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Cooking and Covid: Diet Culture Is an Unjust System for Everyone
Covid-19 has had to make room in our attention for the demands for a more just society. Not that the pandemic is over, far from it. I, and most people I know, wear masks and calculate risk every day, but my heart is pulled to the uprisings I so hope will bring real change.
As I turn the pages of my (yes, paper) calendar, and see the birthdays that won’t be parties, the summer concerts I won’t be attending, I want to consider food from another perspective, one related to justice.
A few months back, when we were all told to shelter in place, many of us filled grocery carts to the brim, motivated by fears of scarcity, and brought home foods our “good” selves would never buy. Then we ate the food. Then we felt awful. Yet another diet effort down the drain.
It might feel petty or self-centered to talk about diets amid a pandemic, when millions of people have lost their jobs and more. But bear with me.
Unless you have been utterly removed from media, social or otherwise, for the last 90 days, you have likely seen jokes about how much we’re eating and the weight we’re gaining.
I cannot help connect the disdain with which larger people are often held with the racism that our nation may finally be willing to face.