Many of you will know I'm an Irish cailín, meaning that i do in fact speak Irish, Irish dance, go to mass, drink alcohol and eat a hearty dinner! Food is extremely important to us Irish folk - ah hello...remember the famine! As a nation we are obsessed with eating because as our mammies always warn us "They'd only love to have that in Africa", but recently I've noticed something that is niggling at me more than it should. When did we become part of a society where women no longer eat, and more so in from of men? Am I missing something here? Did I not get that memo?? Have I in fact become the outsider in this scenario? Is horsing into a burger no longer an attractive trait in a person? This is not the kind of society in which I want to live!!
Recently I was in a restaurant and across from me were a young couple - probably around 20ish - and clearly on a date. Albeit the most uncomfortable date I have ever witnessed. The poor girl glanced a her menu barely before closing it and placing it back down on the table (a sign I would take to mean she had made a decision on her meal, right?) However what followed was not the scene I anticipated. This girl was utterly flummoxed when ordering, to the point that she whispered her order so low the waitress actually had to bend down to hear her repeat it, and then when her meal arrived she merely pushed it around the plate while striking up conversation (I took this to be an avoidance tactic), and strangely enough when he got up to go to the bathroom she ate what looked like half her plate during his absence. Needless to say I was utterly bamboozled by the whole situation, which leads me to here, and before you think it I was not the only person to have noticed this poor girls embarrassment, and I was of course merely people watching - lets call this an anthropological review for the time being!
Its a strange phenomenon for me, (even though I can think of one guy who would definitely say that I NEVER eat, ha I wish that were true!) to think that a girl is so either insecure or uncomfortable in front of a guy that she is unable to eat because NEWS FLASH if you didn't eat you'd be dead by now, which means you would never have gotten the opportunity to meet said guy, which means you're obviously not dead, which in turn leads me back to the point that you obviously do eat?? And if you're eating anyway then why not eat something delicious....many a time I have stuffed my face in the company of my male counterparts (the joys of growing up with 2 brothers) and I don't think it has impacted negatively upon me or my interactions in society!! Or upon my interaction with the male population in general! Am I now supposed to believe that stuffing your face isn't something men look for?
HOLD UP!! Why are we even caring!? Lemme break it down for a moment! The reason this whole situation niggles at me so much is because if there's one thing I took from the hunger games (apart from my obvious love of Peta....what a man.....sigh) its the fact that we rarely see women munching into food like they really enjoy it! Why are we so obsessed with the stick thin bitches rather than the realistic average weight different shaped pizza eating burger loving salad tolerating women in the world. And boy do I enjoy my food! Isn't life about the little pleasures? Having spoken to the older generation about this whole issue (i.e. my mothers boss) I was told that this particular gentleman enjoys nothing more than watching someone eating - albeit someone who really enjoys their food! But I totally get that! There is nothing more satisfying than eating a meal that just fills a hole in your soul...in my case usually a pizza shaped hole ha ha.
Alas I digress....This is my open letter to the self-conscious lady eaters of Ireland, and the world alike, there is no greater pleasure in this life than enjoying a delicious meal. We live in a society of stick thin women who have personal trainers, make-up artists and hairstylists work on them every morning and then bombarding us mere mortals with images of "perfect" women! AS IF!! Lets face it, I could easily obtain Jennifer Lawrence babe status if i went through that regime every morning too! Yes Yes I know i'm Jennifer Lawrence obsessed but doesn't she just look like the kind of girl you could bring to a Chinese buffet??
Rant time!!
My main overall point is this; I as an independent 24 year old woman am not bothered who sees me eat, nor who knows I use the bathroom, no who knows I oftentimes snort when I find something particularly hilarious, and who the hell cares? When did these things become actual worries? And if these things are your only worries then congratulations because surely this means you are winning at life! Get a grip ladies...if we were supposed to survive on salad then God wouldn't have invented meat (well, you know what I mean...plus dinosaurs would totally eat us) And to quote a very good friend of mine
"I'd want a girlfriend who can eat like me", and isn't that what its all about? So really what i'm saying in a roundabout manner is just eat the fucking burger! Who really even cares?
Peace Out
xxxxxxx
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