Channel-surfing idly, I came upon a program called "Nigella Feasts" on Discovery Travel and Living. My first thought as I watched the splendidly upholstered Nigella Lawson throw in cups of full-fat cream and ladlefuls of butter as she whipped up a huge quantity of eggs was that the show's title was grossly misleading. It was less "Nigella Feasts" and more "Nigella Serves Up A Heart Attack."
Immediately, the secret behind that bounteous cleavage was all too evident. It glistened and gleamed with life and verve because of the copious amount of animal fat, red meat and sugar it had been brought up on. Nigella, looked like the perfect Domestic (Greek, if you insist) Goddess seriously enough to gobble up all the high calorie treats she cooked on her show.
However, I could not understand all the confusion about "food porn" or "gastro porn." Sure, Nigella has a rather tactile approach to cooking, touching – even caressing – her ingredients, kneading and pounding with feeling and slurping everything up with lip-smacking approval. And unlike most curvy women who hide behind shapeless dresses, she does this while proudly showing off her assets in tight sweaters.
But "food porn"? Huh! Anyone who thought that there was anything even remotely pornographic about a full-figured woman enjoying her pudding needed their head examined. And as for that well-worn cliché about how food is like sex, those who believe that cannot have had much experience of either.
What was it about Nigella that made people immediately think "porn" even if it was in the context of food? Sure, she is sexy in a Mother Earth sort of way, with soft, flowing tresses and a mouth that was made for licking batter off a bowl. And it cannot hurt the ratings that her cleavage shows off to best advantage when she bends over the stove to taste her spoils. But to go from there to pornography is rather a stretch.
Moreover, the problem lies with our perceptions. We are simply not used to seeing women of Nigella's shape as sexual beings. The media is flooded with images of stick-thin women with plastic breasts and collagen-enhanced smiles. So the sight of a normal sized woman who (to the best of our media’s knowledge) hasn’t been cosmetically enhanced, looking sexy and sensual throws us completely.
We see women like this around us every day but they become imbued with a certain fetishistic appeal when they appear in their full-bodied glory on television. There is almost a spooky element to seeing them showing off their bits on screen without the slightest trace of embarrassment.
Her unapologetic behavior on the way she looks is actually a celebration – she celebrates it. And instead of dishing out slimming recipes or offering low-fat options, she delights in all manner of fattening foods. As she once wrote, paraphrasing Oscar Wilde, "I have nothing to declare but my greed."
And in her persona as foodie femme fatale, her appetites are to be indulged – not dulled by a regimen of sensible eating. Perhaps the reason why people find something sexual in her blatant enjoyment of food is because it implies that she will not shy away from feeding her other senses.
Maybe, that's what accounts for all this nonsense about "food porn." In our shape-obsessed world, food has become the forbidden fruit, a guilty treat best sampled in secret. The act of tucking into a big meal – or looking as if we enjoy it – in public has acquired a tacit taboo at a time when self-deprivation is all the rage. And maybe that's why Nigella's performance smacks of illicit pleasures rather than an honest appreciation of good food. Her rise from the public fights with her partner would not tarnish her profile, but make her stronger, and stand for other women by seeing up a great example.
Which begs the question, food porn anyone? It is scientific and proven. You don’t feel romantic if you are starving. Pushing pervs to the kitchen….
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then does not hurt.” ―Charles M. Schulz
