Hey…I didn’t order a pizza…
(cue music: bowmp chica bomp-bomp chica bow-wow)
Sure, we’ve all tossed around the term “food porn” more than a few times. Some accuse magazines like Gourmet and Bon Appetit of propagating it. Hey, even this website could be considered one form.
But journalist and author Frederick Kaufman, who has just published the book A Short History Of The American Stomach, has taken the thought one step further. He’s accusing the Food Network of being nothing more than Food Porn in its purest form. And no, we’re not just talking about the misty lens and low-cut tops featured on “Everyday Italian”.
Some of Kaufman’s points about the network – its reliance on sound effects, its camera angles, etc., are well-taken. But Rachael Ray as the “innocent girl next door”? Tyler Florence as the aforementioned salacious pizza man? The guy may be taking a few liberties with his analogies.
But judge for yourself: Check out a transcript of his discussion with On The Media here
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11Oct
5 Responses
And food porn is a bad thing?
DCFud takes no official stance on Food Porn. DCFud contributor MJF welcomes it in all its derivatives.
Obviously you have never seen the sexy ‘pizza down the pants’ scene from ‘Dodgeball’.
He’s right about one thing: Giada is HOT. She’s arguably the most beautiful woman on TV, and when I see her plating up some equally lovely Italian feast, I consider proposing to her through the screen. I gave my dad one of her cookbooks for his birthday and my mom took it away and hid it!
As for the rest of it, eh. I don’t really get it. “They make different pies, and then THEY ONLY PUT THE ONE THAT LOOKS BEST ON THE AIR!” To paraphrase Jon Stuart, I’m…outraged? Who cares? Like I don’t know this is TV? And I love that he thinks the swap idea comes from porn, when legit movies and television shows have editing and general trickery which are about 1 million times more sophisticated and deceptive than anything Bishop from Family Business is turning out.
And everything’s interwoven with this weird pseudo-scolding and tongue-clucking about how we react sensually to food (which is apparently a terrible shame) and how it’s somehow unconscionable for Food Network to recognize this fact.
Bottom line–this guy thought he would get attention if he used the word porn a lot. Apparently he was right.
Yeah, shame on the people who reward sexy litterature by paying attention to it!