Strawberry jam and roasted chicken: gender, corporeality, and identity formation in Mariló Seco’s Mermelada de fresa (1999)

• Main Author: Nina Namaste
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad de Alicante 2017-12-01
• Series: Feminismo/s
• Subjects: identidad; comida; expectativas sociales; cuerpo; conflicto
• Online Access: https://feminismos.ua.es/article/view/2017-n30-gender-corporeality-and-identity-formation-in-marilo-secos-mermelada-de-fresa-1999

Mariló Seco’s one-act play, Mermelada de fresa (1999), employs particular items of food to portray the difficulties that can arise in the process of navigating both society’s and an individual’s expectations. Generational differences about the role of women, plus the mix of traditional and contemporary values in 1990s Spanish society create an overabundance of behavioral expectations for Ella. Her coping mechanisms, displayed by the strawberry jam ritual, turn out to be dysfunctional because she focuses only on the physical representation of the female role (beauty, sexual activity) to the detriment of the psychological self. The contested roasted chicken echoes men’s consumption of women because it represents another commodity or object of gratification for the men. Culinary imagery and metaphors in Mermelada de fresa expose the mounting demands and complexity in satisfying an escalating number of often contradictory roles that exist for any individual, but particularly for women, in a pluralistic society.