Ressignificação, consumos e silêncios da cozinha doméstica

Abstract

The avalanche of commercials and television programs promoting an aesthetically superior kitchen, filled with products that facilitate the cooking process has helped to reframe the traditional kitchen. In this paper, our goal is to analyze the material and symbolic resignification that the home kitchen is undergoing. In order to achieve this goal, a study based on the inductive method of a qualitative approach with semi structured interviews with employers, housekeepers, housewives and maids was carried out. The data collected were treated through discourse analysis, suitable for the exploration of utterances from different social groups. The main results suggest that, beyond consumption, for women the home kitchen remains as a compulsory space of work, whereas for men, it is an occasional space in which they promote “gastronomic spectacles”. The results of the study contribute to the problematization of the fact that the attributes of this new kitchen are based on a false antagonism between tradition, simplicity and feminine on the one hand, and innovation, sophistication and masculine, on the other hand, in a space that attracts men by distancing them from the routine and the compulsory nature of cooking, keeping for them – and just for them – the patriarchal heritage of being able to choose whether, how, when, where and for whom to cook.