Why do women generally like hard candy more than men do?

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Or do you not agree that this is the case?

― DeRayMi, Saturday, 17 August 2002 19:30 (twenty-three years ago)

I think you're pretty much right that women consume a lot more hard candy than men. There just happen to be a bunch of gender behavior assignments that make eating hard candy "feminine" -- I can think of like five off the top of my head. First to spring to mind was the chew vs. suck thing, where chewing is masculine and (uh-oh, sorry) sucking is feminine (don't stoop to that, Perry). Cf: women using straws more than men. Stupid gender assignments have made men ashamed to suck things in public (attn: Geoff, Dan).

― nabisco (nabisco), Saturday, 17 August 2002 21:54 (twenty-three years ago)

i like soft candy better, and i am female.

― di smith (lucylurex), Saturday, 17 August 2002 22:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I'll have to check this when I get to meet enough women...

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 17 August 2002 23:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Nabisco, you are opening yourself a world of hurt inflicted by future random googlers.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 17 August 2002 23:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I object. Sweet isn't everything nice.

― Kim, Sunday, 18 August 2002 02:32 (twenty-three years ago)

women use straws more than men?! nitsuh did you get that idea from a movie?

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 18 August 2002 07:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Straws, hard candy (I'm taking this to mean lollypops and similar) are all quite childish things to eat/ use. For good or bad, women feel more able to display that kind of behavior in public for whatever reason (cuteness, Lolita-like suguestiveness, liking lollpops, some idea of bubblegum kitsch etc). See also Hello Kitty, children's hair grips, Barbie accessories and the rest.

― Anna, Sunday, 18 August 2002 14:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I have sucked on lots of ice lollies this weekend, but then I'm bisexual (i.e. what the hell kind of nonsense discussion is this?).

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 18 August 2002 14:03 (twenty-three years ago)

That was like my little hand-grenade, Ned. It's absolutely true, though -- and obviously I don't mean that in a gender-essentialist "women naturally like sucking things way." But heterosexual men and women, for the most part, like to play up to their gender roles -- especially with something as meaningless as candy, where no one puts a lot of thought into breaking out of those roles -- and our big cultural categories of "masculine" versus "feminine" pretty much put hard candy in the latter.

Another factor, of dozens, from the top of my head: it's "masculine" to approach food as sustenance. It's "feminine" -- and especially aided by the weight-consciousness of contemporary women -- to approach food as as much a sensual treat as sustenance, maybe even preferably a substance-less sensual treat than sustenance. Hard candy is all taste and no actual product.

I mean, we could go on and on with food gender assignments. Regardless of what men and women actually eat, steak is "masculine" and salad is "feminine." These are the constructions, however little they may have to do with reality.

Josh: I don't know what movie you're talking about. It was just in my head because I was having dinner with someone and having a sip of her drink, and my polite effort to use whichever drinking method she wasn't using reminded me of the straw / rim-of-glass gender divide.

― nabisco (nabisco), Sunday, 18 August 2002 15:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I mean, I know it's annoying and depersonalizing to have gender constructions pointed out, and we want to reject them and assert that we live in a gloriously varied world full of people who run against these oppressive and banal generalizations, but they're still floating everywhere around us, and when we're not thinking about them -- and who gives a lot of thought to the gender background of candy choices? -- we play happily into them. Which is fine: we get to feel healthily masculine or feminine and harmlessly perform our gender for a moment.

― nabisco (nabisco), Sunday, 18 August 2002 15:29 (twenty-three years ago)

"women naturally like sucking things way" = did you mean "wahey"?

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 18 August 2002 15:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I disagree with the basic premise of thte argument, largely because I know too many men who are addicted to Jolly Ranchers.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Sunday, 18 August 2002 15:54 (twenty-three years ago)

it IS annoying to have what seem like obviously false things pointed out and explained to me. if 'women use straws more than men', it's going to take some kind of (at least amateur) sociological survey to convince me of it.

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 18 August 2002 16:33 (twenty-three years ago)

steak is "masculine" and salad is "feminine."

I had both last night! I am in touch with all my realities. No, really. Er, never mind.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 18 August 2002 16:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Josh, it's called lipstick. Women use straws more than men to preserve their lipstick. Oh, and also because tipping the head right back to swig the bottom of a drink is neither elegant nor graceful.

Anyway, even if you don't believe it, bar workers do. That's why they put straws in women's drinks and not in men's.

We don't have "candy" here. We have lollies. I like the really sour, soft lollies the most and I certainly don't suck hard lollies, I crunch them.

