Tastes encode a whole choice of being rather than sexual or physiological facts

Evidence

If I eat a pink cake, the taste of it is pink; the light sugary perfume, the oiliness of the butter cream are the pink. Thus I eat the pink as I see the sugary. We conclude that flavor, due to this fact, has a complex architecture and differentiated matter; it is this structured matter—which represents for us a particular type of being—that we can assimilate or reject with nausea, according to our original project. It is not a matter of indifference whether we like oysters or clams, snails or shrimp, if only we know how to unravel the existential significance of these foods. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1414 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

The existent is a sexed body; in its relations with other existents that are also sexed bodies, sexuality is thus always involved; but as the body and sexuality are concrete expressions of existence, it is also from here that their significance can be ascertained: without this perspective, psychoanalysis takes unexplained facts for granted. … Sexuality must not be taken as an irreducible given; the existent possesses a more primary “quest for being”; sexuality is only one of these aspects. … Working the soil and digging a hole are activities as primal as an embrace or coitus: it is an error to see them only as sexual symbols; a hole, slime, a gash, hardness, and wholeness are primary realities; man’s interest in them is not dictated by libido; instead, the libido will be influenced by the way these realities were revealed to him. Man is not fascinated by wholeness because it symbolizes feminine virginity: rather, his love for wholeness makes virginity precious. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 127 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Food is as revealing as money and sex, and is revealed more often. People can’t wait to tell you that they mustn’t eat cabbage or have a craving for puddings; whereas how frequently do you hear, I’ve got ten thousand in my deposit account, or I can’t bear parting with small change? — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 569 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Taste organizes density, temperature, and time into a unified experienced being; Sexuality expresses an underlying quest for being rather than grounding it. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 127; Desire, not observed traits, originally discloses sexual being to consciousness. (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Food preferences express one’s fundamental existential project #exemplifies (0.92) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1414
• Sexuality expresses an underlying quest for being rather than grounding it. #exemplifies (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 127
• Food openly reveals character more than money or sex do #corroborates (0.85) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 569
• Desire, not observed traits, originally discloses sexual being to consciousness. #corroborates (0.82)
• Taste organizes density, temperature, and time into a unified experienced being #expands (0.78)