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Lusting After Asparagus?

August 13, 2012

Lusting After Asparagus?: Our Culture's Food Porn Problem

What's wrong with ogling beautifully shot images of filet mignon and other rich foods? A lot, actually.

Rachel Marie Stone

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 term “food porn” seems to go back to a 1998 Nutrition Action HealthLetter from the Center for Science in the Public Interest when they debuted a column contrasting unhealthy foods (“food porn”) with healthier options (“the right stuff”); the usage implies the editor’s opinion of porn as unquestionably destructive. But as it applies more generally today to appealing images of food, pinned on Pinterest or blogged on any number of foodie sites, "food porn" refers to images that create a yearning for the foods they portray.

Like the Song of Songs and the ridiculous Newsweek cover, food porn is more anticipation than satisfaction. It is about desire and longing for something tasty to eat while you’re wasting time at work or lounging in front of The Food Network late at night. As a blogger who might be partially categorized as a foodie, I’ve contributed my own share of drool-worthy food images to the web. Good food photography—as in a beautiful cookbook—can whet our appetites for the real thing. What could be wrong with that?

As I see it, some of the same things are wrong with food porn as with, well, the other kind of porn: namely, it is generally for private or semi-private consumption, it divorces visual appeal from substantive encounter, and it leads to dissatisfaction with the real thing: a longing for the next amazing meal, instead of contentment with what we might already have in the fridge. A real-life McDonald’s sandwich looks nothing like the advertisement version, and most of what goes on our tables on a daily basis bears scant resemblance to perfectly-plated dinners on Pinterest. While there’s no denying that we do ‘eat’ partly with our eyes—and that appealing presentation is an important aspect of cooking and serving food—food porn is in a different category from simply enjoying the look of your dinner plate. It’s intended to draw you, you alone, in, and create longings that are hard to fulfill in the real world.

Just as sex at its best is unitive and community-forming, so also food is meant to be so much more than a private pleasure. It’s ironic that as food porn, celebrity chefs, and reality-TV cooking shows proliferate, family meals and home cooking steadily decline. Yet these are the very things that seem most likely to bring us health in the fullest sense.

It’s no accident that Jesus shared a meal with his disciples, telling them to “do this in remembrance” of him. We don’t “think this” in remembrance of him, “say this” in remembrance of him, or “pin this” in remembrance of him. We eat and drink in remembrance of him, and, as the apostle Paul and the early church reminds us, it’s that eating and drinking that brings Christians together in One Body.

No amount of time on ChowHound makes up for time spent around the table with others. For whether at the Eucharistic table or the picnic table, we are bound to each other in the breaking of bread.

posted by Katelyn Beaty

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Written by California Watch ~ Twitter: @CaliforniaWatch ~ Facebook: CaliforniaWatch

July 5, 2012

It’s lunchtime at McKinley Elementary School in San Diego, and the kitchen is filled with the aroma of chicken teriyaki and hamburgers. There are no pots or cooking utensils in sight. An industrial four-burner stove sits idle.

Three workers bustle among the refrigerator, oven and food-warmer, preparing racks of reheated frozen foods. As students line up, the staff sets out trays of burgers, bean-and-cheese burritos and chicken stir-fry.

Like many school districts in the state, the San Diego Unified School District doesn’t have the equipment or staff to cook fresh meals from scratch. It does its best with limited federal funding. After accounting for labor and overhead, the district has about $1 left to spend on each lunch, so it relies heavily on processed foods. READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE....

In and Around North Park - July 2012

A Brief History of Bird Park by the North Park Historical Society

Summer Watering Restrictions - All irrigation and hand watering must occur before 10 a.m. and after 6 p.m. from June 1 through the end of October.

Speed limit to change on 30th Street - from Maple to Juniper, in order to remain radar-enforceable. 

International Summer Organ Festival - Mondays, through 8/27

Spreckels Organ Society celebrates its 25th Anniversary Season.

Plaza de Panama at City Council - Monday, 7/9
Check Council web page for agenda.

"Neighborhood Law School" - Monday, 7/9
The Earl B Gilliam Bar Association will host a free legal workshop on starting and running a small business.

Residents Free Tuesdays at Balboa Park - 1st thru 4th Tuesdays
See web page for details.

Twilight in the Park Concerts - Tues/Wed/Thurs, through 8/30
Free concerts at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. 

Main Street Board of Directors - Wednesday, 7/11

Agenda includes a presentation from City Tax Collector, Taste of North Park Update, Main Street Community Patrol, Proposed Changes for Bylaws.

Public Facilities, Transportation, Parks & Public Art - Wednesday, 7/11

See Agenda for details.

NP Farmers Market - Thursday, 7/12
Meet your neighbors, try a new taste, enjoy live music and shop til you drop.

Trolley Barn Park Concert - Friday, 7/13
Hotsy Totsy, 1920s & Cabaret Jazz

Bird Park Summer Concert - Saturday, 7/14

Kitten with a Whip, Indie Rock

South Park Walkabout - Saturday, 7/14
The theme is "Summer of Love - Feelin' Groovy".

Ray at Night Art Walk - Saturday, 7/14
Enjoy new art, live music, food from local food vendors.

NP Planning Committee - Tuesday, 7/17
Save the date for an informational presentation on the Georgia Street Bridge Project and discussion of the University Avenue Mobility Plan.

Park and Recreation Board - Thursday, 7/19
The General Development Plan for the North Park Mini-Park and Streetscape Improvements will be heard at this meeting. 

San Diego Pride Weekend - Friday, 7/20 to Sunday, 7/22

Awards, parade, festival - music, comedy, dance, vendors, art, food. 

Altadena Garage Sale - Saturday, 7/21

40 homes, Upas to Redwood, 32nd to Boundary.