"Good food", gender and social media in Morocco

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Hajar ElAlami

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As with every social activity, human nutrition is governed by a set of norms that differ from one society to another and from one period to another. Some norms are formally dictated by law, while others are an informal part of daily life (Becker, 1985).

Advances in telecommunications, particularly Internet, which offers different means of expression, have opened up new possibilities for producing food norms. Bloggers and youtubers or members of Facebook groups contribute to producing norms. On the World Wide Web, discourses are burgeoning on “healthy eating”, “good food” (makla meziana), “food that is good for your health”, (makla sihiya, makla mziana lisiha), healthy diet (akl salim) and even “healthy food” on the international scale of standards. The topic of good food is present in daily Internet discussions between urban food consumers, who probably speak more freely (Cardon, 2010) and the content of their discussions is richer and more diverse.

This communication explores women and men’s discussions about food in a group on Facebook: Our kitchen (Kouzintna). This group was chosen because of its different features. First, it is a mixed cookery group, which is unusual for Facebook cookery groups, most of which are feminine. Second, the meanings attributed to “good food” vary considerably depending on when they were published. Those published in 2019, before the Covid-19 health crisis, are not always the same as those published in 2020, during the crisis. In addition, the group’s exchanges provide more data about gender-based representations, an issue that we explored in comprehensive interviews with members of the group. Therefore, this communication examines food in digital social media from the gender perspective. It analyses what consumers mean by “good food” in the virtual sphere, the representations associated with it and how these representations have changed or been affected by the current Covid-19 health crisis. It also examines how this influences the relationships between men and women. How do they depict “good food” in their discussions? What are the similarities and the differences in their representations? What is the cut-off point between men and women’s representations? Do they reconnect with older “traditional” or local norms or, on the contrary, are they more innovative? Are men and women in a position to strengthen Morocco’s gender-based food norms or are they trying to innovate? If so, how do they go about it? What can these aspirations tell us about the current transformations affecting gender relations in Morocco?

Dessin Maroc