How is Food Porn Like Real Porn?

Licking my lips...fantasizing...the thoughts tantalizing my curiosity. Give it to me!!! I want more. Have I attracted your interest yet?

One could confuse these thoughts and words being that of a person lusting over food or some form of physical desire. But beyond all needs and wants there in front of me is the very tempting and visually spectacular photograph of a Chocolate Cake, far removed from that which one would possibly consider or dream of preparing at home.

So what is the connection between Food Porn and Real Porn?

Can food images provoke as much satisfaction?

Firstly, I see food porn as food presented in a way that one would show porn. I see food porn as food given extraordinary focus in a visually interesting elaborate way which causes you to fantasise or lust for it…just the same way you would view it as if it were porn.

A loaded subject, yes, whether you agree or not, food and sex have long been linked together.

In a Harper’s magazine article in 2005 titled Debbie Does Salad: The Food Network at the Frontiers of Pornography Frederick Kaufman interviewed porn still photographer Barbara Nitke who pointed out her opinion on the connection between porn and food.

“You watch porn saying, yes, I could do that. You dream that you’re there, but you know you couldn’t...That’s exactly the way the porn thing works. The sex, of course, is impossible to replicate”.

Anne E. McBride in her article Food Porn for Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture (Vol.10, No.1 pp.38-46) further supports this ideology by stating that “as with sex porn, we enjoy watching what we ourselves presumably cannot do”.

Whether it is glossy photographs of food or food provoking feelings of pleasure, food porn is eye candy! 

Let’s face it…the term food porn is sexy, provides appeal and gets you thinking.