Eve’s Sinful Bite: Foodscapes in Italian Women’s Writing, Culture and Society
The multifaceted relationship between women and food in Western culture is captured by the Christian myth of the Fall narrated in Genesis with the episode of Eve and the apple. Eve’s sinful bite represents a key symbolic meeting between women and food in a long list of metaphorical meanings associated with the act of eating and ideas of femininity in the collective imaginary. Food and eating-related-activities, such as cooking and serving meals for the family, have often been seen as signifiers of something else in women’s lives: lust, affection, desire for emotional shelter and expression of frustration, to mention only a few of the nuances associated with food consumption.