Notes on Spanish Cuisine [A Preachy Prelude]: In Which I Scold You for Publishing Photos of Food Served in Restaurants (Before I Do It Myself)

In Which I Scold You for Publishing Photos of Food Served in Restaurants

This was supposed to be a post about Spanish Cuisine, which I am preparing at the request of my loyalest (only-est?) regular reader, the wonderful Ekaterina!

But I wound up writing a sermon to precede it because, well, I guess that’s just what I do [#preachyvarietyact]. But then, it IS Sunday after all…

I don’t usually write about food (although there are exceptions). And I never take photos of food unless I am using them to communicate something very specific. I don’t take “selfies” for that matter either, again, unless I am using them to communicate something very specific. [Growing up with real film cameras, in a world with a much smaller personal image industry, taking a “selfie” was a virtual taboo].

By the same token I didn’t live in a world where I was regularly exposed to photos of food, unless, again, they were being used to communicate something specific. Today I am bombarded by food pictures, devoid of any particular context or message.

[I should also note that I didn’t grow up in a world where sexualized photos of naked women were instantly available, but, well, here we are].

I know this comes off as judgmental. And in all fairness, my instincts are shockingly conservative. I am an Earth Elemental – I am a stone. (Not really! I’m more like a really dense dirt clod!) I abhor trends and strive to embody the timeless and the universal. And I KNOW that, obviously, stodgy conservativism is usually a terrible approach to life.

BUT…

… I believe there is a difference between image appreciation and lookist obsession/vanity, and between sexuality and sexualization.

In Which I Scold You for Publishing Photos of Food Served in Restaurants

Fetishist Exploitation

I find myself reflecting on something C.S. Lewis wrote while trying to contextualize his own criticism of the emerging sexualization of his time:

There is nothing to be ashamed of in enjoying your food: there would be everything to be ashamed of if half the world made food the main interest of their lives and spent their time looking at pictures of food and dribbling and smacking their lips… There are people who want to keep our sex instinct inflamed in order to make money out of us. Because, of course, a man with an obsession is a man who has very little sales-resistance”

C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity

I’m sure I could write a book of counter arguments to many of Lewis’s theses. But when he exposes capitalist exploitation of basic human drives, to the detriment of the many for the profit of the few, we walk arm in arm.

All this to say that the “foodie” culture that has normalized fetishy snapshots of meals served in restaurants makes me roll my eyes as hard as the “selfie” phenomenon has. [Although it’s not so horrifying as contemplating that it’s easier to obtain graphic hardcore pornography than clean drinking water].

All of this serves as a lengthy and unecessary prelude to my next post which will feature –

In Which I Scold You for Publishing Photos of Food Served in Restaurants

LOTS OF PICTURES OF FOOD!