The Yuck Factor

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.