We consume food as a source of energy to maintain life, health, and growth. The media heavily emphasize that women should be beautiful, attractive, and sexy just as food should be appetizing, ripe, and juicy. This is portrayed through many pop-culture songs that use food to sexually describe women and objectify their bodies. For this reason, using food in reference to women’s bodies is controversial.
My work discusses the issue of female identity and the challenges that society places on women to conform to an unachievable yet supposedly perfect standard. Even though food is something that we need to stay alive and healthy, it is used and even celebrated in a demeaning manner throughout the media when discussing women’s bodies. Additionally, when the media portrays the ‘ideal’ woman eating, she is never enjoying food with the same sensuality as the viewers enjoy visually consuming her. Food needs to be restricted so that women can maintain a ‘tempting figure’.
Pairing nudity with food, we can question the difference and sense the fine line dividing sexuality from sensuality. This recurring theme is represented throughout my work through large tableaus depicting the female figure with food on or in relation to the body. I render my subject matter photo-realistically with oil paint. I contribute to the contemporary debate on the commodification of women’s bodies and challenge societal standards imposed to women using food as a metaphor. My imagery stems from references to consumeristic visual culture because the media promotes the consumption of women’s bodies similarly to how it promotes the consumption of food.
My work discusses the issue of female identity and the challenges that society places on women to conform to an unachievable yet supposedly perfect standard. Even though food is something that we need to stay alive and healthy, it is used and even celebrated in a demeaning manner throughout the media when discussing women’s bodies. Additionally, when the media portrays the ‘ideal’ woman eating, she is never enjoying food with the same sensuality as the viewers enjoy visually consuming her. Food needs to be restricted so that women can maintain a ‘tempting figure’.
Pairing nudity with food, we can question the difference and sense the fine line dividing sexuality from sensuality. This recurring theme is represented throughout my work through large tableaus depicting the female figure with food on or in relation to the body. I render my subject matter photo-realistically with oil paint. I contribute to the contemporary debate on the commodification of women’s bodies and challenge societal standards imposed to women using food as a metaphor. My imagery stems from references to consumeristic visual culture because the media promotes the consumption of women’s bodies similarly to how it promotes the consumption of food.