BONUS 0.17. Dip Me in Honey & Throw Me to the Lesbians: Queer Feminist Restaurant History
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Anyone remember that pin & bumper sticker with the slogan that serves as the title for this episode? Well, I hope you’re hungry, because we’re talking lesbians and food in this interview with Dr. Alex Ketchum, Director of the Just Feminist Tech and Scholarship Lab, lecturer, and author, whose work integrates food, environmental, technological, and gender history.
We talk about her latest book, Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses, the first history of the more than 230 feminist and lesbian-feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses that existed in the United States from 1972 to the present. We dive into the ways these institutions provided spaces and community to tackle questions around the intersections between feminism, food justice, queer rights, and other social justice movements while serving as training grounds for women workers and entrepreneurs, as well as what the landscape of queer feminist restaurants looks like today.
Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the trailblazing restaurant Mother Courage of New York City, Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses is the first history of the more than 230 feminist and lesbian-feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses that existed in the United States from 1972 to the present. As key sites of cultural and political significance, this volume shows the essential role these institutions served for multiple social justice movements including women’s liberation, LGBTQ equality, and food justice, as well as for training women workers and entrepreneurs.
This systematic study outlines the crucial steps it took to establish these businesses during eras when sexism was so institutionalized it was difficult for unmarried women to obtain a bank loan, while also showing the continuities and influences of past businesses on contemporary places. Through an examination of important establishments across America, Alex D. Ketchum first examines the foundational principles behind these businesses, noting key differences between cooperative, for-profit, and non-profit models. She then looks to issues of financing, labour, pay, food sourcing, and cultural programming to understand how these organizations reconciled feminist beliefs with capitalism and how they strove for more equitable and sustainable business practices.
Brimming with illuminating archival research, interviews with influential restaurateurs, and illustrated with photographs, menus, posters, and calendars, Ingredients for Revolution is a fundamental work of women’s history, food history, and cultural history.
Dr. Alex Ketchum is the Faculty Lecturer of the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies of McGill University in Montreal. She is the Director of the Just Feminist Tech and Scholarship Lab and the author of Engage in Public Scholarship!: A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication. Her work integrates food, environmental, technological, and gender history.
Alex’s latest book, Ingredients for Revolution: American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses, 1972-2022, is the first history of the more than 230 feminist and lesbian-feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses that existed in the United States from 1972 to the present.
Where can I get the book?
You can order your copy of Ingredients for Revolution for 20% off (for U.S. readers) through University of Chicago Press, or through Concordia University Press for Canadian readers.
The Podcast!
There’s also an accompanying podcast: Feminist Ingredients for Revolution: A Food and Queer History Podcast, full of interviews with others in the food justice and feminism world. Check it out at TheFeministRestaurantProject.com. You can listen to the trailer here!
Where To Find Dr. Alex Ketchum Online:
@aketchum22 on Twitter
@dr.alexketchum on Instagram
