The ideology of convenience. Canned foods in women's magazines (Flanders, 1945–1960)

• This paper deals with the communication of canned foods (Flanders, 1945–1960).
• It uses the antinomy between convenience and care as theoretical framework.
• It analyzes women's magazines and subjects them to a close reading.
• It shows that the communication of canned foods differs according to ideology.

This paper investigates the communication of canned foods in Flanders between 1945 and 1960. It forwards the antinomy between convenience and care as theoretical framework, it uses three women's magazines as source material, and it subjects this material to the technique of close reading. The results show that the discursive construction of canned foods differs according to the ideology of the magazines. Whereas the agrarian periodical discarded canned foods as careless convenience that menaced the idea of the good housewife, the socialist and the commercial publications undeniably accepted them as caring convenience that could facilitate the household chores of working women. The analysis, thus, deals with the ideological aspect of convenience food, an aspect that has only rarely been examined.