Food Porn: Addiction

Instant gratification, click culture, surplus & saturation…

Everyone is familiar with those minute-long recipe videos on Facebook. They’re so pleasing to the eye, I can watch them one after the other until I’ve seen them all. Now, I’m also sure everyone is familiar with the term food porn. Initially, I always interpreted food porn as food that looks so good, you jizz. Lol, or you drool. You moan and roll your eyes, like “Oh my GOD, that looks so fucking good, holy SHIT!” Or… to a degree. 🙂 Now as I search for things to talk about on my brand new blog (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), I reflect on myself, my own relationship with food, and growing up in a time and place where, if I had the money, I could have anything I wanted using my hands and a smart phone.

Everything is accessible with the swipe and tap of a finger, ordering food (yessss), buying plane tickets, coppin’ a new pair o’ kicks, an erotic video of people engaging in sexual activity, hell, even finding someone to boink by the end of tonight. While this is extremely convenient, it’s almost scary. You’re telling me I could get away without ever leaving my house? That sounds so appealing that it frightens me. I wouldn’t need plane tickets or shoes if I were to never leave my house, but you get the point… I could even get paid from the comfort of my couch. Everything is ready for my taking and when I’m done with it, just a couple more clicks and there’s something new for me (in an overly sugar-coated, unrealistic, alternate reality where I was so financially well-off that I could afford these things).

With porn, you get instant gratification. It’s not even from seeing hot bodies rubbing up against each other, but it’s the novelty of it all, something new on every page, so many flicks of your thumb, so many options. What you don’t get from porn, is what you would get if you were actually having a physical, intimate relationship with another human being: ~*dating, skin2skin contact, emotional and personal connection, physical / chemical attraction, etc…*~ This is like the same thing with food porn. I find myself watching those recipe vids, or binge watching Munchies videos, Binging with Babish (aesthetics & pop culture references), Cooking With Dog (Less active now, but the host is a dog with a French/Japanese accent!), Mind of a Chef (this show is available on Netflix for all my fellow Canucks), pretty much all cooking shows, and honestly, this last season of Master of None was tooooo fucking much, and while all of this is extremely fun and satisfying to watch, something new in every video…. My stomach is still fucking empty! In the time I spent watching 7 episodes of Master of None, I could’ve cooked myself a meal that was probably just as good, cheaper, and most important of all, physically tasted and masticated by YOURS TRULY ~*

Truthfully, the reason it’s easier to just sit and watch people cook and eat than it is to buy the ingredients, do the prep, wait for it to cook, if it’s no good then go through the process of trial and error, and then clean up your mess, is because it takes a lot less effort to be passive than active. The satisfaction that I get from cooking a delicious homemade meal is so much deeper, more personal than watching a high-production simulation on a screen.

Realistically, I’m not going to cut out all of my favourite shows and shorts, I would much rather watch things that inspire me to experiment with new techniques, flavours, presentation and ingredients, but I can make a conscious effort to do more productive things throughout my day, ie. work on writing pieces for this ol’ thang. I’m glad that I finally started this because I can see myself having a lot of fun with this sort of outlet.

Here’s a really interesting TedTalk about the scientific effects of porn on the brain. Super interesting, not food related, but inspired me to write this piece.

#selfcrit #orquit #dontforgettolikeme #validateme!!!

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