Letters from the Edge of Elfland
#Foodporn, #Wordporn: Gratuity, Beauty, and Pornography
“The other day as I was scrolling through various social media I came across a picture of food (shocking, I know). After the caption there was the hashtag #foodporn. This got me thinking of other times I’ve been on social media and a person has shared a poem or song lyrics and appended the hashtag #wordporn. This got me thinking. What precisely are we trying to say? What is the connection between these images/words and pornography? And why, when so many studies discuss the deleterious effect of pornography on our brains (let alone on our minds and bodies), do we associate the word porn with both images and stories that are meant for arousal with pictures of food and poetry? Why do we do this?”
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