Fried Green Tomatoes: Nourishment and Social Justice, Served Up HOT

Delicious, decadent, and a little bit naughty. Best served with friends.

Now that I've caught your attention, lets get into the fun stuff, the movie, Fried Green Tomatos. In this post, I will discuss how in the film "Fried Green Tomatoes" food serves as a means of nourishment, both physical and emotional, and as a means of social justice.

Food as Nourishment

The film contains two stories that "feed" off of each other: at face level, is the story of Evelyn Couch, who is struggling to save her marriage, and through a series of visits at a nursing home, develops a friendship with Ninny. Within the base story is the substory, which Ninny relates to Evelyn of two childhood friends, Idgie and Ruth.

On the theme of nourishment, Evelyn is searching for emotional fulfillment from her husband and does so by feeding on candy bars to fill the void. This physical food source seems only to appease her emotional void, which she has been also trying to resolve through marriage counseling courses. Evelyn provides nourishment for her husband in the form of carefully planned dinners yet to her avail, he does not recognize her efforts to please him and connect with him through food. It is interestesting to note the gender roles portrayed in these scenes of marital distress. The women is the food provider, the food preparer, and the caretaker who is trying to weave physical nourishment with emotional nourishment. The man is the receiver of this food preparation, ignorant to the emotional nourishment that is being sought through food socialization.

Nourishment and femininity can also be addressed on the subplot level between Idgie and Ruth. Idgie is portrayed as a tomboy and more masculine in features and behaviors while Ruth is portayed as feminine on the exterior. The general gender themes are carried through when Ruth gets married and accordingly follows a subservient role to her husband. Idgie, in her masculine portrayal, saves Ruth from her destructive marriage by physically removing her from her place of malease, but in contrast, starts to assume a more feminine role by caring for her, providing her a safe home for her and her baby, a place of work, and an equal opportunity to cook and provide as shown in the kitchen scenes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. The two are both portayed in their feminity when they exchange fistfulls of condiments and flour to each others face. Though the act of fighting with food would not normally be considered feminine, the providing of food to each other for emotional nourishment is ultimately a feminine act.

The Sweet Smell of Justice: Food as Social Justice

Food and its role as social justice can also be seen within this food in various situtaions where women present food to men.

Perhaps the most transparent incident of this is the scene pertaining to serving barbeque to the crime investigator. We learn that through a community effort, Idgie helps save Ruth from her abusive husband, and there arises a need to get rid of the body. The close-knit community that Idgie developed with the workers in her restaurant prevails as they decide to start the pork barbeque season a little early. Unbeknownst to the investigator and most of the town, the remains of the abusive husband are mettled in with the barbarque. Not only does the investigator praise the barbeque, all of the town seems to gather around the amazing scent of the barbeque. Ah, the sweet smell of justice.

On a less dramatic scale, Ruth offers pie to the investigator as means of appeasement and change of topic. While this pie is not accepted, it is definitely her way of using food and feminine charm to distract the investigator. The local town cop is given his social justice when he walks in on the food fight in the kitchen between Idgie and Ruth, and her asks what they are doing. After reponding that they were teaching each other to cook, and receiving a cocky response, Ruth steps out of her traditionally feminine role, and smears a condiment on his face. Contrary to the traditional serving of food, she is in this instance serving him up a slice of "mind your own business."

- Amanda