{"id":3181,"date":"2012-08-17T06:00:43","date_gmt":"2012-08-17T10:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rachelmariestone\/?p=3181"},"modified":"2012-08-17T06:00:43","modified_gmt":"2012-08-17T10:00:43","slug":"newsweeks-tasteless-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rachelmariestone\/2012\/08\/17\/newsweeks-tasteless-cover\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsweek’s Tasteless Cover"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I have a new post up at her.meneutics on the tasteless Newsweek cover. Here\u2019s a taste:<\/em><\/p>\n

The Old Testament book Song of Songs<\/a> is pretty racy. And not infrequently, its sexual imagery is expressed through food metaphors:<\/p>\n

As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,<\/em><\/p>\n

so is my beloved among the young men.<\/p>\n

With great delight I sat in his shadow,<\/p>\n

and his fruit was sweet to my taste.<\/p>\n

Similarly, a Sumerian poem \u201cThe song of the lettuce\u201d <\/a>(lettuce, believe it or not, was considered an aphrodisiac<\/a> in the Ancient Near East; when lettuces goes to seed, it shoots up tall and, ahem, releases a milky white sap), is all about, well, eating \u201cthe honey man\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201c. . . my lord, the honey man of a goddess, his mother\u2019s favourite, whose hands are honey, whose feet are honey, will make me sweet, whose limbs are honey-sweet, will make me sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n

These poets\u2014as well as the writer of Like Water for Chocolate<\/a><\/em>\u2014remind us of the similarities between eating and sex, which are both sites of \u201cbodily interfacing\u201d<\/a> (a place where a body meets something outside itself) and which are both potentially life-giving and community-forming<\/a><\/p>\n

A recent Newsweek<\/em> cover (which appears to have been totally plagiarized<\/a> from a 2008 issue of the British Observer Food Monthly<\/em>) depicts a sensual female mouth waiting to receive some very phallic-looking asparagus. It\u2019s not particularly original (nor, I think, tasteful), but as a piece of food porn<\/a>, it speaks volumes about our culture\u2019s view of women, food, and sex.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At first glance, what bothers me about the image, aside from its crudeness, is the fact that it involves a woman and some vegetables, and not, say, caramel or chocolate cake. As scholar Susan Bordo explained in Unbearable Weight, while it is acceptable for men in advertisements to appear sensually, almost sexually enraptured in food of any kind; for women, things are more complicated: \u201cfemale hunger as sexuality is represented in Western culture . . . with terror and loathing.\u201d Women, she argues, are often only \u2018allowed\u2019 to be sensual with regard to food only if it is diet Jell-O or a Weight Watchers frozen dinner or a vegetable or a dessert in a pre-measured, calorie-controlled portion. So by rendering an image of a woman as passive in the sexualized reception of a vegetable, the cover reflects\u2013rather than challenges\u2013dominant cultural ideas about women\u2019s appetites. Suddenly, it doesn\u2019t seem so daring (if it ever did).<\/p>\n

But what do we make of the larger phenomenon of \u201cfood porn\u201d\u2014of stylized, close-up, sensual food photography, and its use that, in the words of FoodPornDaily.com<\/a>, involves a lot of \u201cclick, drool, repeat\u201d?<\/p>\n

{read the rest at Christianity Today\u2019s<\/em> women\u2019s blog: here<\/a>}<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a new post up at her.meneutics on the tasteless Newsweek cover. Here\u2019s a taste: The Old Testament book Song of Songs is pretty racy. And not infrequently, its sexual imagery is expressed through food metaphors: As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2070,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNewsweek's Tasteless Cover<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have a new post up at her.meneutics on the tasteless Newsweek cover. Here's a taste: The Old Testament book Song of Songs is pretty racy. 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