Does Gender-Specific Packaging Affect How Food Tastes? This Study Says Yes
We know that gender stereotypes plague our everyday lives and can influence our smallest decisions — even what we eat.
A new study looks into how health-geared foods often feature "feminine" packaging while snack and junk foods are packaged with "masculine" markers. Lead researcher Luke Zhu tells Time that gender-targeted packaging has a lot to do with how our culture has taught us to make food choices: the idea that gals eat salads while guys eat cheeseburgers and that sort of thing. "There's a cultural stereotype that women tend to eat more healthfully than men," Zhu says.
The study, cleverly titled "Macho Nachos," goes so far as to suggest that the way food packaging is gendered could even affect the way something tastes. Three versions of Entenmann's mini blueberry muffins — feminine, masculine and gender neutral — were presented to 93 adults in a test group. The feminine packaging featured the word "healthy" and a picture of a ballerina, while the masculine version showed men playing football and the word "mega." The neutral muffin featured no gendered markers. According to Time, the test group found the blueberry muffin in both masculine and neutral packaging to lack in flavor, even though the three muffins were identical.
At the end of the day, it shouldn't matter how a food is gendered. For that matter, food really shouldn't be gendered at all, but that's a whole other issue. After all, ballerinas and football players alike can enjoy a miniature blueberry muffin. Men and women can both enjoy nachos, even if "nacho man" does have a certain ring to it.