Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 239–241 December 2016 DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v3i2.184 ISSN: 2292-3071 239 Book Review Food and Femininity Kate Cairns and Josée Johnston Bloomsbury Academic, 2015, 222 pages Review by: Jennifer Braun (University of Alberta) Driven by a central question—“why do so many women care so much about food?”—Cairns and Johnston investigate the contemporary contours and connections between food and femininity, detailing the diverse ways these two things intersect and emerge in women’s lives. Their research is done in a Canadian context where, they argue, food is used as a standard to judge a good mother, a responsible caregiver, a discerning consumer, a healthy woman, and an ethically minded shopper —standards that are not easy to achieve, particularly if time and money are scarce. Nowadays, given that food is so central in the lives of many North Americans, the increasing consumer concern over the unsustainable nature of the current food system, and the intensity with which feminine food standards are applied to women, this book is both timely and timeless, and illuminating for anyone interested in food and gender (which, in my opinion, and that of Cairns and Johnston, should be everyone). Using data from detailed narratives obtained during focus groups and in-depth interviews with 129 food-oriented consumers in Toronto, Canada (109 women and 20 men) and a discourse analysis of popular food blogs and magazines, Cairns and Johnston outline why food and femininity remain intricately connected topics that require “open-minded kitchen table discussions as well as critical research” (p. 6). The book is organized around key sites in the performance of food femininities: shopping, mothering, health and body, politics, and pleasure. These food femininities, they argue, help us to better understand the complex ways that food and femininity are intertwined within contemporary consumer culture. The first chapter introduces the reader to the authors’ big research questions, motivations, and study methodology, while also providing a “quick and dirty” history of food, femininity and