Feminine Women Can Cook: Difference between revisions

[[File:lucia_cookinglucia cooking.jpg|link=Venus Versus Virus|frame|[[Just for Pun|Eye on the prize]]!]]

'''Cyborg''': ''Even though the girl has no clue how to cook... Oops, [[Did I Say That Out Loud]]? Yum!''|''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]''}}

The use of cooking as a symbol of femininity goes back to Biblical times, but whether this trope affects any given instance depends on the time frame, the specific location, the family's class, and even the age of the woman. In [[Fairy Tales]], ability to cook proved that you were a suitable bride for a prince -- trumpingprince—trumping even the trivial fact that you were, say, a frog. In 18th and 19th century England, for instance, cooking was a symbol of femininity only for women of the yeoman class (moderately prosperous countrymen), and even then women were only supposed to perform certain delicate duties that couldn't be trusted to servants - distilling herbs and preserving fruit, for instance. Poor women, on the other hand, were not considered to ''have'' femininity and were expected to cook for their families whether they wanted to or not, and upper-class women were warned to never set foot in their own kitchens lest the filth, heat, and stink of the room render them 'coarse'. Americans living in the same time frame usually lived in newer homes, so the idea of the kitchen being a place of filth suitable only for drunken cooks and coarse maids never existed. Even the wealthiest women who employed servants or slaves to do the cooking were expected to learn how to cook so they could run their homes more efficiently.

'''3: [[Tomboy|Tomboys]]s'''

In modern sitcoms it's part of a [[Positive Discrimination|bigger discrediting]] of the more sexist characteristics of the 50's Sitcom Wife. The stereotypical '90s Sitcom wife is blunt, closer-to-Earth, [[Maternally Challenged]], and Can't Cook, a complete subversion of the stereotypical '50s Sitcom Wife, who is endearing, motherly, always in the kitchen, and essentially seems to only be there to complement her equally stereotypical Sitcom Dad husband. The subversion works in some places but has eventually [[You Say Girl Like a Bad Thing|become a stereotype in itself]].

Cooking as a symbol of femininity is not limited to simple absence. Often a woman who can't cook will go to great effort to improve her cooking skill. This symbolizes her search for femininity and can be a very common [[Very Special Episode]] for [[Tomboy]] heroines. (For comedy gold use a [[Lethal Chef]] and then [[Hilarity Ensues]] -- sometimes—sometimes this even becomes a [[Running Gag]]). If she succeeds it's major [[Character Development]]. (Particularly likely if she wants to invoke [[Through His Stomach]] and can't.)

Failure can sometimes lead to over the top [[Wangst|Wangsting]]ing, which might be [[Lampshade|Lampshaded]]d by a male friend pointing out that it's only cooking. This is will sometimes be followed by the woman lampshading ''this trope'' and explaining that being unable to cook symbolically makes her less of a woman.

== Anime and Manga ==

* Inverted in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]''. Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate, who are independent, [[Person of Mass Destruction|highly destructive]] [[Action Girl|Action Girls]]s [[Good -Looking Privates|with glowing military careers]], are all revealed [[All There in the Manual|in supplementary material]] to be good cooks in their own right. The [[Lethal Chef]] of the series? Why, it's the [[Team Mom]] [[White Magician Girl]], Shamal, of course!

** Justified since Nanoha's parents own a bakery and she's been helping around household chores from season 1, while Hayate used to be a [[Social Services Does Not Exist|crippled girl living on her own]], and the first episodes of A's shows her cooking, ''while in wheelchairsa wheelchair''. Fate, meanwhile, is revealed in [[Comic Book Adaptation|one of the manga chapters]] to have been taught how to cook by Linith, Precia's [[Catgirl]] familiar who raised her before the events of ''Nanoha''.

** Shamal often helps Hayate with the cooking, and in the first ''A's'' Sound Stage, Hayate notes that she's getting better at it.

** On the other hand, after the last timeSkip[[Time Skip]] Orihime has a part-time job in a bakery and so far hasn't been kicked out of it.

* In ''[[Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer]]'', the anime in particular, cute lead character Misaki is an excellent cook and is told that she'll make a good bride someday. Her tomboyish and violent best friend, Kizaki Tamayo, begins to get jealous of her ability when it looks like Misaki will win the boy they both like, Koutarou: he loves Misaki's food, but Tamayo can't even crack an egg right. In an odd twist, this is expanded upon ''much'' more in the version in which Tamayo [[Victorious Childhood Friend|*''does*'' win]], and barely glossed over in the one where she [[Unlucky Childhood Friend|loses]].

