Visser.The Ritual of Fast Food - CVHS-English-2

Visser
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The Ritual of Fast
Food
189
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lorn in 1940 in South Africa, MargaretVisserwas raised in Zambia and lived in England,
:.ance, lraq, and the United States before settling in Toronto, Ontario. (She is a natu-:llzed citizen of Canada.) Visser was educated at the University of Toronto, where
.re earned a PhD in classics in 1980. She taught classics at York University in Toronto
,rd has published articles in scholarly and popular periodicals. Visser also appears
television and radio, discussing her discoveries about the history and social
-ythology of everyday life. "The extent to which we take everyday objects for
inform our livesl'
l.antedi,she says, "is the precise extent to which they govern and
on Dinner
Depends
Much
= ,,,e of Visser's books illuminate this important territory:
:r
'
(2001),
986),The Rituals of Dinner (1991), The way we Are (1994),The Geometry of Love
.-,d The Gift of Thanks (2008).
The Ritual of Fast Food
visser
rhis excerpt from The Rituals of Dinner, an investigation of table manners,
How
place?
a
such
visit
we
when
we
seek
do
,- alyzesthe fast-food restaurant. what
predictability'
on
hinges
::es the management oblige us? Success
-
dinnel selved to the pubor tavern' Such a meal
-- at fixed times and prices at an eating house
. :is called, because of its predetermined aspects' an "ordinary," and the
,,ice where it was eaten came to be called an "ordinary," too' When a
on the
-.
-lge modern business conglomerate offers fast food to travelers
:hway, it knows that its customers are likely to desire No Surprises.
'rer, are hungry, tired, and not in a celebratory mood; they are happy
pay-provided that the price looks easilv manageable-for the safely
:=dictable, the convenient, the fast and ordinary.
ornamental formalities are pruned away (tables and chairs are bolted
:he floor, for instance, and "cutlery" is either nonexistent or not worth
..rling); but rituals, in the sense of behavior and expectations that
. rform to preordained rules, still inform the proceedings' People who
p for a hamburger- at a Wendy's, a Hatvey's, a McDonald's, ol'a
: -.:ger King-know exactly what the building that houses the estab,rment should look like; architectural variations merely ring changes
rigidly imposed themes. People want, perhaps even need, lo reco3trize
- -,=ir
chain store, to feel that they know it and its food in advance. Such
-:- outlet is designed to be a "home away from home," on the highway,
: lnwvhere in the city, or for Americans abro;rd.
-.:t early precursor of the restaurant meal was
190
Division or Analysis I Looking at Popular Culture
words ancl actions are officially laid down, learned by the staff from :
handbooks and teaching sessions, and then picked up by customers in
the course of regular visits. Things have to be called by their correct
names ("Big Mac," "large fries"); the McDonald's rubric in 1978 required
servers to ask "Will that be with cheese, sir?" "Will there be any fries
today, sir?" and to close the transaction with "Have a nice day'" The staff
wear distinctive garments; menus are always the same, and even placed
in the same spot in every outlet in the chaln; prices are iow and predictable; and the theme of cleanliness is proclaimed and tirelessly relterated.
The company attempts also to play the role of a lovable host, kind and
concerned, even parental: it knows that blunt and direct confrontation
with a huge faceless corporation makes us suspicious, and even badly
behaved. So it stresses its love of children, its nostalgia for cozy warmth
and for the past (cottagy roofs, warm earth tones), or its clean, brisk
modernity (glass walls, smooth suLfaces, red trim)' lt responds to social
concerns-when they are insistent enough, sufficiently widely held, and
therefore ,,correct." McDonald's for example, is at present busy showing
how much it cares about the environment'
q
Fast-food chains know that they are ordinary. They wnnt to be ordinary, and for people to think of them as almost inseparable from the
idea of everyday food consumed outside the home' They are happy to
allow their customers time off for feasts-on Thanksgiving, christmas,
and so on-to which they do not cater. Even those comparatively rare
holiday times, however, are turned to a profit, because the companies
know that their favorite customers-law-ablding families-are at home
together then, watching television, where caretully piaced commercials
will spread the word concerning new fast-food products, and re-imprint
the image of the various chain stores for later, when the long stretches
of ordinary times return.
Families are the customers the fast-food chains want: solid citizens s
in groups of several at a time, the adults hovering over their children,
teaching them the goodness of hamburgers, anxious to bring them up
to behave typically and correctly. Customers usually maintain a clean'
restrained, considerate, and competent demeanor as they Swiftly, $atefully, and lnformally eat. Fast-food operators have recently faced the
alarming realization that crack addicts, craving salt and fat, have spread
the word among their number that French fries deliver these substances
easily, ubiquitously, cheaply, and at ali hours. Dope addicts at family
"ordinaries"! The unacceptabliity of such a thought was neatly captured
by a news story in The Economlsf (1990) that spelled out the r,r'ords a
fast-food proprietor can least afford to hear from his falthful customers,
Visser
The Ritual of Fast Food
191
the participants in his polite and practiced rituals: the title of the story
\\'as "Come on Mabel, let's leave." The plan to counter this threat included
increasing the intensity of the lighting in fast-food establishments
- drug
addicts, apparently, prefer to eat in the dark.
The formality of eating at a restaurant belonging to a fast-food
chain depends upon the fierce regularity of its product, its simple but
iarefully observed rituals, and its environment. Supplying a hamburger
:hat adheres to perfect standards of shape, weight, temperature, and
:onsistency, together with selections from a pre-set list of trimmings, to
,r customer with fiendishly precise expectations is an enormously com'-.lex feat. The technology involved in performing it has been learned
:rrough the expenditure of huge sums on research, and after decades
f experience-not to mention the vast political and economic ramifi,:tions involved in maintaining the supplies of cheap beef and cheap
-^.rns. But these costs and complexities are, with tremendous care, hid--en from view. We know of course that, say, a Big Mac is a cultural con,:ruct: the careful control expended upon it is one of the things we are
,n'ing. But McDonald's manages-it must do so lf it is to succeed in
.ing ordinary-to provide a "casual" eating experience. Convenient,
:--nocent slmplicity is what the technology, the ruthless politics, and
.::e elaborate organization serve to the customer.
r:,==i.it#ry
:nv of the following words are new to you, try to guess their meanings from
context of Visser's essay. Test your guesses in a dictionar,v, and then use
:: -h new word in a sentence or two.
--:
:recursor (1)
:onglomerate (1)
reiterated (3)
proprietor (5)
cater (4)
'-.runed (2)
',.reordained (2)
hovering (5)
expenditure (6)
ramlflcationS (6)
.-rbric (3)
demeanor (5)
ubiquitously (5)