The Yuck Factor : Reiterating Insect-Eating (and Otherness) Through Disgust

Abstract
In this chapter, representing critical cultural studies and visual studies, I consider insect-eating’s media portrayals by employing discourse analysis, semiology, and visual analysis methods. I conduct a qualitative analysis of the textual and visual elements in selected media portrayals of entomophagy. The focus is on Anglophone media iterations between 2013-2020, discovered online through Google searches Spring 2019 and Spring 2021. I am particularly interested in disgust’s role in mediating entomophagy to mass audiences. Through theories of this visceral emotion, I discuss the main ways historical Western representations of revulsion against insects and insect-eating resurface despite the food industry’s attempts at presenting insect-eating as appetizing. The theoretical backbone of my analysis lies in the paradigm of socio-cultural construction, which explores how cultural discourses and representations shape emotions, conceptions, and norms - including thoughts related to what is disgusting. My take on entomophagy is here affected by anthropological and post-colonial perspectives on food and foodways, which render poignant not only disgusting foods’ socio-cultural construction but also their socio-cultural and moral functions in drawing boundaries and distinctions between groups of people.
Main Author
Format
Books Book part
Published
2023
Subjects
Publication in research information system
Publisher
Routledge
The permanent address of the publication
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202208314418Use this for linking
Parent publication ISBN
978-1-032-06378-2
Review status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003205364-10
Language
English
Is part of publication
Cultural Approaches to Disgust and the Visceral
Citation
  • Kosonen, H. (2023). The Yuck Factor : Reiterating Insect-Eating (and Otherness) Through Disgust . In M. Ryynänen, H. Kosonen, & S. Ylönen (Eds.), Cultural Approaches to Disgust and the Visceral (pp. 90-103). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003205364-10
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0Open Access
Copyright© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Max Ryynänen, Heidi S. Kosonen and Susanne C. Ylönen; individual chapters, the contributors

Share