Reflection Paper: Food & Identity Guidelines
Consider the saying “You are what you Eat!” and write a Reflection Paper on the relationship
you see between your own food practices (choices, beliefs, everyday experiences of shopping,
preparing, eating, cleaning up) and who you are. Use the paper to reflect on how your food
practices shape your identity.
1) Use yourself as the object of study; consider how you think about food, prepare food,
shop for food, and / or eat or consume food. Where do you ‘do’ food and with whom?
2) Using the readings from previous weeks, consider:
▪ the symbolic meanings we attach to food and food practices
▪ gender, race, social class and the intersections of our identities
▪ nutrition, health and the meanings we attach to our food choices
3) Think about how identity is constructed through social structures and social
interaction of food and food practices
▪ Social structures shape our lives (social Location = gender, race, ethnicity, social
class, age, dis(ability), sexuality among other aspects of identity)
▪ Social interaction – we understand who we are through our everyday
interactions with other people (Goffman’s “Looking glass self”)
▪ Think about Power and how it is constraining and enabling – *power operates
through social structures such as gender, race or social class to shape what you
do, think about or understand to be ‘normal’
▪ Using themes from the readings and class lectures and develop a critical self-
reflection of your own relationship with food as you understand it through your
identity
Formatting:
▪ 4-5 page paper, double spaced
▪ Title page and References page are in addition to the 4-5 pages
▪ ASA – American Sociological Association for Referencing Style
▪ Ensure you have a thesis statement in your introduction, and a conclusion
▪ Write in first person
Be sure to proof-read and double check for spelling, grammar and sentence structure
