Food Intolerant Family: Gender and the Maintenance of Children’s Gluten-Free Diets

Abstract

Gluten-free dieting entails lifestyle changes that burden families. This article uses data from content analysis of gluten-free Facebook pages and interviews to show how a gluten-free diet intensifies families’ gendered divisions of labor in the United States. Maintaining a child’s diet increases mothers’ physical, emotional, relational, and mental labor. It is argued that the gendered labor of diet management intersects with diet criticism to create a backlash rooted in gender stereotypes. Mothers face criticism for intensive, risk-averse mothering practices, yet are expected to parent intensively. Women’s visibility in connection to gluten-free diets contributes to backlash against the diet infused with negative stereotypes of women and mothers. This results in additional burdens on mothers of gluten-free children.

Keywords:

• gluten free
• gender
• diet
• intensive parenting
• food intolerance

Acknowledgements

This manuscript was made immeasurably better through the thoughtful comments of Alesha Doan and Alexander J. Myers.