding that process just might help all of us to find more joy and justice in our media lives.
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Diners, Dudes & Diets | Table of Contents
- Preface // These Are the Stakes {read free preview}
- Introduction // Gender, Consumption, and the Great Recession Era of Corporate Food Marketing {read free preview}
- Chapter One // Crafting Dude Food Media: From Advertising to Men’s Cookbooks
- Chapter Two // Creating a Dude Chef: Food Network’s Guy Fieri
- Chapter Three // Producing Food for Dudes: The Masculinization of Diet Soda and Yogurt
- Chapter Four // Marketing Diets to Dudes: Health, Bodies, and Selves on Weight Watchers
- Conclusion // Dude, What Happened?
New & Noteworthy Media
- The Mandate Letter, Jason Rogers, “Q&A: Food for Dudes,” August 11.
- Currant, Sarah Cooke, “Learning to Unlearn with Dr. Emily Contois,” May 6, 2021
- BitchMedia, Andréa Becker, “‘Diners, Dudes & Diets’ Reveals the Absurdity of Gendered Foods,” April 20, 2021
- BU Today, Dana Ferrante, “Diet Yogurt and Guy Fieri: How Food Media Constructed ‘Dude’ Masculinity,” February 18, 2021
- Vox, Rachel Sugar, “The Politics of ‘Dude Food,'” January 6, 2021
- InsideHook, Connor Goodwin, “What, Exactly, Is ‘Dude Food” and Where Did It Come From?” December 1, 2020
- NBC News, “2020’s Covid Thanksgiving Is the Perfect Time to Relax the Holiday Gender Binary,” November 26, 2020
- Culture Study, Anne Helen Petersen, “Food Work,” November 25, 2020
- Dianne Jacob, Will Write for Food, “Diners, Dudes & Diets: How Food & Gender Collide in Media & Popular Culture,” November 24, 2020
- Nursing Clio, Julia Ehrhardt, “Food Media, Gender, and Power: An Interview with Emily Contois,” November 18, 2020
- Nursing Clio, “Diners, Dudes, and Diets,” November 17, 2020
- Salon, Ashlie D. Stevens, “From Guy Fieri to Yogurt Cups with Abs, How ‘Dude Food’ Is Presented and Affects What We Eat,” November 16, 2020
Listen In: Radio & Podcast Interviews
- The Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio, “Gender And Power Dynamics In Food Media And Culture,” August 2, 2021
- Amuse-Bouche with Kae Lani Palmisano, “Emily Contois: Food and Gender,” June 15, 2021
- Good Food with Evan Kleiman, “Dude, Where’s My Carb,” May 14, 2021
- Nostalgia Trap, “Eat Like a Dude,” April 26, 2021
- Spot on! with Dr. Joan Salge Blake, “Crafty Food Marketing to Dudes,” February 25, 2021
- Extra Spicy with Soleil Ho and Justin Phillips, San Francisco Chronicle, “Brogurt & Burgers: Dude Food, Explained,” February 8, 2021
- Can I have a Word? with Bob LeDrew, CKCU FM 93.1, “Food and Masculinity with Dr. Emily Contois,” February 4, 2021
- Gastropod, “TV Dinners,” February 2, 2021
- Food Psych podcast with Christy Harrison, “Gender Dynamics in Food Media and Marketing with Emily Contois,” episode #269, February 1, 2021
- New Books Network Podcast, “Emily J. H. Contois, “Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture” (UNC Press, 2020),” November 19, 2020
- Femidish Podcast, “Dude, We’re Talking to Emily Contois,” November 17, 2020
- AnthroDish Podcast, “Dude Food and Diets with Dr. Emily Contois,” episode 83, November 16, 2020
- StudioTulsa, Tulsa Public Radio, “Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture,” November 13, 2020.
- Ms Informed Podcast, “Diets, Dudes, and What’s the Difference Between Diet Coke and Coke Zero?” episode 30, October 25, 2020
More Media
- The Daily Free Press, Madeline Humphrey, “BU Alumna Discusses the Influence of Food Media, Marketing on Perception of Gender,” February 22, 2021.
- L’ADN, Alice Huot, “Dude Diet: What The Food Tells Us About New Masculinities,” January 7, 2021
- On the Menu with Ann & Peter Haigh, “Three Funky New Cookbooks,” December 6, 2020
- Tulsa World, James Watts, “Local Author Contois Explores Food Culture,” November 22, 2020
- Bostonia: Boston University’s Alumni Magazine, “Reading List: Alumni Books That Caught Our Eye,” November 20, 2020
- Honors College, The University of Oklahoma, “Emily Contois Publishes First Book,” November 20, 2020
- Tulsa World, James Watts, “TU Professor Examines ‘Diners, Dudes & Diets,'” November 19, 2020
- The Page 99 Test, “Emily J.H. Contois’ Diners, Dudes, and Diets,” November 15, 2020
- The Brock News, “Virtual Talk to Dig Into ‘Dude Food,'” October 28, 2020
- The University of Tulsa News, “Food, Gender, Media, and the Art of Book Promotion,” October 23, 2020
Featured On
- Helen Rosner, “Great Food-ish Nonfiction 2020,” December 11, 2020
- Civil Eats, “Our 2020 Food and Farming Holiday Book Gift Guide,” November 30, 2020
- Food Tank, 2020 Summer Reading List, July 2020
Reviews & Praise
Wondering how to pronounce my last name?
No worries! It’s pronounced “con-twah,” from my husband’s French Canadian ancestors.
Want More Writing Like Diners, Dudes & Diets?
Here’s a list of the articles, chapters, and short pieces I wrote before this book, and a couple of pieces I’ve written as the book has launched too. These are here if you’d like to see how these ideas evolved over time; want more to read on these topics of media, food, bodies, and gender; or if you’re teaching on these topics and it doesn’t quite work to assign the entire book.
Headshot Photo: KC Hysmith
Emily Contois 