Lolli-Pop Culture

After reading Caitlin Hines's article "Rebaking the Pie: Women as Dessert Metaphor", I did a little field test to see how the metaphor pervades popular culture; I was particularly interested in how women's consumer culture would deal with the common metaphor, so I popped down the hall and borrowed the December 2011 issue of Seventeen Magazine. While I perused the magazine, I kept an eye out for dessert references, and noted a couple of general observations:

1. As a pretty feminist magazine marketed to young women, Seventeen seems particularly sensitive to objectifying language. Most of their articles did not use the potentially objectifying dessert words common in the rest of culture. 
2. The influence of the dessert metaphor was much more noticeable in ads and product names. Even these names usually did not refer to a woman herself as a food, but rather associated the good qualities of a woman with sweet treats. 

Take a look at these examples from the issue:

 

During my search, these (above) were the only two dessert references I could find that were made by Seventeen writers themselves, rather than in the names of products or ads. "Peaches and cream" is associated with sweet flirtatiousness, and ideal lips are described as "candy-coated." Both maintain actual relevance to the look they convey- peaches and cream denotes a color scheme of the complexion, and candy-coated a level of lip shine. However, they still confirm the prevalence of dessert metaphors, even when they are used unintentionally. 

 The three clips above are examples of the dessert metaphor in ads and product names, hinting at the broader use of the metaphor in consumer culture- "Candy smiles" perfume, "Lollipop Bling" fragrance, "sugar plum" lip balm, and a "yummy beauty duo" begin to hint at the association of feminine beauty and sweet food. There's even a "babycakes" cake-pop maker featured below it, although that is at least a literal association! None of these representations directly equate women with edible objects, but they certainly reflect a culture that does. One brand of beauty products that was advertized is actually called "tarte"- I may do more investigation into this brand in the future, because I find it curious that women would want makeup named after the kind of girl Urban Dictionary describes as, " A woman, who wears too much make-up, stilletto heals, very short skirts, and tight revealing tops, often in faux-animal print, and generally has too much flesh on display, thus revealing herself as 'sexually loose'." ( Urban Dictionary Definition: Tarte )

One last representation I found interesting-

In a section headlined "Everything Guys Wish You Knew," a caption bubble shows a guy thinking "PLEASE DON'T CALL ME SWEETIE- IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!"  This actually made me laugh out loud, given everything we've talked about. I understand why it's socially unacceptable to call men "sweetie"- maybe because its objectifying and condescending. In my experience, girls don't like it much either.