Multimodal Analysis Paper
Multimodal Analysis Paper
Paper Description: 500-750 words; double-spaced; 12-point Times New Roman font; MLA style formatting, citation, and Work Cited page
Points: 100
The Assignment
Find a multimodal object related to food to analyze. By multimodal object, I mean a cultural artifact that is not only text-basedfor example, a youtube video, podcast, episode of a television show, scene from a movie, photograph, painting, advertisement, etc. While your object may include some use of text, it should convey meaning through other visual and auditory techniques, as well.
Once you have chosen your multimodal object, write an analysis of the object. Your paper should 1) analyze how the object portrays food or a food-related issue OR 2) analyze how a food-related object portrays a different theme or issue identified by you.
Criteria for Evaluation:
A successful multimodal analysis will include:
An introduction that effectively describes the multimodal object for an unfamiliar reader and ends with an analytical thesis statement.
A clear and specific analytical thesis statement.
Effective use of evidencewhile you will probably discuss some textual evidence, you must also describe and interpret other types of evidence (i.e. visual evidence). Any dialogue discussed should be quoted and attributed accurately.
A logical organization and use of clear topic sentences and transitions; the writer should carefully guide the reader through the analysis, and it should be clear to the reader how each body paragraph connects back to the writers analytical thesis statement.
Correct use of MLA citation style.
Clear language use i.e. correct grammar and effective word choice. Food and Gender 1
Cake, Computers, and Conformity
Posted by
JULIA M CHRISTENSEN
on
MAY 4, 2016
Link to the online version (with the photos and youtube videos discussed in the article): https://blogs.brown.edu/amst-0191z-s01-spring-2016/2016/05/04/cliche-about-cookbook/
Part 1: Examining Gender in Rosanna PansinosThe Nerdy Nummies Cookbook
What do the Loch Ness Monster, moon phases, flash drives, and hashtags have in common? According to YouTubepersonalityand host of the online baking showNerdy Nummies, Rosanna Pansino, they all fall under the termsnerdy orgeeky.In 2011, Pansino began a series of baking tutorials that culminated intoThe Nerdy Nummies Cookbook, published in late 2015. Pansinos recipes and fun, bubbly attitude embody an interesting dichotomy between exploring geek culture, which carries a masculine connotation, and embracing her femininity. While this cookbook branches beyond stereotypical gender biases that separate women from advanced academia like math and science, several aspects ofNerdy Nummiesactually reinforce and regress the sexist ideologies Pansino initially appears to transgress. These qualities include the simplified presentation of Pansinos recipes, the utilization of her femininity within patriarchal norms, and her determination to experience geek culturethroughthe typically-female realm of baking, thus re-establishing her as only capable of expressing herself through the stereotypically subordinate, female role of being in the kitchen.
THE DISTINCT SIMPLIFICATION AND FEMINIZATION OFNERDY NUMMIES VISUAL AESTHETIC AND RECIPES
To begin, this cookbooks physical presentation embodies certain undertones that conform to gender expectations, thus contradicting Pansinos claim to cross gender boundaries.Nerdy Nummiesaesthetic is bright and attractive: rounded font, pastel color palette, and illustrative food photography present Rosannas recipes (in her cookbook and YouTube videos) as rather simple and childish. This easy-to-read quality makes the cookbook accessible to younger audiences, but simultaneouslydumbs downthe advanced scientific phenomena that inspire each dessert. The contents complexity is completely void for the sake of appearance: each recipe features a colorful header, large type, easy-to-follow instructions, and a short explanatory paragraph (Figure 1). These passages occasionally incorporate facts for example, the Chemistry Lab Cake recipe notes that gluten networks form as you mix the batter, while carbon dioxide escapingfrom baking soda helps the cake rise as it heatsbut each one closes with ajoke or a punfor example, the Atom Cookie blurb finishes withJust remember: Never trust an atomthey make up everything![i]. This implies that baking and decorating is the most important factor, and scientific technicalities are irrelevant or joke-worthy. Is thegeeky content even significant, or just a convenient outlet to create a variety of colorful treats? Pansinos commitment to her cookbooks thematic elements seems to outweigh her focus on the content, thus bringing into question her investment in the geek culture she claims to immerse herself in. Her focus on the cookbooks visual aesthetic, more so than the complexity and intricacy of the scientific information, puts her back into the inferior female expectation that she is ironically trying to branch out from.Nerdy Nummiesaims to join math, science, and baking into a comprehensive and intellectual event. Ironically, the overall presentations undertones actually uphold the gendered bias that women can only express themselves within the domestic, kitchen sphere, and solely respond to easy, carefully crafted guidance.
