Editorial press illustration to accompany the article “The Patriarchy is in the Pudding” from The Bitch Media magazine.

This article caught my attention since I saw it, before even reading it. I love to cook, it is another of my passions and I highly value traditional recipes that are passed down from generation to generation. But I couldn’t even imagine everything that was hidden behind this tradition and inside this recipe.

Although it is a story that took place in England, I cannot help but find similarities with traditional Spanish family meals. The woman cooks and the man sits at the table to wait while they talk with the other men of the family about common and unusual interests. Men on one side of the table, women on the other.

But of course, add in the past also the effort of how you had to cook before and also share a recipe that predicted your destiny as a woman. It seemed too obvious to me.

This illustration reflects all that. Through the set of its elements, a page from an old English recipe book, which ironically summarizes what a good pudding should contain. A metaphor between the recipe and the patriarchal stigmas that women have endured for generations. And unfortunately, despite time, it is still inherited, just like this recipe.

In the article, the protagonist tells that objects were introduced inside the Pudding and that depending on what happened to you in your piece, you would be lucky if you got a coin, single if you got the thimble… I added a ring and a sugared almond with egg-shaped, to represent two more themes that are attributed to us and “it’s up to us” women too. Motherhood and marriage, as something necessary in our lives in order to feel complete.

Finally, a very funny detail, the fact that this dessert was flamed (burned). Being that it was a religious tradition, burning it, as the article says, is more reminiscent of something pagan. Although honestly, seeing the story as a whole, I couldn’t help but think that it was just another metaphor for Patriarchy. A cry for help from women, under cover and silently. Only they would know what it meant.

Technique: Digital illustration with analog textures.

If you are interested in this article, you can read it at the following link:

https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/making-nana-pudding-holidays