THE PROPER BINGE

‘JULIA’ IS A CELEBRATION OF SOMETHING THAT HAS ALL TOO OFTEN BEEN HELD IN CHECK; FEMALE HUNGER – FOR FOOD, SEX, LOVE, POWER, FAME AND SUCCESS

- SOLEIL NATHWANI

At a certain point every woman has a tussle with food. We come out of the womb gasping for air and wailing for milk and, if we’re lucky, as babies we’re fed on demand. In pre-school, parents (those who are fortunate enough not to be food poor, or food insecure) fuss over ensuring we’re getting sufficient greens and proteins for growing bodies and minds. In these early years, messaging is geared towards making sure children are meeting their height and weight goals. While this has changed to account for childhood-obesity epidemics – largely a result of nutrient-poor, calorie-dense processed foods, the marketing of which afflicts the poorest communities, generally – children are generally told to eat well and eat enough. At some point this messaging takes a dramatic turn, particularly for girls. From girlhood into adolescence and certainly by womanhood, the media has us aspiring to thinness. A subliminal spell is cast that says: don’t eat too much, when hunger strikes eat daintily, prettily, never messily, and above all, never be ravenous. This curbing of hunger that begins with food, then pervades other spheres, domestic and professional. Ambition, success, power and even sex when not proscribed for us, are prescribed to us in moderation.

This taming of appetites was on my mind when I came upon HBO’s recently released show Julia, a lightly fictionalized re-imagining of the life of American television chef and cookbook author Julia Child, who, at a very minimum, gets credit for bringing French cuisine to the American, and possibly global, mainstream, with her debut cookbook