Dinner Porn...
May 3, 2014 1:25 PM   Subscribe

 
People used to pay good money to watch the kings of France eat, so it's not any less silly than that.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:41 PM on May 3, 2014


Do people watch these for the "ASMR"(head tinglies, whatever) effect, or do they just like watching people eat?
posted by pravit at 1:56 PM on May 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


I'm assuming it's food fetishists, personally. Like the guys who want to watch women squish things with their feet. It's not overtly sexual, but it gives them a thrill.

Note that the article focused exclusively on girls doing this. Obviously there could be a whole host of reasons--girls get more pageviews, girl eating enormous amount of food is transgressive, etc--but I'd be willing to bet cash money that there are no boys featured because really, this is about the heterosexual male gaze, sexual objectification, and sexual gratification.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 2:03 PM on May 3, 2014


It doesn't appear to be an exclusively "cute girls" thing, thought that is clearly not uncommon. Just search for mokbang and see more more examples. Even the image gallery at the bottom of the OP's link shows more males than females.
posted by dodecapus at 2:22 PM on May 3, 2014


I saw this title and my first thought was "another Hannibal post so soon!?".
posted by The Legit Republic of Blanketsburg at 2:26 PM on May 3, 2014 [6 favorites]


Finally. A job for me.
posted by Omnomnom at 2:29 PM on May 3, 2014 [6 favorites]


You are right, that is not what I thought, in either direction.

Isn't this similar to "feeder" fetish? Only, of course, without the implications of weight gain?

This article claims feeder-ism doesn't necessarily involve weight gain fetish, so... I guess, this would be the same thing?
posted by symbioid at 2:42 PM on May 3, 2014


Yeah just googling mokbang there are definitely guys who broadcast too.

Maybe it's the food equivalent of "Let's Play" videos? I never understood why anyone would watch those when they could be playing video games themselves.
posted by pravit at 3:16 PM on May 3, 2014


mefi mok bang meet ups. where mefites listlessly eat huge plates of food in front of their webcams, what's not to like?
posted by ouke at 3:19 PM on May 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


I never understood why anyone would watch those when they could be playing video games themselves.

To decide whether to buy the video game for yourself. The same way I watch people eat food on the internet to decide whether I want to eat that food myself.

I don't actually do that, obviously.
posted by axiom at 4:24 PM on May 3, 2014


I actually thought immediately of the ASMR whisper videos, but in a different way--because I'm pretty sure those videos, too, have an audience that consists part of people who are interested in the subject matter, and part of men who want to listen to pretty young women specifically.
posted by Sequence at 5:17 PM on May 3, 2014


How much does Korean culture overlap with Japanese culture? One theme in a lot of anime is a perpetually famished protagonist who will gorge himself/ herself on unspeakable amounts of food when it becomes available (usually on the dime of someone else). I have no idea if this is relevant to "dinner porn," but. . .maybe? I always thought the binge-on-free-food thing had something to do with the Lost Decade, but this article makes me think something else (or something additionally) may be going on.
posted by GrumpyDan at 6:14 PM on May 3, 2014


I think just about anything video in Japan with cute girls in it would be popular there.
posted by eggtooth at 7:33 PM on May 6, 2014


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