VillageSoup previews Snell’s Union talk on cookbooks, politics
VillageSoup reported Rachel Snell, a lecturer in the University of Maine Honors College, will speak about the use of community cookbooks by women in politics Oct. 2 at Union Historical Society. Beginning at 7 p.m., Snell will explain how Margaret Chase Smith’s campaign for the Republican nomination relied on food-related tactics developed by generations of politically motivated women, according to the report. She will place Smith’s blueberry muffin recipe within a broader historical context of women’s use of recipes to gain entry into the political sphere, with a focus on Maine’s community cookbooks. Efforts to connect with voters through recipes, and the criticism Smith received, demonstrate how food femininity both constrained women’s civic participation and offered a potential competitive advantage, the article states.