SEX PORN/FOOD PORN

The makers of Canon cameras have added a “food mode” to one of their models.  Why? Taking food photos is all the rage. “Are you one of the few people left who doesn’t take pictures of your meal before eating?” asked a Huffington post story. More stylized photos are often categorized as “food porn.” Food porn?  Yes, that label, introduced in the 1980s, has stuck.  Does this represent the wisdom of folk psychology, some crafty marketing ploy, or a superficial, ultimately mistaken identification? 

What might the differences and similarities be?  First of all, the very root “porn” comes from the ancient Greek for prostitute, so it’s link with sex is narrow and traditional.  Also pornography’s function as an aid to masturbation marks a functional difference.  The ancient philosopher Diogenes did not need pornography when he masturbated in public.  He was a fan of the “follow nature; all social conventions are contrived and unnatural” kind of philosophy.   When challenged about his public practice, he offered a straightforward retort: “I only wish I could relieve my hunger by simply rubbing my stomach.”  His answer highlights an important difference: Food porn does not seem to offer the same opportunity for direct physiological satisfaction.  In that sense at least, there is a disanalogy.  

So, beyond the similarity of gazing at provocative photos, speaking of both sex and food “porn” ignores some important differences.  

On a wider level, both food porn and sex pornography manifest some identical,  basic, and related human temptations:  Abstraction is preferred over concreteness; the triad of vulnerability, risk and responsibility is shunned, certain habits are cultivated. 

Abstraction, this may strange coming from a philosopher, is evil.  It’s most basic meaning signifies isolating certain factors and ignoring, in effect, erasing, what in actual circumstances accompanies them.  Such constricted focus, unrecognized and uncriticized,  is central to evil.  Take racism, rooted in a straightforward abstraction: highlighting skin color, i.e. abstracting from all other dimensions of the actual, concrete human being in front of us.  Similarly, the carefully posed naked female in pornography is actually more concealed than revealed. At least in the sense that her concrete, complex personhood is abstracted from.  Instead one dimension, that which excites the male libido is isolated and highlighted.

Selective attention is unavoidable, but it must be recognized as the tool it is and not confused with concrete actuality.  This is easier said than done. The temptation toward abstractification of reality is reinforced by certain comforts it brings with it.  In an abstracted, purified, simplified realm, certain accompaniments of concrete, ordinary existence just disappear. Prominent among these is the liability triad of  vulnerability, risk, responsibility. The consumer of pornography need not worry about getting feelings hurt, suffering disappointment, being asked to wash dishes, engage in fair-minded give and take.

As the multi-dimensional becomes uni-dimensional, the level  of the liability triad drops to zero. 

It is here that sex porn/food porn overlap.  The sex photo is detached and disconnected from ordinary human interactions.  The enticing dish of food porn is also set apart from ordinary interactions. Vulnerability, responsibility and risk recede.  Concerns about health and girth? Ignore them.  Time needed for planning, shopping, preparing, cooking and especially cleaning? Poof, they disappear.

On another level, both  also overlap with the general category of ethics.  Pornography is about shaping habits.  And, in general, shaping habits is what ethics is all about.   The very word “ethics” comes for the ancient Greek term for habits and customs. As humans we manifest plenty of spontaneous inclinations.  Sorting them out, cultivating the proper ones, transforming them into habitual dispositions, developing the kind of character that is optimal, this defines the terms of “ethics” as Aristotle understood it.  

The habit shaped  by sexual pornography isolates and encourages the tendency to think of women first and fundamentally as sources of sexual satisfaction, as good places for an orgasm.  Once the habitual disposition becomes second nature, it appears that any other tendency is merely an artificial imposition of culture over “nature.” (We continue to be a lot more like Diogenes the Cynic than we like to think). Similarly the habit shaped by food porn is to think of food, one-dimensionally as simply a source of pleasure.

 So, maybe the “porn” label in “food porn” is not that outlandish. Both food and sex porn embrace constricted abstractness.  Both limit the liability triad.  Both succumb to the temptation of embracing fantasy over reality. What is not fantasy is the shared habitual disposition that is encouraged: fostering connection without vulnerability.