Pansino claims that both the geeky themeand resulting treats aresure to please the geek in all of us: she aims to satisfy both a mental and physical craving, so one may learn new things while enjoying an easy, comprehensible activity[ii]. In her analysis on gender and American cooking, Jessamyn Neuhaus discusses the way that 20th century domestic ideology enforced that to be feminine is to satisfy others: women should first and foremostcater to the needs and wants of their husbands, and, in shortembody femininity[iii]. It is interesting to note that Pansino is clearly skilled in the kitchen, yet chooses to only include sweet, sugary, dessert-like foods that often hold a motherly, feminine association. The very category of food she chooses to explore in a geeky context happens to be the most traditionally domestic this point will be discussed further upon unpacking the significance of the geek culture focus. In drawing these pieces together, concerningNerdy Nummiespresentation and recipe choice, Pansino actually redefines herself as not a powerful female cook, but one whose understanding of advanced concepts cannot escape the domestic realm in which she is most comfortable.
THE UTILIZATION OF PANSINOS PHYSICALITY AND FEMININITY WITHIN A PATRIARCHAL FRAMEWORK
In addition to her writing style and content, Pansinos presentation of herselfinNerdy Nummies conforms topatriarchalideologies, contrasting the post-feminist read in which herwomanhood signifies power and rebellion, and unintentionally reinscribing her cookbook as regressive rather than transgressive. The stereotypicallygirly theme in this cookbooks layout, language, and colors reinforces her femininity, which is used as a tool to attract readers and introduce every chapter. The cookbooks introductory chapters feature three full-page portraits of Pansino looking doll-like in a low-cut shirt, short skirt, and bakers hat: she poses with a rolling pin and laughs dramatically while eating a large slice of cake. This immediately establishes thewoman in the kitchen stereotype the kitchen must be all she knows and where she is happiest! Nerdy Nummiesis divided into six color-coded sections: Math & Science, Space, Fantasy & Sci-Fi, Gaming, Tech & Web, and Geeky Treats. At the start of each, Pansino displays a photograph of herself dressed up in a silly outfit with full makeup that emphasizes her attractive body and young, smiling face.
The Space chapter (right) sees her covered in sparkles, jewelry, and a short galaxy-purple dress; in the Geeky Treats chapter (below), her hair is in little buns, she wears a form-fitting shirt and mini skirt, and carries a notebook and pencil tocomplete a look reminiscent of an innocent school girl. Pansino makes sure her readers do not forget her feminine persona (in spite of her quirky, nerdy personality!): including the books cover, this cookbook featurestenfull-page photographs of her dolled up in different outfits, highlighting her flawless makeup and hair, curvy feminine physique, and innocent smile. She self-identifies as a geek, which typically holds negative, socially awkward connotations, yet consistently emphasizes her beauty and charm. This offers a double standard: it seems she pretends to look geeky but knows her attractiveness puts her aboverealsocially inept people. In this way, she remains separate from (and superior to) geekdom.
Nerdy Nummiesextensive portrayal of Pansinos body (another ideal that might draw readersin addition to learning new things, this cookbook unconsciously promises thigh gaps and luscious, long hair) represents patriarchal expectations of women in the kitchen. Cooking is a messy activity, but domestic ideologies put pressure on women to always satisfy their husbands and families, which means performing the complicated taskswhileremaining desirable and beautiful in the process. In her YouTube videos and cookbooks photographs, Pansino remains clean, done up, and attractive: no messes are made! She is a professional cook who stays simultaneously productive and clean, butNerdy Nummies uses her face and body to introduce, communicate, and enhance mathematical andscientific concepts. Her attractive image outlines how she experiences science and math, making her femininity a key factor to her understanding, rather than an irrelevant piece of her identity. Anybody can love science, regardless of their gender, but the fact that Panino so heavily emphasizes how girly she is she seems to suggest that she uses her looks to attract readers rather than her knowledge. Pansinos femininity is a tool used to legitimize herself in this historically male realm, rather than an empowering aspect of her identity as female lover of science.
