Gender politics of eating a roast chicken!!

[ColdOopNorth]

Apologies in advance if this is the wrong place to ask and it seems rather trivial but.... I come from a traditional Northern family and I am in my 50's. I have always , from early childhood, believed that it is 'normal' when carving a roast bird to give the men the legs and the women get the breast! This was 'the rule' growing up, my husband took this as normal too and I never ever questioned why until my non-British friends came for lunch and thought it was the most weird, bizarre thing ever and are still talking about it weeks after. Is this a thing for anyone else and any idea why? I suspect it is to do with men being allowed to pick up the leg and gnaw on it whilst us 'ladies' are far too refined - just goes to show how deeply ingrained some of these stereotypes are eh

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” 😂

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

She’s right!

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

@lazylinguist

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describe c) had families who definitely decided these things based on actual physiology, not unquestioned tradition and outdated sexist stereotypes?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.

Who said they did? Nobody did! I ave my memories of it, as others have given theirs.

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

‘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!

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.