We joke about this being the result of high fructose corn syrup flooding the market due to corn subsidies but that's putting the cart before the horse "Syrup culture" was a thing before HFCS that led to the invention of HFCS Goes back to the triangle trade and whatnot
-
-
Huge part of our economy was tied to Caribbean sugar plantations, rum being the primary product used as a trade good but cheap molasses being a cheap by-product, that poor Southerners ended up putting on everything
2 replies 3 retweets 37 likes -
This is a scene in To Kill a Mockingbird, when the high-class Finches have a little farmer boy over for dinner, who politely asks for a jug of molasses and then douses his entire plate in it Scout gasps in revulsion and Calpurnia scolds her not to shame their guest for his ways
6 replies 2 retweets 33 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @_raniamu
I’d say there’s definitely an upper limit for sweetness that’s tolerable, but from Europeans specifically, sweetness has had moral implications, so I wonder if that’s playing into the scorn for US food sweetness from them.
1 reply 1 retweet 6 likes -
Replying to @renaissanceeast @_raniamu
There was a whole thing about how Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's birthday fell during a state visit once and Obama presented him with a birthday cake and people muttered this was a diplomatic faux pas because in Japan an adult man eating sweets is seen as emasculating
1 reply 2 retweets 9 likes -
It was pretty common in the olden days -- ironically, especially in the Protestant work ethic cultures that America sees its own roots in -- to think of eating desserts as a decadent luxury for the idle rich etc. that a strong working man is supposed to outgrow
1 reply 2 retweets 8 likes -
But Americans don't give a shit about that anymore -- for us hardworking blue-collar men eating candy bars and shit is totally normalized Donald Trump getting two scoops of ice cream after every dinner
3 replies 2 retweets 6 likes -
People were making fun of this one UK brand of chocolate that made these commercials trying to call it "Chocolate for MEN" and as universal as toxic masculinity may be in marketing, I really feel like that's a UK thing no one would think to try here
1 reply 1 retweet 11 likes -
Ha I hadn’t noticed that the US didn’t share our gender/class stuff around chocolate bars. There’s definitely a distinct’ boys’ choc’ market where it’s a brutal utilitarian blood-sugar booster (one could do a gender studies dissertation on this ad alone: https://youtu.be/L4mP9pR-mzU )
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Lol we did have this campaign here, with a very similar joke, but most of the "Hungry? Grab a Snickers" stuff was gender-neutral It's not that I don't think these tropes exist in the US but they're not as intense
1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
Like yeah we all know Snickers bars are downscale and therefore masculine-coded while Godiva chocolates are upscale and therefore feminine-coded But I'm thinking of an ad campaign that literally actually said "This chocolate is NOT FOR WOMEN"
-
-
Yorkies. Same niche - downscale/no-nonsense bar for guys. The 2000s ‘Not For Girls’ marketing campaign leant into that with a kind of bants masculinity that reads more aggressive now but was basically eye-rolled as a cynical but harmless appeal to brainless lad culture then
1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
Replying to @DreadfulKata @arthur_affect and
Fun fact, Yorkies were included in British army rationing with special packaging which replaced ‘not for girls’ with ‘not for civvies’, while retaining the ‘no girls’ icon over the O, so re. U.K. culture being both misogynistic in our own special, troubling ways - lol yespic.twitter.com/cgEpySboEP
0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.