Lusting After Asparagus?: Our Culture's Food Porn Problem
The Old Testament book Song of Songs is pretty racy. And not infrequently, its sexual imagery is expressed through food metaphors:
As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
so is my beloved among the young men.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
Similarly, a Sumerian poem "The song of the lettuce" (lettuce, believe it or not, was considered an aphrodisiac in the Ancient Near East; when lettuces goes to seed, it shoots up tall and, ahem, releases a milky white sap), is all about, well, eating "the honey man":
"… my lord, the honey man of a goddess, his mother's favourite, whose hands are honey, whose feet are honey, will make me sweet, whose limbs are honey-sweet, will make me sweet."
These poets—as well as the writer of Like Water for Chocolate—remind us of the similarities between eating and sex, which are both sites of "bodily interfacing" (a place where a body meets something outside itself) and which are both potentially life-giving and community-forming.
A recent Newsweek cover (which appears to have been totally plagiarized from a 2008 issue of the British Observer Food Monthly) depicts a sensual female mouth waiting to receive some very phallic-looking asparagus. It's not particularly original (nor, I think, tasteful), but as a piece of food porn, it speaks volumes about our culture's view of women, food, and sex.
At first glance, what bothers me about the image, aside from its crudeness, is the fact that it involves a woman and some vegetables, and not, say, caramel or chocolate cake. As scholar Susan Bordo explained in Unbearable Weight, while it is acceptable for men in advertisements to appear sensually, almost sexually enraptured in food of any kind; for women, things are more complicated: "female hunger as sexuality is represented in Western culture … with terror and loathing." Women, she argues, are often only 'allowed' to be sensual with regard to food only if it is diet Jell-O or a Weight Watchers frozen dinner or a vegetable or a dessert in a pre-measured, calorie-controlled portion. So by rendering an image of a woman as passive in the sexualized reception of a vegetable, the cover reflects—rather than challenges—dominant cultural ideas about women's appetites. Suddenly, it doesn't seem so daring (if it ever did).
But what do we make of the larger phenomenon of "food porn"—of stylized, close-up, sensual food photography, and its use that, in the words of FoodPornDaily.com, involves a lot of "click, drool, repeat"?
The Seminary Gender Gap
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Jennie McMasters
Praise the Lord for Blessing Us All With the Sexy, Beautiful, Gorgeous, And Most Gracious Lady ..."Mrs. Anita Pelaez"..Who with the blessings of our Lord Bakes the Sexiest and Most Delicious Key Lime Pies In The World!!..Her inviting and warm smile welcomes all of her guests as they visit her Key Lime Pie Factory and Grill located in Asheville. The Biltmore House is close by. The smiles permeate throughout every inch of Anita and her loving husband Kutchie's wonderful establishment. We haven't ever felt so welcome as we were while visiting "Anita and Kutchie Pelaez's".Place..Their Hospitality is Second to Non!..The best from the West, they serve the South with the finest. Anyone who is Anyone can be found there having the most wonderful time of their lives. Anita and Kutchie are such wonderful christens, you will realize it after talking with them just a few minutes. The Lord has surely blessed the loving couple and I'm sure he is proud of them and their christen operated business.
Laura Howard
Good grief! Now we have to be careful that we aren't tempted by sexy looking food? Let's cut to the chase - "food porn" is not porn. Only porn is porn. To throw the term around carelessly is to minimize the devastation real porn has on spouses, families, and those addicted to it. It's ridiculous to compare pinning a photo of delicious looking food to watching real porn.
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Larisa Gaddy
Food porn tries to separate food's goodnesses from one another, much like regular porn does for sex. That's just not how God designed either sex or food for our enjoyment.
Rahab
Kathy, that's simply beautiful! "A succulent meal, slowly savored" is at least as much as we owe God for making it available to us. Too often we gulp, ignoring the greatness of the gift, the sensual satisfaction of it. It's the spirit of the tithe, in Deuteronomy 14, where we're instructed to spend it for "whatever you desire," eating it "before the Lord" with rejoicing. Obviously He knows what our skin-hunger is like, and He knows how to satisfy it by His own hand, and with his own money. Thank you for the reminder!
KATHLEEN L Kexel
Okay, I'm a never-married woman pushing 60. I live alone, often work alone, and with the exception of caring for my disabled brother (who lives next door) can spend 90% of any given week alone. Enticing pictures of food hold no allure for me. BUT on the days when "skin-hunger" (that restless feelilng one gets when one has had too little contact with and too few hugs from other people) hits, a succulent meal, slowly savored can do a lot to relieve that restlessness. If that is "porn," then so be it.
Rick Dalbey
Food porn photos are photos which work on a subliminal level because they remind us, not of the craving for raw asparagus, but a sexual image. They are the product of corrupt photographers. They sexualize strawberries, sexualize bananas, sexualize popsicles, sexualize anything. I am in the advertising business, I hire photographers and I think these kind of images are cheesy and pandering..
Melissa
This is phenomenal. I am writing a masters thesis on the Theology of Food and community as a result and this will be a great resource. I am encouraged that she is challenging this; we need to think theologically about all of this and since Christ compares himself to food and meals are so key to community this article really helps. Thanks so much!
JANE HINRICHS
I think this article falls short. I "get" it but don't agree with it. First, I know people lust after food but I sure would rather my husband lust after a hamburger than another woman. To compare food desire to adultery with pornographic images somehow doesn't seem right. For the spouses who have had to forgive and deal with a spouse's pornography addiction, this is a slap in the face. Second, all people need to eat and often eating is in community. Whenever people celebrate anything there is food (usually). We are called to enjoy it. Eating is a blessing. One of the feasts God gave His people in the Old Testament had them eating for a week straight! Third, I love to see beautiful photography, including food pictures. The food pictures just encourage me to figure out how to make what I have in my kitchen beautiful to eat. I've never had the problem of being discontent with our food because of pictures I've seen. I'm just thankful I can feed my family. I know many have problems with food, and gluttony of food (and anything else that is legal and looks okay on the surface) is not talked about in the church and accepted in a way. That is another issue. But it surely isn't pornography.
Mandi
I have to say I agree with the majority of your article, however, I feel that lusting after traditional porn and pinning delicious, pretty foods is very different. Though I do pin things that look yummy and pretty, it doesn't make me value any less the food in front of me that the Lord has blessed me with. And even though I pin the beautiful photos and may be tempted by those foods at the time, I pin them to recreate them and serve to my family. Food should never be taken for granted, its a blessing, and I recreate the beautiful meals I find, and as I sit down to enjoy them no matter how closely they look like a "photo" of the same that was pinned I thank God. Every time.
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