Friday, April 20, 2007

Men in the Kitchen

I am all for men cooking. My father is a cook, a great cook. But to tell a person that he or she cannot enter a cooking class due to their gender is called "gender discrimination." This phrase is defined a "any action that specifically denies opportunities, privileges, or rewards to a person or a group because of their sex."
What am I refering to?
Whole Foods cooking classes. They have a "Men in the Kitchen" and a "Girl's Night Out." Only for those specific genders. While I agree that it can be fun to have a cooking class with the girlfriends, it does cause problems when your girl's night out includes a male friend. Or you guy's night, includes a girl friend.
What do you do in those situations?
Well, by Whole Foods standards you leave the guy or girl at home and only attend the class with your specific gender, which eliminates the purpose of the class. To enjoy food with friends and learn something new and exciting.
Now some might say I'm ranting, true I am, but why should I not be able to take the "Men in the Kitchen" class based on my gender? The class has the menu, I'd like to learn, while the women's class has things I can master myself. Does Strawberry Shortcake with Jack Daniel's Cream not excite any other woman, but myself?
I think that if Whole Foods is going to offer gender specific classes, then theses classes should contain similar menus or slight variations on the same menu to appeal to the audience. That way the woman or man who looks at the other menus gets to experience similiar things. Or at least give the chance for those who cannot attend the other class to get the recipe at the other class. There are many solutions that Whole Foods could take in effect. However, I think gender specific classes hinder the cooking experience, if a person wants to learn how to cook, why should a business tell him or her no?
For now, I'll inflitrate Whole Foods, by becoming a man for the night.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Woah! Are you serious? I didn't know Whole Foods actually did that. If I were you I would go complain about that... :)

Carrie said...

Well if it is gender specific (as opposed to sex specific), I see no reason why you cannot just waltz right in there with your manly self! ;-)
I understand your frustration. I too would be a little ticked! Jack Daniels cream sounds good to me!