フードポルノにおける食のメディア化

フード・ネットワークから「映えグルメ」まで

抄録

    What is food porn? What does it look like and why is a food image associated with pornography? Does the Japanese boom of "hae" (visually appealing) gourmet food and desserts equivalent to food porn? "Food porn" is a particular mode of representing food in which various techniques, such as contrasting colors, slow motion, close-ups, and framing, are used to exaggerate the food’s aesthetically pleasing aspect and affective impact on viewers. An image (a work or television program) that employs such techniques can also be referred to as food porn. After locating the topic within a larger theoretical framework of mediatization, this article explores the arguments of several well-known food porn research in the US and the UK. The launch of Food Network, a famous television station, in 1993 is considered by previous research as a significant backdrop for the industrialization of food porn. Chan (2003) uses the term "pornography" as a metaphor to describe typical plot lines and characters in food shows that are, in his view, similar to sexual porn. Kaufman (2006) extends Chan’s points by examining the shooting of a Food Network cooking show, audience demography, and the visual grammar of food programs parallel to sexual porn. McDonnell (2016) explains in detail the characteristics of the gaze constructed by, and the scheme of, food porn images. Ibrahim (2015) contextualizes the popularity of user-generated food images on SNS within everyday media practices. I agree with Ray (2007), who is suspicious of the use of sensational terms to critically analyze media representations of food. However, it is noteworthy that Japanese SNS users and cooking magazines employ in their food images the same visual techniques that are framed as food porn by McDonnell. Hypothetically, this might show that the typical way of portraying food in the Food Network shows has been disseminated so widely that it impacted people who do not directly watch their programs.