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Popular Culture Review
entry into history, the recuperation of their own memories . . . do not challenge
the inequalities on which the entire process rests” (149). In the same way,
Bourdain’s claims that we all have something in common when we love food
does nothing to change the dire poverty within which his subjects live. We do
not know if he makes them any promises of friendship or further
communication, but after five seasons and 71 locales, it’s impossible that he
could forge a lasting bond with all of the participants, and unfair that he should
choose between them. Even if he genuinely assumes the position of a friend and
fellow foodie, this can only be at best an act, and at worst a form of
manipulation.
Another way that Bourdain attempts to justify putting himself in this
admittedly uncomfortable position is through an activist claim that he is doing
the show because he wants to expose the political realities of American
intervention in Southeast Asia. In response to a question from one of his hosts as
to why he would visit a place that was so devastated by American troops,
Bourdain replies, “Every American should see the results of war. It’s not a
movie. I think it’s the least I can do is to see the world with open