Why are our feeds suddenly encased in gelatin?
Photo: GraphicaArtis/Getty Images When you talk to people about Jell-O, associations vary. One friend thought of hospitals: Why do they feed sick people a bowlful of sugar? My mom asked if Jell-O was making a comeback, citing Costco’s premade Jell-O shots. A lot of people mentioned the 1950s. No one said “yum.”
Gelatin, of course, predates Instagram by more than a century. Highly wrought gelatin centerpieces were popular as far back as medieval Europe, but instant gelatin, otherwise known as Jell-O, wasn’t packaged and sold until 1897, when a couple trademarked the brand name. The instant mixture was used to encase salads and leftovers and offered a clean, tidy look — something lauded by both turn-of-the-century cooks and their Victorian counterparts.
It’s worth noting that queer and female artists have been working with Jell-O for years, toying with its historical ties to binary gender roles, among other more nuanced implications . As the New York Times reported in 2018, Alison Kuo performed a piece in which she “caressed, slapped and shook a translucent blob of Jell-O.” Sharona Franklin’s gelatin sculptures, which garnered internet buzz the following year, addressed disability and living with chronic illness.
But it is valid to wonder whether we’re prioritizing presentation over the sensory experience of eating. Monroe grapples with her relationship to Instagram — and understandably so . Food existing on the internet inherently plays into some kind of capitalist agenda, living in a state divorced from tangible consumption or enjoyment. Lately, a slew of social-media campaigns have monetized this fetishization of food.
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