THE RENDERING OF GEEKDOM AS ACCEPTABLE FOR WOMEN THROUGH BAKING
Finally, Pansinos presentation and communication of geek culture is problematic in that she has to use her femininity to legitimize geek culture, thus automatically stigmatizing nerdy activities and putting herself back in the traditionally feminine sphere that she is trying to escape. First, the cookbooks feminization of geekiness reinforces the separated male (public) and female (private) spheres. Thelabelsgeek andnerd are gendered: both have masculine associations. Searching geek in Google images yields a majority of photos featuring men. Here, however, masculinity does not mean a stereotypically strong, rational, manly-man. Merriam-Webster defines a geek as a person often of intellectual bent who is disliked[iv]and a nerd as an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person, especially one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits[v]. How does Pansino turn this stigma on its head to make geekdom something desirable, fun, and quirky? Sheuses her feminine appearanceto legitimize its negative qualities, and in doing so communicates that being female is essential to her understanding of the complexities of geek culture.
This brings to question whatisgeekdom? The variety of topics in Pansinos cookbook is enormous, ranging from Periodic Table Cupcakes to Wifi Cheesecake, Star Constellation Cookies to Petrie Dish Jellies, and Flash Drive Krispie treats to Chess Cake. Pansinos comfort labeling so many things as nerdy diminishes the academic aspect of this cookbook: there is no uniqueness between subjects since itsallembarrassing and geeky! A certain shame underlies her discussion of geek culture, such as ridiculing herself in dress-up photos. By dedicating this book to the geek in all of us![vi]Pansino treats loving video games or geology as a secret, embarrassing pastime that everybody secretly harbors but is too guilty to share. Interestingly, this correlates to how diet culture treats the fattening, sugary desserts her cookbooks features as guilt-inducing the treats are also something special and forbidden that we get to share with Pansino. Although she means to embrace love of coding or science fiction, the ease with which she distributes the negative, geek label reduces these concepts importance. As discussed previously, in feminizing geek culture, Pansino both embraces her womanhood in this historically male realm, while heavily simplifying it for her readers. Perhaps her target audience is self-identified geeks who need easy cooking instructions to remedy their negligent social skills, in an attempt at sending anIm one of you message.Nerdy Nummiesbrings gender and geek culture together, but unfortunately yields more conflict than cohesion.
To close, it is interesting that Pansino expresses her love for nerdy concepts and advanced academia through baking, a historically feminine activity. In her essay on Campbells Soup and traditional gender roles,Katherine Parkin notes that 20th century American culture established cooking as a gender-specific activitywomen should cook for others to express their love[vii]. Preparing foodisexpression, and American womens subordinate marital role made the kitchen their only outlet for that expression. Now, in 2015, Pansino upholds this expectation: she must communicate her knowledge through a dumbed-down, feminized filter while baking.She does break historical gender norms by simultaneously embracing her femininityandinvestment in intellectual pursuits, but the relentless portrayal of her physical beauty and self-image produces the opposite effect. Instead of delving into the complexities of academic language in her cookbook, she only borrows pieces of the nerd aesthetic to augment her appearance as attractive to those within and beyond geekdom. Rather than appearing a baking-savvy woman traversing gender expectations via her passion for math and science, Pansino promotes her incapability of adequately expressing her knowledgeexceptvia this domestic act. Pansino confines herself within the kitchens ideologies, limiting her intellectual credibility.
Part 2: A Close Read of PansinosNerdy Nummies YouTube Channel
Pansinos fame began in 2011 when she posted a video online informing YouTubers how to make a Star Mario cake. Instantly, she gathered followers, produced more and more videos, and eventually, in 2015, published the cookbook that has been analyzed above. In addition to cooking videos, shes also become a YouTube sensation who has filmed tours of her home, music videos, and videos with other famous vloggers. Here, Id like to acknowledge the underlying regressive ideology within her online presence,in additionto her cookbook. While in her cookbook, Pansino consistently demonstrates academic prowess by focusing on treats with a math-science base, her YouTube videos are more focused on geeky franchises, and she relentlessly self-deprecates and diminishes her intellect.
Here are a selection of videos that demonstrate this unfortunate treatment of both her own legitimacy and the content that inspires her culinary creations. Each photo is a screen capture of the referenced video click the YouTube links to watch each video! Pansinos entire Nerdy Nummies channel can be found
here
.
