You are here: Home » Be Smart » Opinion : Please Don’t Call It Food P#rn!

Opinion : Please Don’t Call It Food P#rn!

Written by
April 3, 2012
Be Smart
23 Comments

I post a lot of food images online.  (My name IS Gourmet Girlfriend, after all!) You will find these images on my blog, right alongside my recipes. You may spot them on my Facebook page, Twitter or,  if you follow me,  on Instagram too.  Food galore.  Yum.  These images are a big part of what I do and what I write about.  I love to see the beauty in the things around me and I include food in my very favourite things.

If you read my blog you will quickly deduce that food, to me, is about sharing something with the people I love.  It’s about sharing the joy of life.  It’s about taking care of people I care about.  It’s about giving.  Yes, the food is often beautiful, but the intention behind the meal is about so much more than the food itself (however delicious it may look/be!)

Deliciousness turned to discomfort when someone recently tagged one of my food images with the hashtag #foodp*rn.  It felt so far from my own relationship with food that I felt the need to write about it.

I would NEVER use the term #foodpo*n alongside any of my images. I find the term abhorrent. I understand that it’s a term used to describe things people find beautiful.  I know it is intended as a compliment. But I don’t see it that way.  In fact I find it really, really upsetting!

Po#n is an industry that can be ANYTHING but beautiful.  It is (often) based solely on sexual gratification.  It is about money.  It is about power.  (Before you get all ranty on me, I KNOW there are elements of this industry that are safe and that some employees are well looked after.  Generally, however,  it is still an industry that doesn’t have a great reputation, may not treat its workers as well as it should and is often, by nature, part of a decidedly ugly element of society.)

Po#n is about all kinds of things that seem far removed from my own foodie motivations.

When did we become so desensitized as a society, that the choice of words to describe images of beautiful food (and other things) is now aligned with an industry based on sexual gratification which is very often ANYTHING but beautiful?  Is food really about sexual gratification?  Have you ever stopped to think about the strange alignment of these two things?  And have we chosen to close our eyes to the often ugly industry that lies behind the term?

I am not naïve, I know that some people won’t get my side of the story.  I know that some people won’t understand my discomfort with the alignment of food images with graphic sexual imagery/language. I know that some people will call me prudish.  That’s ok.  I also know a lot of people agree with me, that a lot of people also find the term foodp#rn  cringe worthy.  I know I am not alone.

By all means come on by and read my blog, look at my images on Instagram or Facebook but please don’t ever use the term #foodporn .  It REALLY REALLY upsets me.

Gourmet Girlfriend blogs quite regularly about food and family life from her Melbourne kitchen table. She’s a clog loving, Marimekko coveting, coffee sipping culinary superstar.  She’s the mother of  five awesome boys and the wife of one man. Phew!

 

 

  • http://www.justbaustralia.com.au/ Pip @ JustB

    I just call it YUM. I just do this #yum #y-to-the-um #goshyum That works for me! xx

  • Michelle

    I am with you as well, it always makes me cringe when I heaar or read that word, anyways my favourite word to describe awesome food is Delish and that works for me! Mx

  • Lauren

    To me the term foodp*rn comes from something you really enjoy looking at. I personally don’t visualise a relation to the p*rn industry when I hear/use that term when looking at great food photography at all. Like you said, it is a complimentary term used when you really really like the image you’re looking at. 

    Of course there are many other words that you can also use, but with online society/technology today, new words and phrases are created frequently. When you look at the history of words, it is so interesting to see the origins of words and phrases and how they have changed over time. This is just happening at a more rapid rate now, as with everything else really. I can see that the relationship comes from people enjoying looking at the ‘other’ p*rn, however through the internet/blogging/pinterest/etc the meaning of the word is changing.

    I also really understand how if you connect the two it would be quite offensive. So I’m not disagreeing with you, I’m just putting my thoughts forward. (I’m on holidays…lots of time to think ^_^) And you have every right to ask people not to refer to images on your blog with that title, as they are yours xo 

    I guess I just want you to know that in no way do I personally find it to be offensive or actually even relate it to the ‘other’ p*rn. xo Who knows, it may even become a new entry into the dictionary soon?

  • Allana @ highmaintenancehippy

    Hear, hear! I totally agree and thankyou for saying it out loud :)

  • terese

    I think it’s just short hand used a lot in media now – house p*rn for decorating magazines etc. Also about images of food/homes/ bodies that look unachievable/too beautiful for the ordinary person. I don’t see any sexual connotation at all.

  • Cecilyapaterson
  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=661079139 Lee Brown

    amen to that Ruth Cheers Lee

  • Siobhan

    I see foodp*rn as a reference to the duality in the way society views food. On one hand, we can admire food, almost fetishise it with amazing photography and food shows that are more about the seductiveness of the host than the enjoyment of cooking. On the other, we are obsessed with obesity and how much we should or shouldn’t be eating, with food up on a pedestal as untouchable and idolised (just like the unrealistic portrayal of something that should be completely natural in p*rn). 
    Obviously you don’t have this kind of relationship with food & I hope I don’t either! Food should be enjoyed as spiritual and physical nourishment. But this is just how I understand this term being used.

  • http://twitter.com/lucas_cmaree Catherine Lucas

    Completely agree GG, I  HATE porn being used to describe food!! Love this post, so maybe I will be called prudish too. 

  • http://twitter.com/MeganBlandford Megan Blandford

    I cringe at that term, too. Just love your blog – your words and photos and recipes are just beautiful. 

