Fond and Fashion
Sir: It is interesting to learn from Joan llobinson (October 19) that undernourishment is the most important symptom Poverty, and that children during the • r were less undernourished than "• en they had 'never had it so good'. alile latter statement may well be true, but though no evidence is produced for it, as far as the working class is —• neerned the first proposition seems to dubious in the highest degree. It rests on the assumption that the Workicung-class housewife is motivated in her , t:dee of food entirely, or at any rate MairitiY, by the desire to nourish her offarsFr•
Mg rather than satisfy their
sPontaneous desires. Knowledge about what is actually nourishing is readily rcessible to all, as is genuinely flour,2ts 4ig food itself at perfectly reasonable ces. .However the working-class °Lisewife's choice is not motivated by MuCh iaiterest in what is really nourishing — it is guided by prejudice, fashion 1113 advertising, and as such its reflec1," of her degree of 'poverty' is far from clear, 18 Lo
William Carter
lighborough Avenue,
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