[Last modified: November, 5 2024 03:07 AM]
Since my project is related to women online, and more specifically women in content that elicits strong reactions from viewers, it feels as though there is an inherent political dimension to my pilot research project. Whether or not mukbangs are perceived as sexual, mukbangs subvert the societal expectation that women should not overly indulge in food. Mukbangs being perceived as either disgusting or sexual reflects the puritanical idea that women’s pleasure is either revolting or fetishized.
Mukbangs are mainly created by East Asian creators, which makes sense since mukbangs originated in Korea. Now that mukbangs are more widespread on platforms like Instagram and YouTube, there is something worth exploring as it pertains to the racial dynamics between creators and viewers. At this point I don’t have any assumptions about what this dynamic could be, however my own positionality might lead me to explore how racial fetishization could be an aspect of mukbangs.
I’ve chosen to put equal weight in speaking to both creators and viewers in order to ensure that the content creators, who are primarily women, are given the opportunity to speak about how they perceive their own content. It’s important that content creators are reflected as having agency in the creation and distribution of their content, as opposed to passive actors who are creating content within a vacuum outside of existing social structures.
My own positionality as a woman of colour makes it easier for me to investigate the ways in which mukbangs are still exemplary of existing social standards placed on women. As someone who is not against online sex work or online fetish content, I believe that I’m in a position to research this topic without placing judgement on the content itself.
It’s possible that my research may, under the wrong circumstances, lead people to feel the need to censor mukbang content from Instagram or YouTube. I think it will be important to speak with viewers who may have other motivations for engaging with mukbang content, for example people who watch it while eating to feel a sense of companionship.