chopped

Sometimes I catch on to assumptions about gender roles when I'm watching TV, partly because it's fun and partly because I feel that I'm overcoming some undercurrents of prejudice in the media. Anyway, today on Chopped, the woman competitor was discouraged when she saw that all of the judges were men because she felt that her food lent itself to a more female palate, that her food was more clean and put together and felt that a woman would relate to her food more. What?! The woman who was competing was an organic food lover, and prided herself on elevating the natural element of the food, not changing the food into something it's not. Don't even get me started on how ridiculous that is.

At first I thought that she was disappointed that there were no female judges because she was a female, and she wanted to see more female representation in the cooking world. What she said though, was utterly ridiculous. What does having a "female palate" mean? Is her assumption that her "organic" style of cooking is more "feminine?" She takes gender roles to a level where females and males differ because of of their sex, on the kind of foods they like. Females like natural, organic, simple foods. Males like heavy, flavorful, zesty foods. I have never heard that. Luckily, she was eliminated in the first round. Must be because they're all male judges.