From The Screen to Your Plate: Exploring the Intersection of Food and Pop Culture

The screen creates opportunities to make fandom tangible through taste; it opens the doors for audiences to connect uniquely. Food connects cultures and people of diverse backgrounds and is a gateway to a client's world. Gaining inspiration from our fandoms to turn an empty plate into a delectable meal. Whether it's recreating lembas bread, guessing the secret ingredient in a Krabby Patty, or celebrating the representation of culturally accurate food in a Ghibli film, let our panelists share their favorite ways to incorporate fandom food into the therapy and education settings.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the intersection between pop culture and food
2. Identify at least three ways that food creates a connection
3. Describe food as part of fandom culture, including appropriate representation
4. Identify clinical considerations for individuals with eating disorders, food sensitivities, and food aversion.

References:

• Banks, J. A., Au, K. H., Ball, A. F., Bell, P., Gordon, E. W., Gutiérrez, K. D.,... Zhou, M. (2007). Learning in and out of school in diverse environments: Life-long, life-wide, life-deep. In L. Darling-Hammond & J. Bransford (Eds.), Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do (pp. 219-272). Jossey-Bass.
• Boepple, L., & Thompson-Brenner, H. (2016). The Role of Culture in the Development and Maintenance of Eating Disorders. In K. E. Anderson & C. Bohnenkamp (Eds.), Principles of Clinical Application in Speech Language Pathology and Audiology (pp. 397-406). Pearson.
• Fiske, J. (2010). Understanding popular culture (4th ed.). Routledge.
• Levitt, S. D., & Dubner, S. J. (2005). Freakonomics: A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything. William Morrow.
• Murray, R. J. (2015). Food fandom and online identity: Cooking, eating and posting about it. In R. J. Murray, & J. M. Rudy (Eds.), Food and culture in contemporary American fiction (pp. 115-132). Routledge.
• Olson, J. A., & Thorne, F. (2017). From Star Wars to soda wars: Fan Activism and the cultural politics of food and drink. Food, Culture & Society, 20(4), 685-702.
• Reinhard, C., Largent. J, & Chin, B. (2021). Eating Fandom, Intersections Between Fans and Food Cultures. Routledge.
• Yeh, M., & Engel, R. J. (2016). Using popular culture in counseling and psychotherapy. Routledge.