Like many, when I am studying, I need to listen to something. Normally, it’s a video game soundtrack like Final Fantasy or Persona. Sometimes, I’ll go a bit wild and throw on the Donnie Darko or Lord of the Rings scores, but that’s on special occasions. However, I have found myself seeking out a more… intense source of background noise.
Hell’s Kitchen.
Gordon Ramsey is known for his explosive outbursts of anger, resulting in such iconic moments as “WHERE’S THE LAMB SAUCE?!” or “THAT’S WHY IT’S CALLED NON-STiiiiiiiiCK!” Those occurrences may take me out of studying for a moment, but the adrenaline from being secondarily yelled at honestly makes me incredibly productive. I just don’t want to let Chef down! However, I have recently found myself distracted by certain aspects of Hell’s Kitchen. Not the yelling, not how good certain meals sound, but instead, by the rampant levels of misogyny and racism on display.
During season 2, the chefs vying for the position of head chef were divided into two teams: men versus women. For nearly every season afterward, there now exists the framing of men versus women. And it brings out the worst in some of the competing chefs. As soon as this split occurs, there are male chefs already clapping, saying they can’t wait to take these “girls” out and how they no longer have to be worried about “offending anybody.” The choice of language is quite telling, with many men almost exclusively referring to the women’s team as “b*tches” or “girls,” disregarding their talent, skill, and prowess within the kitchen. But what is painfully ironic has to be when one of the competitors tells Heather–the future winner of the season–to “get to the kitchen and make him a sandwich.” The men on the blue team do not see these women as their equals in the kitchen so they should… go into the kitchen? Heather does not let this slide, calling him out on his sexism. While this does not magically solve the misogyny on display, it does appear to teach the blue team that their prejudice will not be tolerated. In fact, when Chef Ramsey moves Heather from the red team to the blue team to serve as their new leader, she commands the men on her team to multiple service wins, and they come to appreciate her.
But no one should have to prove themselves to be worthy of another person’s respect. Just because people are competitors does not mean that they should be treated as less than. Yet the action of separating people into gender-based teams created room and gave a surprising amount of screen-time to misogyny.
But being on different teams doesn’t not stop hate, as I am sure Barbie from season 10 would say. Barbie was the only black woman on that season’s red team, and from the beginning, was relentlessly attacked by her teammates. Any small mistakes were overexaggerated and used as fuel to a fire that had already been burning. Kimmie, Robin, and Tiffany–the terrifying trio–hurled insults, screamed, and threatened violence at Barbie whenever possible. While no outwardly racist things were said, it is very easy to point out the different treatment Barbie received. The rest of the team was white and Barbie was ostracized, whether consciously or subconsciously, from everyone. Yet she pushed through and whenever she fought back against the cruelty, it resulted in confessionals of “I hate Barbie, she’s such a b*tch.” Then, when a white teammate would make a bigger mistake, say something rude, it was almost always brushed over. The double-standard was shocking, and was simply added to the list of actions that made this the worst red team in Hell’s Kitchen history.
Also, Robin, address your internalized misogyny, girl. You’re just an all-around mess.
It’s difficult to conclude something like this. Saying “racism and sexism is bad” is something that I hope most people can agree on. But it still exists and can run rampant in the food industry. I was a server for a few years and the comments I would get from some of the back of the house staff would make me feel so small and gross, but that was on a much smaller scale than a cooking reality show being viewed by millions. Still, in the face of all of this, many competitors have pushed through and won, but that does not change how hard the journey was to get there.