Digesting men? Ethnicity, gender and food: Perspectives from a ‘prison ethnography’

Abstract

Drawing from an ethnographic study of men's social relations in an English prison, this article explores the potential of attending closely to men's practice for the light it may shed on the boundaries of punishment. Interviews with prisoners and fieldwork experiences reveal something of the way prison acts on an ethnically diverse group of men. Focusing on the way men use cooking facilities on the prison's wings, the article explores the way men make food for themselves and each other and thereby occupy prison space with unconventional (and conventional) gender practice. Using intersectional perspectives the article shows how practices of racialization, racism, conviviality and coercion are woven into the fabric of prison life. These quotidian experiences are juxtaposed against the question of how prisons and prisoner populations represent a spectrum of violence in which gender dynamics remain under-examined. By providing glimpses of men's lives in an English prison to reveal aspects of the ways masculinities and ethnicities interact to shape a penal regime the authors offer some resources for, and perspective on, the theorization of punishment's boundaries.

Acceptance or refusal of convenience food in present-day prison

“…Next to food as a means of reflecting and converting power relationships, cooking and eating can be methods to connect, bind, and create individual as well as group identities in prison (Cate, 2008;Earle & Phillips, 2012). For example, Kjaer Minke (2014) explained how prisoners in Danish prisons receive their own money and are responsible for their own purchases and cooking.…”

“…Smoyer (2014) also explained that food sharing and taking care of each other can be experienced as important activities for the construction of positive identities. In addition, Earle and Phillips (2012) illustrated how cooking areas in prison serve as a display for the cultural diversity between prisoners as well as a place where they learn to negotiate, organize, and work with each other. This conviviality may exist within as well as between cooking groups.…”

Dealing food: Female drug users’ narratives about food in a prison place and implications for their health

“…While “the social and cultural uses of food provide much insight into the human condition” (Counihan, 1999, p. 24) and analysis of food and food-related behaviors has explicated culture, social relationships and place across a broad range of time periods and geographic locations (Wood, 1995), analysis of prison food systems is limited. The small body of research about prison food that does exist has been conducted primarily in male correctional facilities in England and Canada (Earle & Phillips, 2012; Godderis, 2006a, 2006b; Milligan, Waller, & Andrews, 2002; Smith, 2002; Ugelvik, 2011; Valentine & Longstaff, 1998). We expand on this existing body of work by analyzing the prison food narratives of women incarcerated in the United States in order to build knowledge about the impact of this place on health.…”

More than Meals: A Narrative Criminological Analysis of Inmate‐Authored Cookbooks

“…Food in prison is a highly‐significant aspect of the punishment process (Einat and Davidian ; Gibson‐Light ; Godderis ; Higginbotham ; Jones ; Smoyer ; Smoyer and Lopes ; Ugelvik ; Vanhouche 2016). Experiences with food behind bars, whether in the cafeteria, at the commissary, ‘hustling’ or bartering ingredients, or while in‐cell cooking, wield influence upon relationships (de Graaf and Kilty ; Smoyer ), identity and performance (Earle and Phillips ; Godderis ; Minke ; Phillips ; Stearns ), status (Cate ; Smoyer ; Valentine and Longstaff ), and can be undertaken as symbolic resistance (de Graaf and Kilty ; Minke ; Smoyer ; Ugelvik ).…”

“…Earle and Phillips () and Phillips () interrogate gender, race, and ethnicity inside the self‐cook areas of a UK prison, revealing a complex, intersectional view of men frequently stereotyped as monolithic and hyper‐masculinised. For these incarcerated men, cooking was a method to combat institutional dehumanisation of themselves and their environment, mark the boundaries of ethnic and racial groups, and socialise with one another.…”