Gender politics of eating a roast chicken!!

Very odd but some traditions are pretty old. As children (and now with our own children) we've always given everyone the breast meat but only the adults who like it the leg meat (as well). I would never give children anything with bones, and they prefer the breast meat anyway.
I’ve never heard of children who don’t dive for the drumsticks!
Of course there is some element of calorific requirements, in a healthy average couple the man needs a little more calories than the woman, and that’s before you go into manual jobs etc.

It was exactly the same in our house growing up as the OP says. I never questioned it because a) what my dad said was absolute and b) he was a manual worker so I assumed that was why. Yet when it came to puddings he was scrupulously fair. I child cut cut the cake, etc in half but the other child got to choose which one half they wanted.

In a situation of oversupply nobody needs to invent rules about men having the fattier meat.

I assume the argument is that the rule was invented when food was scarce.

My elderly relatives had rickets due to the general strike, so food was in short supply.

Given that in many developing countries the women do most of the labour, that doesn’t surprise me.

We are here in the west, though, where oversupply is more of an issue than hunger.

All over the world women and children are undernourished because of unequal food distribution within the family. UNICEF report on it.

If you have to invent something to make a point then you don't actually have a point!

I didn't invent anything. I asked a speculative question. I personally don't believe that this kind of hierarchical attitude in families can truly often be put down to a genuine or necessary assessment of the physiological food requirements of men doing hard manual labour. Do you? At best, I think it's maybe an unthinking tradition left over from times when that physiology argument might have been more widely applicable. At worst it's just blatant sexism.

I'd be interested to hear whether other posters whose families do this had fathers who did heavy manual work. And to hear how it's supposed to apply to meals that aren't roast chicken!

‘Physiological realities Really? Working class, heavy industry, pits mines, factories; male bodies being bigger, more muscle on average needeing more kcals even when resting.

That's the reality of physiology rather than the "all things should be far and equal" thinking that makes no sense in some circumstances.’

Yes. I know, because I’m not an idiot.

My point was that ‘physiological reality’ is a tautology. You can just say physiology. Physiological reality implies there is a physiological fantasy.

If you have to invent something to make a point then you don't actually have a point!

Who'd a thought? Chicken legs and breast could produce such an interesting thread. Thanks @ColdOopNorth

@picklemewalnuts
Shock at the table when american DiL asked for leg meat as it has more flavour.

She’s right!

Sorry OP I have no idea where this came from but these days YABU.

Surely it’s about personal preference and not what gender you are.

I don’t like chicken breast it’s usually drier, I love the darker wetter chicken in a chicken leg so I’d be miffed if I was given the chicken breast because “I’m a Laydee” 😂

It was def historic sexism in our house. My family always took sexism seriously.

@ApolloandDaphne "and the dog gets the skin."

Possibly the most shocking thing I've read yet.

I too was shocked and it triggered a bad memory.

I was visiting my dad for a week, I did a leg of lamb in the slow cooker and did veg and roast potatoes, I did lots of potatoes so that I could freeze meat and potatoes in single portions for my dad.

O got up on the morning, made a coffee, my dad got up, went to make himself tea.

I went into the kitchen to start plating up the left over meat and potatoes and the potatoes had gone. My dad had binned them!

I mean who bins roast potatoes? Proper home made in beef dripping roast potatoes?

I'll tell you who would bin them, the same person who would give the dog chicken skin.

To be honest I am not even sure what physiological reality means. Is there a physiological fantasy?

Did you see, 'back in time for tea'? A family of 2 parents and 2 children, one breakfast consisted of a single rasher of bacon and some bread. The bacon was fried and then pressed into the bread to give it a taste for mum and children, dad got the actual bacon because he was working in a mine.

Men get served first, asked what they want, then children, then the women get what's left
There is no context to this statement.

This doesn't happen in my expierence. I can't recall it from my childhood either. I remember my nan ( dad's mum) being a bit of a feeder and giving my mum huge portions ' because she needs a bit more meat on them thin bones!'

And all the women on this thread (and in real life) who experienced this a) had fathers in heavy manual labour jobs b) shared out the breast meat as you describe c) had families who definitely decided these things based on actual physiology, not unquestioned tradition and outdated sexist stereotypes? Sure.

OK!!

Average chicken portion is 70 - 100 grams

85g skinless, chicken breast provides about 140 calories, 3 grams of total fat and just 1 gram of saturated fat.

85g skinless dark chicken meat has three times the amount of fat, 9 grams of total fat, 3 grams of saturated fat and 170 calories.

Add portion sze to that and the kcals mount up - a leg is about 350g; a breast about 600. One man would probably eat the whole leg, one breast would get shared, probably. My memories of a family Snday lunch are of 2 men eating a leg each, 2 women and 2 kids sharing the breast meat.

Physiological realities Really? Working class, heavy industry, pits mines, factories; male bodies being bigger, more muscle on average needeing more kcals even when resting.

That's the reality of physiology rather than the "all things should be far and equal" thinking that makes no sense in some circumstances.

What if there are three 'men' and one woman at the table?

(and no cat)

Although having said that I've recently switched to using thigh fillets in the slow cooker as they're much tastier than the breast meat.

Very odd but some traditions are pretty old. As children (and now with our own children) we've always given everyone the breast meat but only the adults who like it the leg meat (as well). I would never give children anything with bones, and they prefer the breast meat anyway.

To be honest I am not even sure what physiological reality means. Is there a physiological fantasy?

Physiology is real.

What is the physiological reality of a leg and a breast here? The nutritional difference must be minimal.

Other times it's sensible, based in physiological reality!

That might be a valid argument if there weren't the calories of the rest of the roast dinner to consider (why not have more potatoes, or breast plus wing if you need more), plus the relative amount of meat on a leg vs a breast, which would probably cancel out any extra calorie advantage in leg meat vs breast meat.

I don't remember anyone in my family eating the legs, I wonder where they went. Now me and DP do it 'backwards' I quite enjoy the legs and he hates any meat on a bone so only has breast. If we have guests it all gets carved onto a serving dish and people can help themselves to whatever bit they want.
As a side note to those saying the dogs get the wings please don't give your dogs cooked chicken bones. It is dangerous as they splinter so easily.

I'm from SE England and agree this was the norm when I was growing up (but I always presumed it was due to personal preference).

Now, DH and DD1 have breast, I have leg and thigh and DD2 has leg.

The conclusion is that sometimes its a load of sexist claptrap.

Other times it's sensible, based in physiological reality!