La femme et son corps dans la société gourmande en France au xix^e siècle

One of the characteristics of the French gastronomic society of the bourgeois period is a thorough sexualization of the act of eating, especially as it relates to the female eater. The obvious control of gastronomic behaviour appears as an easily recognizable sign for controlling sexual appetite. Women are now obliged to suppress any spontaneous desires if they want to be considered as respectable and decent. In contrast to this, the male eater is permitted a relaxed way of dealing with the gastronomic things of life as an expression of a lively sexual life style. This proves the new bourgeois gastronomic society to be androcentric at least, misogynist even. For the male gourmet the preservation of a privileged position is at stake. The metaphorical discourse – which sees women as a “light meal” to be consumed and the artifices of love as a culinary “refinement” – provides them with a verbal process that in a perfidious way, turns a basic aggressive trait into a civilizing act.