* Possibly parodied a bit in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', where the girly girl Nia becomes a sort-of [[TheAlways MinnesotaSomeone FatsBetter]] fortor the local [[Cool Big Sis]] Yoko since she's good at almost everything... until the [[Beach Episode]] shows that Nia is a ''horrid'' cook.

* In ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', tomboy Makoto (AKAa.k.a. Sailor Jupiter) is the easily the best cook of the group. A Mangamanga sidestoryside-story that focuses on her shows she cooks and does house work when stressed or depressed, even if it stops more important things like studying for entrance exams. Because of suggestions it ultimately relates to her femininity complex, this aspect is [[Values Dissonance|reinterpreted in some adaptations]] as having a professional interest in running restaurant.

** It's pretty obvious she did that one on purpose to mess with people - under that demure exterior is enough frustration and passive-aggressive malice to power a small town, due tto her horrifying past and her current role as the Rose Bride that forces her into a passive [[Damsel in Distress]] role. Normally she fulfilsfulfills this trope to a tee, being essentially in charge of cooking and cleaning in Utena's dorm and, despite of only two people living there, repeatedly produces veritable feasts for dinner. She does have a strange obsession of considering shaved ice real food, though, and it's implied that she generally concentrates on snacks in her cooking. With the show being what it is, [[What Do You Mean Its NotFaux SymbolicSymbolism|it's probably symbolic of something.]]

*** Actually, shaved ice with fruit and sweet toppings (akaa.k.a. ''kakigori'') ''is'' considered a very well-loved summer snack in Japan and other Asian countries like Korea (''patbingsu''), China (''baobing''), Taiwan (''tsuabing''), Philippines (''halo halo''), etc.

* Aversion: In ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]'', when Chiyo-chan goes out shopping and reveals that not only does she cook for her family, but she cooks [[Supreme Chef|very well]], it's to reinforce the fact that she's pretty much perfect, instead of her femininity (even if Nyamo asks her to marry her just for this.)

** A weirder aversion in ''[[Young Justice (comics)|Young Justice]]'', in which Artemis, Diana's counterpart from the more savage Amazons, reveals she can cook during Wonder Girl's [[Training Fromfrom Hell]]. There's nothing feminine about it though...

* Eowyn in Peter Jackson's ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|Lord of the Rings]]'' is shown to be a horrible cook by Aragorn's wordless expression when she attempts to make stew for him (matching at least two trope variants, since Eowyn is not at all happy in a medieval woman's role ''and'' she has an unrequited crush on Aragorn). It probably helps that she's highborn, so she probably has servants for cooking, and she's traveling with minimal equipment.

* Parodied in the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld/Jingo|Jingo]]'', where confused crossdresser Nobby Nobbs believes he's expected to do the cooking because he's a woman. To make it even sillier, there is an actual woman present, but Sergeant Angua "doesn't do cookery" (She's an Independent Career Woman. She's also a vegetarian werewolf, who prefers to avoid the smell of meat in human form.)

* [[Little Women|Louisa May Alcott]] was very fond of this trope. The scenes putting Jo March through the 'feminine redemption for the tomboy' version in ''LW[[Little Women]]'' were repeated in several other of Alcott's novels and short stories, as her heroines contemplate taking up a profession and are firmly told that the most honourable profession for any woman is to [[Stay in the Kitchen|make a happy, comfortable home for her family.]] There is however a semi-subversion in ''Eight Cousins'' -- while—while this is specifically tied to the small heroine learning to bake the perfect loaf of bread, it's presented as only one aspect of an education that also involves learning to sail, ride and generally become 'strong-minded', right alongside her seven boy cousins.

* In ''[[On the Town]]'', Hildy claims she can cook, but the bill of fare she presents to Chip consists of [[Double Entendre|Double Entendres]]s served up in a [[List Song]]. She does, with great effort, manage to prepare one specialty: a peeled banana.

* And again its sequel ''[[Aoi Shiro]]''. The [[Tomboy]] protagonist Syouko --theSyouko—the captain of the kendo team and the object of admiration of her underclassgirls-- canunderclassgirls—can cook as well as the very feminine Yasumi, who has serious crush on her. Kind of making [[Through His Stomach|through-her-stomach]] strategy unviable.

== = Visual Novels ===

* Tedd in ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' can cook -- butcook—but only when [[Gender Bender|he's a woman]]. His explanation is initially "because I'm hot" (and the comment on this background is "She's so hot, it helps her cook!"). [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2006-07-28 Later] he reasons that he only has to cook for himself when his dad isn't around, which is also when he turns himself into a girl, so he has accidently conditioned himself to feel more confident cooking in female form.

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