Why do we Americans love these online food shows, culminating in mukbangs? And yet we forget about our figure, fat-shaming men and women, praising supermodels in transparent dresses, which appear before us as standards of femininity and sexuality. Maybe this is not only because we are gourmets and lovers of extravagant and exotic food, but because watching such shows allows us to avoid some social prohibitions that have turned over time, as Sigmund Freud bequeathed, into our superego.
Luxurious Life and Abundance
If modern American society is so preoccupied with luxurious looks with a chiseled waist, why, ironically, are mukbang videos getting millions of views worldwide? The absolute truth is that both the elegant appearance and the pounds of food placed in front of the camera remind us of one thing: bright abundance. What is most dangerous in such a preoccupation with plenty is an irrepressible thirst to try everything new and new, to consume, regardless of previous experience. While watching mukbangs, we maintain the illusion of a vast abundance that boggles the eye, especially when it comes to exotic Asian cuisine. We can watch them for hours to distract ourselves, relax, get rid of anxiety after work. Our eyes move across the tables in front of the camera, where huge portions fall out of the bowls.
Maintaining the illusion of abundance and wealth subtly and fundamentally frees us from responsibility for a life in which there has been no choice for a long time. Maintaining the myth of abundance and wealth allows you to romanticize the idea of a vital person who has conquered the whole world and can live for his pleasure. This type of hedonist figure is essential in American society among young people. Ironically, we are attracted to this trend not because we have achieved some diversity and abundance but precisely because we do not have it. Shows like these turn our reality around, which is tossing and turning around our stomachs. By magical involvement, we even feel the taste of this food, which is on the plate, for example, of a Japanese blogger.
Escape from Loneliness
On the other hand, when we make an intimate mealtime public, we become a little less lonely, as streaming platforms generously allow us to host a virtual dinner for a couple of thousand people. In this room, the blogger, or you, will be completely alone and, possibly, in pitch darkness. The cult of ‘abundance’ deprives us of the opportunity to comprehend the very concept of abundance and what it should manifest itself in, and whether we need it. Paradoxically, returning to the problem of loneliness, it was with the 21st century that communication, friendship, and love ceased to be some sacred things that led to spiritual attachment. Now we can have a feast for thousands of people, and they will all be interested in the taste of food and how our working day went.
The Eternal Pursuit of Pleasure
Ultimately, our obsession with abundance, including communicative abundance, diminishes the degree of reliability and spiritual attachment between people. The pleasure of communication is no longer so bright; the joy of food, which bloggers demonstrate by munching and sighing loudly, resembles the pathological excess of pornography, as Jean Baudrillard wrote about it. But perhaps what is most dangerous about this kind of thinking is it reduces our involvement in the real world and the pleasures of the natural world with their advantages and disadvantages. What’s ultimately at stake here is human happiness. The ‘beautiful mystique’ of virtual life, friendship, communication, and pleasure leads us to reality loss. We are considering mukbangs and similar videos and hobbies of this kind; first of all, you need to ask yourself what exactly attracts us in this and what are we trying to replace, drowning in nonsense?