Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Contemporary Food Consumption
In the reading passage entitled "Toward a Psychosociology of Contemporary Food Consumption", Roland Barthes highlights that certain foods are essential to a culture. Barthes begins by emphasizing the importance of sugar usage within the United States and, demonstrates that sugar is valuable and integrated within American culture. Likewise, Barthes also showed that time can also change the eating habits of a population from events that include changes in taste and advertising a certain product or brand. However, Barthes argues that food is not just "a collection of products" but that it is a "system of communication". Barthes presents this system by showing how certain breads are used for different situations and how the preference of taste varies from income levels of social groups. Barthes argues that this system is heavily used by advertisements and that these themes can be categorized into three groups: commemorative, anthropological, and health. Lastly, Barthes states that food is not only used for themes but also for situations. Barthes shows that, in the past, food only symbolized festive occasions but, in our modern world, food has been incorporated into our daily life. Barthes notes that food is include in almost every social event ranging from activities, work, sports, effort, and leisure. Thus, Barthes argues that food will lose its substance but gain function. The festive usage that food was integrated with will no longer be in existence and will be replaced by two major focal points in our society. These focal points include activities and times of rest.
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In "Toward a Psychosociology of Contemporary Food Consumption", Roland Barthes explains the importance of food in our modern world. Barthes argues that food has such an important impact in our life that it is noticed not only by sociologists, but also historians and economists. The first example that Barthes uses is the consumption of sugar in America. Sugar is an essential part of American culture that it is found in beverages, meat, fish, salads and relishes. Likewise, Barthes argues that food is not only just a collection of products but it is also a system of communications. Food is not static and can change dramatically within a given situation. One example that Barthes gives is the changeover from white bread to brown bread, which is considered a sign of refinement. Likewise is the use of pain de mie instead of ordinary bread relays the message of an important social gathering and not a typical, mundane day. Another way that Barthes shows that food is an ever changing system is the way advertising has changed the original meaning of certain foods. The example that Barthes gives is coffee and in this article, Barthes shows how advertising transformed coffee from being a stimulant to being a relaxant. This advertising is effective in that we consider a moment of rest as a coffee break. This falls into the category of health in advertising as described by Barthes. The other two themes that are related to advertising include commemorative and anthropological.
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