Chef's Table and the Feminine Hero's Journey (Part 1)
One of my favorite shows is Chef's Table on Netflix. I especially like to watch it in my last hour before bed because it is energetic yet calming and only 45-60 minutes long. I like listening to the arc of peoples' lives. I like learning about their childhoods, their families, and their cultures, the decisions they made and the doors that opened or shut in front of them. I like to listen to the stories of how they persevered through hard times and how they continue to discover joy. I like learning about food.
As I've progressed through the six seasons of the show, and the BBQ season, it became apparent that the paths that women typically walked toward success and recognition were different than the paths men typically walked. The men seemed to walk some sort of path that wasn't far from Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey." They left home, they learned, they made friends, they gained influence, they were challenged, and they had to grow and adapt to survive, to break through to the next level, whatever that was. But the place of home in the women's stories didn't seem quite as far away, or maybe they never left at all. When women had to transform, it was in a different place. It didn't seem to be on the threshold of the climax. It came earlier. I began to suspect that there was another path that I was walking that hadn't been clearly named, at least not to me.
The episode that helped my thinking coalesce was volume 2, episode 5 - Ana Roš. She, most clearly, was faced with a decision to leave home or stay home. She chose to stay home, to help take over the family restaurant, and learn from there. By the end of the episode, I was fascinated by the fact that people journeyed to her.
I began to pull together this idea of the feminine path or the feminine hero's journey.* It brought to my mind images of a hero who stays home or creates a new home, who travels deeper instead of farther, and becomes the keeper of the hearth fire. I, myself, was a woman who had unexpectedly ended up as a stay-at-home mom and underestimated the role of being a trailing spouse. I needed to hear a story about people who put down roots instead of growing wings.
I'll end here but know that this post is the first of me recording my evolving understanding of this observation and idea. There is more to come.
*Though I'm using the term feminine, because I recognized it in the stories of women, I intend it as an inclusive term. It is not a path that, by definition, all women, and no men or queer people, walk. A man or a queer person could find themselves on a feminine journey. A woman could find herself on a different path.
Additionally, I believe that there exists, at least, a third path, a Queer Hero's Journey. The structure and demands of that journey are different than either the masculine or feminine journey, but I also recognize that I am not the person to write or theorize what that journey would look like. If you have ideas, I would love to hear them!