  • Reannonhope

    Let me start by saying ” Hey! So great to see you here!!” I love your blog & I follow you on IG too ( I’m not a stalker, just love what you have to say & show)

    I do not like the term foodporn either. It sounds dumb to me. I’ve noticed it popping up a lot in IG but I’ve also seen cloudporn which is just about the dumbest thing EVER!!

    Let’s just stick with YUMMO or YES PLEASE or my fave word DELISH. I like those words so much better,

  • cindy

    I hear it more as a term of lust not sexuality in that use of the word ‘food porn’ – having said that though I don’t want it to sound like a approve or would ever use it. I also think it is a bit of a shame when you share your personal recipes, pics, stories etc and see a label that doesn’t resonate with your beliefs.

  • katho

    totally agree!!

  • Cat Beloverly

    I totally agree with you Ruth…not a surprise really I guess given we agree on a lot of “stuff”. I am cool with being prudish. I will never understand how “society” has become so desensitised to these things. I nearly fell down dead when I saw my then 16 year old niece with a Playboy tshirt on. I find it a bit well, disrespectful in all honesty.  

  • Renee | About a Bugg

    Great post.  

    While I don’t necessarily find it personally upsetting; I am never in danger of posting/cooking/creating anything that would end up with that tag attached (those are just not my skills – I live vicariously through you) to it, so maybe that’s why I haven’t put much thought into it.

    But when I do think about it, yes, it’s squeemy. It’s not right and the word just doesn’t work. Nor should it. The context is wrong. And I probably would be irked if something I posted ended up with that tag attached.

    Thanks GG for opening my mind, yet again. xx

  • http://lemonrhodes.blogspot.com/ jody

    I totally agree with you. I find the term unsettling and completely unnecessary. When I see the #foodporn hashtag without even looking at the food I immediately think tacky, cheap and distasteful. Call me prudish, but I think food I lovingly prepare for my family and friends to be  wholesome, nourishing and full of love.  The complete opposite to porn.
    Love your work lady! xx

  • http://www.nataliebarnes.com/ Natalie

    Great post. I completely agree with you. The link between food and that industry is extremely distasteful and unnecessary. I’m one of those who wouldn’t say online what I wouldn’t say in real life, and there is no chance that I would make that association when discussing food with my family. Ever. Cooking with my family is wholesome and done with love. It’s about our coming together to nourish our souls with each other’s company while filling our bellies with food we’ve made together; end of story.

    It concerns me that society is so desensitised that language of this kind is considered okay. If anyone wants to call me a prude for my dislike of the term, so be it. I’m happy to be called that.

  • Foxslane

    To be honest, I don’t even get it.
    I don’t believe that the term porn relates to anything other than what it is – ‘the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement.’
    Pictures of gorgeous meals you have prepared for the ones you love are not that.
    The only thing I can think of that gets close to food porn is that movie 91/2 weeks.

    Having said that I am also aware that there are words that I am desensitised to that cause offence to others. I was once asked by a commenter on my blog to stop saying ‘oh my god’ because that is offensive. I try. I say ohmygoodness when I remember.

    And I also say #yum!

    Love your work GG. xx

  • Cathg1g2

    I’m with the YUM way of acknowledging any  beautifully and lovingly prepared food. Which reminds me, gotta make some more of that beetroot confit of yours…

  • Concerned

    Gee, I’ve been guilty of using that term myself, on a rare occasion. But now I’ve read your point of view, I won’t ever use the term again. I just hope it wasn’t me who used that term to comment on one of your posts!
    I do understand your feelings very well. Some time ago I came across a dim sim and dumpling stall; it’s name is “Won Hung Lo” referring to a smutty boys joke I heard years ago. I was so offended because, as a woman I couldn’t relate to it, it wasn’t the type of thing I’d find at all humorous and to apply it in a food situation, well…..yuk!
    But also I was and am SO embarrassed as I find the “skewing” of the Mandarin language so disrespectful and offensive and I’m embarrassed it’s happening here in Melbourne; really, really, really embarrassed.
    The lack of authenticity of the name extends, I’m alleging, to the product; I don’t think any Asians are involved at any point in the production process. 

  • http://www.ourlittlesins.com/ Kate Sins

    Yuck, ick, it’s not acceptable to use the ‘p’ word anywhere other than its own industry. It cheapens everything else.  And really it doesn’t make sense. Do people actually think p#rn is attractive? Probably not so why use the word to describe something that is? 

    Love that you wrote this. Hate that I didn’t spend more time chatting with you over the weekend! 

  • http://goodgoogs.com Zoey @ Good Googs

    Yeah, I have a whole series of posts called Food Porn. Clearly I am not the target audience here. Or I am! For me it’s about food lust. 

    And I don’t feel it’s an unhealthy thing that’s only ever applied to decadent food. I apply it to white chocolate and raspberry brownies AND potato and leek soup. For me my relationship with food starts with the eyes and that’s what I mean when I talk about food porn.

    I don’t think of it as aligned to the porn industry. But I do think that food can be sexual. Not nine and a half weeks sexual but sexual in the way that it is usually a key part of the vast majority of romantic occasions – dates, weddings, celebrations. Food is often at the heart of all of those things so I don’t see it as being separate from sexuality.

  • Mo

    Totally agree! It’s an icky term and – being a total hoity toity prude – don’t know why things have to be so in your face these days. Let the p word stay where it belongs. My food is YUMMY and SCRUMMY.