To begin, it is interesting to note that while her YouTube channel came first, many of the recipes in her cookbook do not appear online. Almost all of her YouTube videos focus on nerdy franchises or commercial products, like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, MarioKart, and even apps and emojis. Her cookbook is full of academic concepts that are enforced with occasional scientific supplements, such as atoms, circuits, and the concept of pi. The only video on her YouTube channel that relates to actual mathematics or science is her instructional video for Mini Raspberry Pi Bars. At 0:32 1:05, she explains to the audience briefly what pi means, but the focus of her description falls on her inability to remember the numbers of pi, with which she closes, Ohhh, see Im losing it. Why does she ridicule her own intellect? Why is there a lack of academia in her online videos, and such a heavily focus on commercial fandoms? Will that draw a bigger audience? And if so, why does her cookbook focus on more scientific concepts? In my opinion, Pansinos exclusion of academic-themed treats online might relate to the fact that they arent as fun or interesting to make, and she doesnt have as much to say or perform about them.
In her BB8 Cake Pops video, Pansino again makes fun of herself and reminds the audience subconsciously that her skills are embarrassing. Upon referencing Star Wars the nerdy franchise that has inspired this treat she uses a baby-like voice and claims she hasnt had enough training when pretending to use the force to mix her batter, from 1:49 2:20. Not only does this diminish her professional nature, she seems to be actively trying to minimize her intelligence and create this clumsy, silly persona. She also doesnt sincerely address her passion for this franchise she can only communicate in a joking way, for fear of seemingtoonerdy. Again, she separates herself by positioning herself as a geek, but nottoogeeky.
In addition to being careful not to appear too geeky, Pansino frequently reminds her audience that she isverygirly. Pansino expands the geek culture umbrella to include everything from Wifi to Doctor Who to castles, and one of her most popular videos with over 34 million views is her My Little Pony Rainbow Cupcakes. The first minute and a half of this video features Pansino advertising her flashy My Little Pony apron (Brony Pony Cutie Pie apron), dancing around, pretending to ride on a horse, and singing and making small squeaky noises. As a viewer, this performance slightly detracts from her professionalism and is an almost cringe-worthy attempt at being geeky. She is so made-up and fancy that when she makes fun of herself, plays awkward or geeks out over something, it feels fake and childish. Furthermore, most of these performances are accompanied with a reference to how she is so girly (see 5:05 of her
House Tour video
below when she explicitly mentions embarrassment at her femininity). As noted in my cookbook analysis, Pansino seems to use her femininity to legitimize geekdoms negative qualities.
In these videos, Pansino demonstrates her exquisite skills when baking and decorating, but consistently reminds the audience that she is joking when she describes her passion for these geeky subjects, or flails about in an overdone performance of femininity. She balances this interesting dichotomy of engaging in the traditionally-female activity of baking but inspired by the traditionally-male realm of advanced academia, however, makes a point in each of her videos to joke about in a self-deprecating way that reduces her intellect and diminishes her passion for the topics that inspire her baking creations.
WORKS CITED
geek.Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam Webster, 2003.
nerd.Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam Webster, 2003.
Neuhaus, Jessamyn.Manly Meals and Moms Home Cooking: Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
Pansino, Rosanna.The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook: Sweet Treats for the Geek in All of Us.New York, NY: Atria Books, 2015.
Parkin, Katherine.Campbells Soup and the LongShelf Life of Traditional Gender Roles. InKitchenCulture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race,51 67. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. Food and Gender 1
How Food Advertising Drives Gender Inequality
Posted by
ADELINE LERNER
on
MAY 4, 2016
Link to the online version (with much better photos of the advertisement): https://blogs.brown.edu/amst-0191z-s01-spring-2016/2016/05/04/how-food-advertising-drives-gender-inequality/
Over many decades, food advertisements created an ambivalent relationship between women and food that centers around guilt, overindulgence, and anxiety. These ads depict womens insatiable cravings for food, typically sweets or chocolate, and promote the idea that their desires are most likely due to their uncontrollable female hormones that feminist Katherine Parkindiscussesin her work about gender roles in modern America. The media commonly pictureswomen overindulging in Ben and Jerrys after getting dumped, or splurging with a box of chocolate in order to celebrate a new romantic relationshipand regardless of what she is eating, the woman is portrayed asletting her emotions, which are typically triggered by a male figure, overtake her ability to control her temptations.
