Ask a person from each continent or country of the world what they have for breakfast and you’ll get different answers. There is, of course, the breakfast cereal; popular in Western cultures. There’s congee, a type of savoury rice porridge popular in Asian countries (and Hilton Hotel buffets in Australia). There’s bacon and eggs, popularised in the UK/Scotland, cured meats and cheese in Germany, pastries in France, pancakes in Sweden, tofu and fish in Japan. The variety of foods that cultures have for breakfast are, indeed, without limit.
However, most of us grow up in one place, and so the idea of ‘breakfast’ is relatively fixed by the culture in which we grew up. Breakfast, to most of us, is *supposed* to be from a particular *range* of things. If, in Australia, I served someone tofu and fish for breakfast instead of cereal or bacon and eggs, the reaction borders on revulsion. Likewise, trying to get a ham and cheese toasted sandwich in rural Japan is near impossible – it’s just not what is done.
Cultural norms are not immutable laws
Cultural norms, like breakfast, are not immutable laws. And whilst sticking to cultural norms like breakfast are safe, they also restrict opportunity and creative thinking. And so, if there is no such thing as ‘breakfast food’, what else is a norm and not a law? What defines a book, movie, or music ‘genre’? What themes are ‘allowed’ in children’s books? How many pages are they ‘allowed’ to be? How many words are the allowed to have? Does the sky have to be blue? The grass, green? Is it supposed to rhyme, or not? Am I allowed to prioritise art in my life? Do I have to do the chores before I give myself permission to enjoy myself? Do I need a ‘studio’ to make art, or is the kitchen table just fine?
Cultural norms run rife through all facets of every culture and they can rule our thinking to our detriment. One of the many jobs of the artist is to question them because often, that’s where the most interesting work happens, even if serving tofu and fish for breakfast is a bit scary sometimes – maybe you’ll find someone who likes it. Of course, the opposite may be true, too.