DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2023.1.2.| GERBER, KÜHNLENZ: DE-CONSTRUCTING FOOD_ INSIGHTOUT 1(2023) 15 Gender is not questioning what is usually taken for granted. self-evident either; rather, it is constructed. But what is a deconstruction ap­proach all about? In the humani­ties, the term was first coined by Jacques Derrida. In the search Like food, it is a socio­for complex and fluid, i.e. non­stable, levels of meanings in the cultural phenomenon that is determined historically, culturally area of food and nutrition, his approach is productive when it is a matter of taking a look at all­egedly clearly defined and fixed practices, habits and identities in their“made state”. Food and nutrition therefore become visi­and discursively. ble and discussable as situated, context-dependent and variable practices. The articles in this is­sue look at how(collective) iden­What is going on with the food on our plates? A few tities are constructed and negotiated; how inclusions years ago, it became a trend in restaurants and kit- and exclusions(where we eat and when, how, what, chens to separate ingredients and re-arrange them why and with whom) come about; and how food be­in a new way. Ideally, the new interpretation would comes a(discursively) contested field. give rise to completely new flavours and change the way we perceive familiar dishes. It seems that de- Gender is not self-evident either; rather, it is cons­construction does not stop at our food and, para- tructed. Like food, it is a socio-cultural phenomenon doxically, it comprises a constructive and formative that is determined historically, culturally and discur­element. More than a year after the Feminist and Queer Per­spectives on Food workshop(5 and 6 May 2022) at the Technisches Museum Wien, the first Journal on Gender and Sexuality in STEM Collections and Cul­tures has now been published. Drafting its introduc­tory remarks is an opportunity for us not only to sum­marise the contributions, but also to reflect on the insights gained from the presentations and discussi­ons. The common theme running through the articles is“constructing and deconstructing”, in the sense of Fig. 1: Opening of the workshop in the ceremonial hall of the Technisches Museum Wien