This presentation of women in the media manifests the contradiction between the stereotypical way women act towards food and the way society idealizes their bodies. On one hand, society sees women as too weak to control their desires, but it also promotes the image of women being restrictive, healthy, and skinny. This unbalance between what advertising companies wants women to look like and how they portrays women acting creates anxiety for female consumers. In order to sell their products, companies offer safe temptations that further enforce the idea that women should restrict themselves from indulging too often and that they should maintain a thinfigure. This notion brought on from advertising that women must keep a low-calorie diet engenders a sense of guilt amongst the female audience, especially when they do decide to over-eat, and creates a greater divide between the male and female stereotypes surrounding food. These advertisements breed the idea thatwomen areunable to resist temptations, but they also place a societal obligation on these womentorestrictthemselves from overindulging in these very temptations and is explained in another feminist Susan Bordos work about the tension that advertising companies generate. In this exhibit, fourfood advertisements (and one studio pieceinspired by food advertising) demonstrate this complicated relationship that large industry-dominating food companies create between women and food and depict the mystification of food products that maintain the acceptance of gender hierarchies in contemporary culture.
Unstripping the Truth about Gender Inequality
Coke Studio Design,Department International, 2013
Modern American popular culture has a saying that sex sells, butfood advertisements sell more than a product they sell ideas. When placed next to an overly sexualized woman, food becomes a symbol of satisfaction and pleasure. Suddenly, the product being advertised is considered to be of the same value as the womens sexuality that is depicted. She appears eager and ready to be consumed, resulting in a culture of acceptance for gender inequality. Whileall men and women do not believe in this gender hierarchy, the recurrence of food advertisements depicting women in this way shows the acceptance of the medias practices. The woman in this designhas an hourglass figure that is meant to represent a Coke bottlethe product itself isnt even shown. The womans figure is also an unattainable fantasydrinking Coke will not give someone the models body shape that the media drives to be consider ideal.
Stereotypes Surrounding Femininity
Jalna, print advertisement
Despite being the only healthy product in this exhibit, this advertisement from the Australian yogurt company, Jalna, perpetuates a fewstereotypes surrounding womens guilty relationship with food. Itevokes the idea that women are emotional eaters and overindulge when they are upset about men.The ad portrays a seemingly bothered and vulnerable woman after a night out, who ended the night alone in her apartment. The tagline claims that after having yet another guilt trip she could turn to Jalna for a guilt free satiation. Since the yogurt is so small in the advertisement, Fat Free dominates the label, even over the companys name. By saying that its okay to splurge in their product, Jalna establishes the idea that womenshouldfeel guilty for overindulging. A key feature of this ad is that it shows the woman being alone, suggesting that indulging like this is not something a man should see. Jalna promotes and perpetuates the stereotype that women should watch their weight and the way they represent themselves in front of others. The ad companies are the ones who have the power in controlling the culture surrounding food, and by creating an anxious relationship among women surrounding food, the advertising company takes agency away from their female audience.
Carls Jr. and Objectified Overeating
Carls Jr.,commercial advertisement, 2015
Carls Jr., the American fast-food burger chain, ran a commercial promoting their new Tex Mex Bacon Thick Burger that features fit, scantily clad models like Alejandra Guilmant and Elle Evans. The two models, representing Mexico and the United States respectively, duel each other in a beach volleyball game in order to poke fun at the immigration debate. While the commercial does touch on the political issue and the product itself, its main focus is on the models, highlighting their sex appeal and perfect figures. These women ravenously eat the Tex Mex Bacon Thick Burgers and are portrayed as being able to eat the greasy fast-food meals while still keeping their sexy bodiesmeanwhile, they get paid to advertise the product, not to actually eat it. This commercial sexualizes the idea of women and eating and promotes body and beauty ideals that are not only unrealistic but also problematic. People who regularly eat fast food most likely do not have the same figure as these paid actresses and models, but the commercial presents the idea that one can eat Carls Jr. burgers and not only stay in shape, but have the voluptuous body that society idealizes. It also puts shame on the viewers who eat Carls Jr. and dont have stick thin figures, ultimately allowing consumer culture to constrain and control women and furthering the acceptance of sexualizing women in the media.
Food as a Guilty Pleasure
Popchips, print advertisement, 2013
The snack company, Popchips, takes food-shaming to the next level by centering its entire advertisement around the idea that their chips are not only healthier than the competitorsthey areguilt-free. The ad shows an image of 100 calories of Popchips stacked next to the calorie equivalent of fried and kettle style chips. The portion sizes for all three chips are small and it features the fat, carb, protein, and fiber content of eachdrawing attention to the fact that you can eat twice the amount ofPopchips for half thefat. It also points out that Popchips are never fried (unhealthy) and never baked (undelicious)so share some popped love and dont let your friends eat fried. By speaking negatively of the other options, the company makes people feel even more guilty about eating the other types of chips. It is arguable that none of these options are healthy, but Popchips is trying to provide a healthieralternative that one doesnt have to feel guilty aboutimplying that oneshouldnormally feel guilty when snacking on chips. When food advertisements are geared towards women, the focus is rarely on tasteits on few calories. And when calories are involved, companies often market the product to be a guilty pleasure as a way of altering their audiences everyday, food-vigilant lives. By drawing attention to the pleasuring aspect of eating their product, Popchips too perpetuates this notion of food being a symbol of pleasure, without even having to feature a sexualized image of a woman in the advertisement.
