Real Men Don't Eat Quiche: Queer Food and Gendered Nationalism in the Late Twentieth-Century USA

Abstract

More than simply an international bestseller, Bruce Feirstein's satirical guidebook to masculinity, Real Men Don't Eat Quiche (1982), became a ubiquitous catchphrase of the 1980s. The title's success drew on a long tradition of gendered food nationalism in Anglo-American culture that associated French cuisine with effete masculinity. During the 1970s, quiche in particular was seen as a quintessentially queer dish, served at brunch spots frequented by gay men. Through analysis of Feirstein's text, as well as the writings of James Beard, Craig Claiborne and others food journalists, this article examines how sexuality, gender, food and nationalism intersected in the late twentieth-century Anglosphere.