The twenty-first century in America has brought with it much political and social controversy. On December twenty-third it is irreverent to wish a Merry Christmas to the clerk in the candle shop if you don’t know he’s Christian. It becomes a personal attack to mistake a Korean man as Chinese. Minority politicians were the most desired in the 2008 elections, if for no reason other than to eradicate the notion that politics is for old white males. And now with this century’s health movement and animal rights movement, even our food has become a target for controversy.
Eat beef and an innocent cow has been slaughtered in service of your own gluttony. Eat pork, and you’ve blown nearly all conventions governing religion and ethics. Worse yet, fry up some bacon and wait for the outraged cries of your cardiologist, dietitian, rabbi, and local hippies denouncing your name. Despite having served only several decades prior as the mouth on a breakfast smiley face pancake, bacon has now become one of America’s most taboo foods. It’s terrible for your health, it’s harmful to animals, it’s against many orthodox religious practices, and for at least one of these reasons, it is scorned by many flag-waving self-proclaiming Americans. Bacon is just generally bad in America. Yet, as often happens with taboos, it has simultaneously become cool. It is not only despised, but it is also revered. Bacon has become bigger than itself; it’s almost—sexy.
Like some might find it obnoxiously trendy to wish a Merry Christmas to a Muslim, the carnivores’ bacon craze has counteracted PETA co-founder Alex Pacheco’s cries to treat animals with “the same rights as a retarded human child." Such political activists hold power over much of our population, but in this case we’re not listening to them. Amidst the fad diets which hold high appeal to many—purple foods, raw foods, veganism, cabbage soup, grape juice, South Beach, Atkins, tapeworm diets (yes, purposely ingesting tapeworms to lose weight)—we are standing by our traditional upbringing and eating those juicy, fatty, artery-coating, controversy-provoking bacon strips. As Sarah Hepola of Salon Magazine points out in her article “Bacon Mania,” we don’t have to worry about whether the bacon is fresh enough or local enough or healthy enough, as we do with our salmon and produce. “And there is something comfortingly unambiguous about a thick slab of bacon. It's bad for you. It tastes fantastic. Any questions?"
There is something about this comfort, this confidence, that has become sexy in America; something sexy when you don’t fall into every fad the culture places upon you, but rebel through indulging in your own satisfaction. You know it’s indulgent, you know it’s risky, yet nothing can hold you back. The moment of experiencing bacon is a sensuous one. We’ve all been in that moment of entering the kitchen to a pan of sizzling bacon. Its smell fills your body with craving, begs to be satisfied, persists and nags until indulged. The fullness of the flavor is so bold, so prevailing, that it reaches deep within every pocket of your mouth. It is undeniable that there is something seductive about the fleshy slab of meat.
Even more enticing than simply bacon is meat on meat. Bacon on burgers has become the latest craze. Take the Wendy’s Baconator, for example, the whopping 970 calorie meal, often devoured in a matter of bites, which made 25 million sales in North America in its first four months. Rarely anymore do we think of burgers without the full experience—two patties, lettuce, tomatoes, onion rings, ketchup, barbecue sauce, fries, pickles, and, of course, bacon—smothered in brown sugar and a secret special sauce. Whenever I go to an Applebees, Chili’s, or Texas Roadhouse, I flip to the burger page, disregarding all other entrees, and my eye goes straight to their bacon burgers. Each time without fail, the people I am with stare at my burger with amazement and envy when it is placed in front of me, disbelieving its enormous size and wishing they had ordered the same.
These massive, decked-out burgers signify to many the image of guns, meat, and manliness; something about it appeals to men, and the notion of eating meat on meat is often considered “manly” in America. When women eat meat on meat, however, it’s plain sexy. American women are particularly infamous for giving in to all these fad diets (acai berry diet, low fat diet, and grapefruit diet, to name a few more) so when a woman eats bacon on beef, it symbolizes to Americans that she is tough, sexy, and independent. Not only does she dance to her own beat, but she is a carnivore. When we see women eating meat, it taps into our Neanderthal instincts: that woman found meat and is devouring it; she is something to behold. She appears robustly healthy to our instinctive response, whether she truly is or not. And as celebrity bombshell Jessica Simpson told the world on a t-shirt she was spotted wearing in 2008, “Real Girls Eat Meat."
Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), expressed her disgust towards meat eaters to the Washington City Paper in 1985 when she stated, “Eating meat is primitive, barbaric, and arrogant." It is this attitude, shared by a growing number of Americans, which makes the act of eating meat risqué. Not only is it seen as provocative, but it is, in a sense, primal. As some have taken on this view that a carnivorous diet is positively sinful, it seems to have created greater polarization; others, who may have once been neutral toward meat and animal rights, have not only jumped to the defense of meat eaters, but have fallen towards the end of the spectrum that adores meat not only for its taste but also for its vulgarity. Its lewdness has become erotic.