McDonalds and Containing Temptation
McDonalds, print advertisement, 2013
Although science and biology play a role in determining which foods women and men are drawn to, societal attitudes, especially those that are so crudely captured in advertisements, engender the relationship between gender and eating. Over time, salads have been coded as feminine and cheeseburgers as masculine. In this advertisement, McDonalds describes the thought process of so many women who are longing for a Big Mac but opt for a salad in order to constrain themselves from indulging in the caloric sandwich. McDonalds does a great job of making the burger look so tempting but then pushes it behind the text, mimicking the internal struggle one faces when she craves a juicy burger but suppresses that desire behind her guilt. Overall, this ad perpetuatesthe notion that there is acycle of restrained, and ultimately unsatisfying, eating that many women face. Despite the rise of gender equality and promotion of gender ideals in media and popular culture recently, food advertisements seem to be one of the last pillars of separation.
Main image photo credit: Arbys IP Holder Trust, with edits by Addie Lerner
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bordo, Susan. Hunger as Ideology (pp. 99-134) InUnbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
Parkin, Katherine.Campbells Soup and the Long Shelf Life of Traditional Gender Roles.
Parkin, Katherine J.Food Is Love: Food Advertising and Gender Roles in Modern America. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania, 2006. Print. That Yummy: Food and Sex in Popular Culture
The common phrase You are what you eat has never been more prevalent than in todays society. Looking closely at Justin Biebers music video of Yummy, viewers are faced with the idea that to be yummy is sexually empowering. With the help of hashtags such as #foodporn and accounts like @foodpornography on Instagram, or trends involving whipped cream on Pornhub, Bieber is able to further the trend of using food to sexualize and empower viewers of his music video. He is not the first artist in the music industry to introduce food in a sexualized way to empower fans, as this is a trend that has been used by Katy Perry, Harry Styles, Charli XCX, and many more. Moreover, Biebers lyrics in his music video of Yummy support the claim that to be associated with food is to be sexually empowered, and that food aids in displaying sexual desires.
Looking specifically at Biebers lyrics, listeners can hear him sing the following:
Yeah, you got that yummy, yum
That yummy, yum
That yummy, yummy.
The you here is Biebers audience, thus saying that the one listening has that yummy yum. This is something that is inspiring and encouraging as he sings these lyrics as an act of praise. The repetition of the word yummy emphasizes that to be compared to delicious food is something to be proud of, something to be admired. To be yummy is to be desired. After these lyrics, Bieber sings, Rollin’ eyes back in my head, make my toes curl, yeah, yeah, followed by Yeah, you got that yummy, yum. Having lyrics such as these combined supports the idea that food plays a huge role in the sexualization of his listeners.
Changing perspectives to the cinematography of the music video, Bieber starts off by singing in a fancy restaurant. The restaurant is dimly lit, appropriate mood lighting for a song such as this. It also shows an array of different kinds of food, possibly alluding to the many different body types. At 2:56, Bieber solidifies this atmosphere when he takes off his sweatshirt and starts dancing on top of the table. This chain of events shows food, its consumption, and the environment in which it is portrayed, but then pairs it with Biebers sexy state of undressing in a suggestive atmosphere. Furthermore, at 2:08 through 2:11, the video show a close-up of two individuals eating from someones fork. The fork acts as a phallic image, and this scene presents the enjoyment of eating food in correlation to oral sex. Eating from this fork makes the actress happy, continuing the idea that food portrayed in a sexual way empowers those who partake in its fetishization. They leave viewers with a message that to be in close relation to food is to be desired in a sexual way.
Why have so many American pop stars used food as a metaphor for sexual activity? As suggested in Biebers Yummy, pop music celebrates all different kinds of consumption: the consumption of music, of Justin Biebers sexy performance, and of decadent food. By fusing together food and sex, Yummy encourages its viewers to think of all different kinds of acts of consumptionincluding buying Biebers latest songas necessary, sexy, and positive.
Works Cited
JustinBieberVEVO. Justin Bieber – Yummy (Official Video). YouTube, 4 Jan. 2020,
www
