Yet another category of "slut" that I fall into

I just read an article entitled "Food Slut," expecting something ENTIRELY different from what I found, which was a sober reflection on years of sponsored gluttony, dazzling and shallow social functions, and a level of reverence for inanimate objects that definitely borders on idolatry. I myself have to concede this round to friends who find the quest to become a foodie unforgiveably self-absorbed and pretentious. Foodies are sometimes totally over the top, and the authors descriptions of fancy dinner parties where guests went into hysterical exultations over, like, a single pea (a new twist on the old story, I guess) or a tiny shred of meat, conversation that revolve around chef and resatuarant gossip- those all rang pretty true for me. So I want to be conscious of that embarrasing stereotype when I inch towards a lifestyle in which I can distinguish quality and freshness and subtlety in flavors, and delight in those things. I had to check myself, though, to see if I was not being persuaded by the supposed glamour and exoticism of the gourmet world that the article (and others) puncture as pathetic artifice. Really, the food writers I enjoy range from Amanda Hesser (who addresses the stigma of her profession admirably, if a bit too obviously, when she claims that one of her favorite foods is toast, and she constantly burns it) to Sarah over at The Delicious Life and Stephanie Vander Weide- people who are genuine in the appreciation, enthusiastic in their praise, and down-to-earth in their dining choices (by foodie standards). I never have patience for pomposity or self-congratulation, especially as far as obscure, elite topics go, least of all here, where it's nearly pandemic. Next time we can talk about why I love Project Runway while being baffled by haute couture's answer to foodies, "clothes sluts."

And since this is getting unbearably long anyway (I'm in the airport, whatever) I have to say, I am disappointed by overreliance on "slut" and "porn" as our descriptive terms for anything that refers to desire or appreciation. It is the opposite of the etymology of "eros," which uses physical desire or attraction as the demonstration for being able to appreciate and delight in anything, even the most abstract thing. Eros is about recognizing the desire we can have for everyone and everything, not just people with whom we want to have sex. It is deductive, it uses a concrete example to illuminate a larger reality. We acknowledge this when we talk about a "friend crush" or a "teacher crush" because we know we can feel drawn to people without wanting to nail them (well, not all the time). By contrast, the whole vocabulary of "food slut" or "fame whore" or "jewlery porn," whatever you got, uses the crudest and most reductive terms for sexual desire to apply to anything, which denigrates instead of elevating our experience of attraction by making it prurient and animalistic.

And somehow I managed to become the pretentious nitpicker I spent the first half of the post mocking. Dammit. Well, my flight's boarding, nothing to do now. If any friends read this and are in New York for the next ten days, call me.