Adding to the image of women and meat being sexy, the “bacon bra” surfaced in late 2007 and went viral on the Internet. On one man’s Flickr page was featured a picture of a woman’s torso covered only by a bra of raw bacon. It inspired much controversy, as some people were offended by the image of a woman sexualized through strips of raw meat. Or conversely, as one Serious Eats blog follower expressed, “I am deeply offended by the way this post is objectifying bacon. You are treating bacon as nothing more than a piece of meat." Responses to this wave on the Internet represented the many feelings that America holds towards bacon. Viewers expressed their disgust at viewing bacteria-infested raw meat; feminism came forth through the outraged viewers who saw it as a woman being objectified as a piece of meat; animal rights activists stood forth in their horror at seeing the remains of a pig being used for such a cause; health nuts cringed at the calories and fat contained in this unconventional undergarment; but many, as Heplon observed in her article “Bacon Mania,” responded with a childlike, "Ohmygod, baaaaacon.”
A couple weeks ago when I was trying to decide what to write my essay about, my friend Brandon called me to check in. I explained the prompt reluctantly, expecting him to try giving me a list of uninspiring topics. Sure enough he did, and when he realized my indifference to his ideas he asked, “Okay Liz, what’s your favorite food?” It didn’t take me long to answer, “Bacon.” Brandon went quiet for almost too long, and I began to wonder why on earth he could be so upset with me for picking bacon as my favorite food. After this long pause, he said in a serious voice, “Is it really? Is bacon really your favorite food? I have to ask you to marry me now.” He then explained how dearly and desperately he loves bacon, how important it is in his life, and I wondered if he might become emotional.
I then told Brandon about a (likely fabricated) newspaper clipping that went viral online a couple years ago regarding a police case which involved a supposed break-in at a man’s house that resulted in five pounds of stolen bacon. As it turned out, his wife simply had not wanted to admit to eating all five pounds of bacon for a late night snack. Upon hearing this story, Brandon proceeded to tell me exactly what he would do to a woman who could eat five pounds of bacon in one sitting. And considering his feelings towards women eating bacon, he would probably only like a bacon bra better.
Perhaps as long as sex has existed, so have jokes at its expense. Looking back even upon Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, we find crude innuendos. Similarly, jokes regarding bacon began surfacing in the later part of the ‘00s. With the controversy over ethics and health not hidden far behind them, several humorous bacon-related memes emerged. In 2006, a man posted pictures (along with dialogue regarding the event) of a strip of bacon taped to his cat. And in 2007, some mixologists made a tongue-in-cheek attempt at creating bacon flavored vodka. Later in 2007, chef Michael Ruhlman made a similar attempt at bacon flavored ice cream. Then in 2008, Carin Huber of The AntiCraft, a blog for sinister artists who wish to make creation from chaos, created the Baconhenge—a Stonehenge on a breakfast plate created out of bacon. 2008 also saw the publication of a book by author Sarah Katherine Lewis entitled Sex and Bacon: Why I Love Things That Are Very, Very Bad for Me. In this book, bacon was introduced as not only a guilty pleasure, but as sexy. "Pour me a drink, light me a smoke, fry me up a pan of bacon, and let's get it on" (Lewis).
In its controversy, bacon has emerged at its peak. Through the opposition of some, it has been glorified by others. In its admonition, it has also become quirky and savored—and at its best, downright sexy. I think of the countless mornings I awoke at an old boyfriend’s house to cook bacon in a t-shirt and shorts, striped socks up to my knees, and the feeling it gave me of being dogmatic, autonomous, and feminine. In the midst of the debates surrounding it, bacon has surfaced as strong, sultry, and insuperable. I mean, it’s bacon.
Works Cited
“Alex Pacheco Quotes.” ActivistCash.Com. Center for Consumer Freedom, 2010. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.
“Bacon Bra.” Serious Eats: A Food Blog and Community. N.p., 2 Apr. 2008. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.
“Bakon Vodka: The Story.” Bakon Vodka. Black Rock Spirits, LLC, 2010. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.
“Bringing Home the Bacon: Wendy’s Sells 25 Million Baconator Hamburgers.” All Business: A D&B Company. N.p., 29 Aug. 2007. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.
“Fad Diets.” Every Diet. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.
Hepola, Sarah. “Bacon Mania.” Salon. N.p., 7 July 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2010.
Huber, Carin. “Baconhenge.” The AntiCraft. N.p., 2008. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.
“Ingrid Newkirk Quotes.” ActivistCash.Com. Center for Consumer Freedom, 2010. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.
“Jessica Simpson: Real Girls Eat Meat.” Just Jared. Just Jared, Inc., 28 June 2008. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.
Lewis, Sarah Katherine. Sex and Bacon: Why I Love Things That Are Very, Very Bad For Me. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press, 2008. Print.
Ruhlman, Michael. “Bacon, Ice Cream, Napkins, Cleveland Performance Art.” Michael Ruhlman: Translating the Chef’s Craft for Every Kitchen. Ruhlman Enterprises, 25 Nov. 2007. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.
Scalzi, John. “Clearly You People Thought I Was Kidding.” Whatever. N.p., 13 Sept. 2006. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.
“Weird News: Missing Bacon!” Seek Geo. N.p., May 2009. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.
