Irish potatoes, Italian spaghetti, Polish Pierogies...

This past weekend included the annual St. Patrick's Day parade in Pittsburgh with fun family time, corned beef, and people throwing up drunk by two in the afternoon. Since childhood, my sisters and I would line up in our A.O.H. (Ancient Order of Hibernians) sweatshirts with our cousins for the parade to begin while surrounding adults would be enjoying an early morning shot of Bailey's or Jameson. Alcohol consumption is inevitably linked to Irish heritage, as any films I've seen about Ireland including "Angela's Ashes," "The Butcher Boy," and "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" along with Flogging Molly's song "F*** you, I'm Drunk" perpetuate this stereotype of the drunken, beligerent Irishman.

Talking about stereotypes is a touchy subject especially for a Cultural Studies major because you cannot deconstruct the stereotype without using the stereotype, which contributes to its furthered circulation. This is a dilemma that I constantly grapple with from analyzing commercials in popular culture and literature. Considering how food can further the construction of stereotypes or engender family heritage in the films "Eat Drink Man Woman" and "Soul Food" is a challenging question. The only productive way I could think of approaching this assignment was to draw from my own experience. Growing up in my paternal grandmother’s kitchen I learned Polish words along with pierogie and haluski recipes. Time spent in my maternal grandmother’s kitchen led to picking up some Italian slang while deciphering the secrets to making spaghetti sauce not too bitter nor too sweet. While it is easy to say that Polish people eat pierogies and Italians eat tomato spaghetti sauce are both stereotypes, there are infinite nuances to the recipes and histories of both, varying from family to family and the unique stories that have instigated these recipes.Films can problematically allow for an understanding that representations of marginalized groups as a monolithic example. Representations can simultaneously perpetuate a stereotype and engender a multi-faceted depiction. In both films we see the endurance of family history, as well as the homogenizing intrusion of consumer culture. There is a delicate balance between presenting one family's story as representative of the entire Japanese or African American experience, as a film can easily be read as an overarching narrative of an entire culture. Of course, this is not true, as reflecting on one's own life and heritage reveals both large cultural connections and unique family traditions.
Stereotypes are a difficult representational system to grapple with because they are indeed homogenizing, yet can signify on truths of an entire culture. For example, throughout history a detrimental representation of African Americans included eating fried chicken and watermelon. African Americans in representation were over problematically eroticized and infantilized through these representations with food. The "mammy" figure is connected to preparing food, as "she is heavyset, dark-skinned, scarf-wearing, and able to cook everything that comes her way- from scratch" (Williams-Forson, P. “Still Dying for Some Soul Food?” 187) In terms of the film "Soul Food" there appears to be a reclamation and renarration of this stereotype, as “African Americans also invented new rituals that combined African harvest celebrations and American agricultural procedures” (Tracy Poe, The Origins of Soul Food in Black Urban Identity: Chicago, 1915-1947.” American Studies International. February 1999, Volume XXXVII No. 1: 11).

This same cycle of reappropriation to create negative stereotypes and reclamation and renarration occurs among all cultures. This past weekend most resonated with me, as I unconsciously and continuously deconstructed the stereotype of the "Irish drunk" with parade goers justifying being drunk before noon because it was St. Patrick's day. It is a stereotype that is marketed to us, just as any other. I can't dismiss it as immoral or wrong, though. I am of Irish heritage and 21 years old, so I partook in the Irish carbombs, being critically aware of the stereotype yet partaking in the consumption.