I’ve been hearing the phrase “food porn” for at least a decade. I’ve also heard of “real estate porn” and, of late, “poverty porn” and “inspiration porn.”
What was the first usage of “______ porn,” where the word “porn” is used to describe something that isn’t necessarily sexual?
I recall kung fu / karate movies being described as “violence porn” in the early 1980s. I think that predates when I first heard the term “food porn”.
Interesting question. AHunter3’s example predates mine: I think the first non-sexual use I recall is “torture porn”, which I started hearing when 24 was on the air.
Google books ngrams show food porn in 1980, but maybe I don’t understand how that site works because it didn’t return anything for the other terms people have mentioned.
I first used the term “food porn” in the late 80s, and I thought I had invented it, although I suppose I might have heard it before that. The people I was with at the time thought I’d invented it, too, and liked the invention.
I recall the phrase “ski porn” being used for Warren Miller type films in the early eighties. It fits logically as these were movies shot for a smaller audience using a lower budget.
The concept, though not the term, of ‘food porn’ comes up in a CS Lewis essay from around the 40s, where he does a thought experiment of having a ‘striptease show’ equivalent, only with a plate of tasty-looking food on display instead of a woman’s body.
I can never read it without thinking ‘Little do you know…’
Here’s an interesting article about the definition of porn(ography): https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sex-wars/201903/what-does-porn-mean-anyway
Interestingly, the first time I heard it used to refer to non-sexual content (though arguably, it may be sexually arousing to some people) is gore porn or slasher porn in the early '80’s. I suspect the early 80’s saw the rise of the use of ___ porn because X-rated movies had become more socially accepted in the early to mid 70’s after Deep Throat and *The Devil in Miss Jones *became mainstream.
Edit: Food porn makes since for some (many?) there’s a sexual aspect to eating food. So does violence porn and kung fu porn in that context. The other uses are less connected to the sexual aspect.
I recall this as well. I believe it shows up in Mere Christianity
In fact, Google Ngrams viewer shows occurrences of “food pornography” as early as the mid-1960s. I don’t have any examples of its use, though; could just mean ordinary pornography involving food.
Ah good catch; I didn’t write out “pornography”.
I remember some talk about Muscle car porn in the 70’s, iirc, but I think you have the winner.
But maybe the muscle car porn included a sexy babe - sorta clothed- sprawled on the hood.
I remember the “-sploitation” films that cropped up in the 70’s. Remember thet what was being exploited by the movie producers was the audience’s ability to ignore how unlikely a situation was, if it involved its desired “thing”. Blaxsploitation was at its best when every role in the film was filled by an African American actor (except John Vernon or Tony Franciosa’s roles). Including roles that in real life was never going to be African American. See also “Live and Let Die”. That seems the definition of blank-porn movies.
Just to mention, I used to call a lot of anime “space porn” because every house, every room in every house, was absurdly huge. Sofas big enough to park a car on, after you’d driven the car down the hallway as wide as a two lane road. People like to see things they can’t get in real life.
Not the earliest, but to me the most amusing, use of the word “porn” in a non-sexual way was a tornado chaser who talked about people who like to watch severe-weather videos. You guessed it: “torn porn.”
Could the whole pimple-popper fandom be labelled ‘pop-porn’?