Conforming and Resisting: Going Beyond the Male Gaze in Mukbang

Abstract

The paper will present and analyze internet Mukbang, a video-recorded broadcast that portrays a “host” eating large amounts of food, as a feminist pop cultural artifact. First, the paper will demonstrate the importance of internet Mukbang by showing how it meets the definition of pop culture laid out by John Storey. Next, this paper will consider whether Mukbang is a liberating or a regressive form of entertainment, with reference to feminist terminology referenced by Andi Zeisler. The paper will be principally concerned with the idea of the “male gaze” and how it does or does not manifest Mukbang. Ever since the term was introduced by John Berger and later explored by Laura Mulvey, it has become an important focus of gender and film studies. The theory posits that women in film are presented through the eyes of hetrosexual men as passive objects of desire; thus the viewer is forced to look upon women as objects. Analyzing the YouTube channels of HunniBee and HyuneeEats, two representative female Mukbang broadcasters, the paper will conclude that Mukbang both conforms to and resists the male gaze and serves as a platform in which hosts might even cater to a “female gaze”, prioritizing a sense of community and companionship.