MAKING MAN, A RECIPE

CONCEPTUAL STARTING POINT, FROM MIND MAP

Perhaps examining masculinity the domestic sphere? Western notions of masculinity, gender roles, unpaid female labour in the home, “boys will be boys”. Male labour, war, violence.

Recipe, instructions, power, prescriptive, order. Make a recipe from the letters present in the frame, each letter determines an ingredient (i.e. first ingredient found that starts with the letter). Make a cake.

RESEARCH

Cakes are symbolic of unpaid female domestic labour in two ways: first, that baking is regarded as an inherently feminine activity (even though the “best” pastry chefs in the world are male, according to Google) and secondly, there is a gap in expectations regarding the output of emotional labour (women, not men, seem to be more likely to be in charge of remembering birthdays, wrapping presents, planning parties and… baking birthday cakes).

Pastry chefs on Google: mostly male, mostly white. The one (non-white) woman pictured is coincidentally obscured by a button.

Cake baking on Google: first result is now woman, and, more specifically, mother.

I decided to ask some questions regarding cake baking on Facebook, to see who amount my Facebook friends had either baked or eaten a homemade cake. There were several responses, from male and female friends, and several responses indicated that they had eaten cake, but never ‘reciprocated’ by making a cake. (Including one male that admitted he stopped baking cakes once he became involved with his current female partner, since she made cakes).

I was really surprised to find that my partner had never baked a cake, yet had enjoyed many homemade cakes. I decided to conduct a performance where my partner would bake a cake, and that I would bring the outcome to class and offer it to my classmates.

To see the outcome, please go to the Experiment One page, in the Experiments section.