― toraneko, Sunday, 18 August 2002 18:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, and also because tipping the head right back to swig the bottom of a drink is neither elegant nor graceful.

i've never been a graceful eater or drinker. food is food, who cares how you look when your eating it? people who know me will note that i eat like a pig and routinely get food and drink all over my clothes and face. and i like it that way. fuck the gendered bullshit of eating and drinking.

― di smith (lucylurex), Monday, 19 August 2002 00:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I like hard candy but I can't eat it because of dental issues. I'm not entirely sure how that fits into my sexuality.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 19 August 2002 00:56 (twenty-three years ago)

kortbein: grr I don't know how to respond to this thread and make myself look good
Dubplatestyle: serves you right for starting one
kortbein: it's not the one I started!
kortbein: http://www.ilxor.com/thread.php?msgid=3001343
Dubplatestyle: "you are all insane"
kortbein: haha

― jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 19 August 2002 02:14 (twenty-three years ago)

haha jess you asshole.

are women given straws with beer?

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 19 August 2002 02:16 (twenty-three years ago)

no. not with wine either.

― di smith (lucylurex), Monday, 19 August 2002 02:37 (twenty-three years ago)

are we ONLY talking about 'women who wear lipstick and order mixed drinks' here?

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 19 August 2002 02:46 (twenty-three years ago)

presumably

― di smith (lucylurex), Monday, 19 August 2002 03:25 (twenty-three years ago)

I get straws with my drink all the time.

(i also ALWAYS put my email address first and get an error)

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 19 August 2002 03:33 (twenty-three years ago)

"Fuck the gendered bullshit of eating and drinking" = acknowledgement that "the gendered bullshit of eating and drinking" exists to be fucked: let's not, Josh willing, pretend like I made this shit up or am trying to defend it.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 19 August 2002 04:36 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm not pretending! nor do I think you're trying to defend it. it doesn't seem particularly widespread to me though. then again I run in ahem progressive circles.

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 19 August 2002 04:42 (twenty-three years ago)

progressive circles = people who don't pick their teeth with the mail

― jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 19 August 2002 05:04 (twenty-three years ago)

jess if you were wearing lipstick would you use a straw in your big gulp full of whisky?

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 19 August 2002 05:13 (twenty-three years ago)

nabisco you have inspired me to encouarge all my male friends to use straws.

― di smith (lucylurex), Monday, 19 August 2002 08:12 (twenty-three years ago)

When served a drink containing a straw, I generally remove the straw and throw it at the waiter whilst growling "I don't need no SISSY STICK!" in a menacing manner.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 19 August 2002 09:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I used to drink beer through a straw because despite loving the taste of beer I'm not to keen on the smell - and because of afore-mentioned lipstick and grace issues. I had to stop though because there's some stupid urban myth that drinking beer through a straw gets you drunker quicker (it doesn't) and so every filthy sleaze saw it as an invitation to start talking to me.

― toraneko, Monday, 19 August 2002 10:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Does "I'm a lesbian" not... no, no I suppose it wouldn't.

― Graham (graham), Monday, 19 August 2002 10:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Anyway, even if you don't believe it, bar workers do. That's why they put straws in women's drinks and not in men's.

toraneko is right, Josh. I worked as a barman for about 2 years, and was NEVER asked for a straw by a male customer - most women always used to ask for a straw though, even if drinking lager.
(Of course, I much prefer to see women drinking pints, or swigging straight from the bottle.)
2 possible reasons for the general male FEAR OF STRAWS:
1) They're things given to children (and the otherwise infirm) - and being sort of 'cute' and childish (bleccchh) isn't an association most BIG COOL MEN feel comfortable with.
2) I saw a comedian on a Letterman show once, joking about how it was important to avoid sipping very hot coffee if you were trying to be cool, because the ridiculous facial expression of raised eyebrows and pursed lips involved just destroyed it: the same applies to using a straw....

― Ray M (rdmanston), Monday, 19 August 2002 10:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Oops - apologies to Anna, whose post above covered my 1st notion more effectively.

― Ray M (rdmanston), Monday, 19 August 2002 10:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Allegedly Guinness is best consumed through a straw. Though this was probably just a drunken assertion of Alex from Blur.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 August 2002 15:11 (twenty-three years ago)

cor this is mental - the day is coming up as TOMORROW!! ph34r nu-ILX and its time-stretching ways!

― katie (katie), Monday, 19 August 2002 15:12 (twenty-three years ago)

At the corn stand the other day I was happy to see our old friends Ring Pop and Jawbreaker as well as a very cheap-looking candy baseball set. The candy baseball set was generally made of Sweet-Tart material and included three candy bats, two candy baseballs, a variety of tiny candy baseball socks, baseball shirts and pants and -- most disturbingly -- two candy bases. The inclusion of only two bases was on purpose because each piece of the set had a dedicated pop-out bubble on the plastic attached to the cardboard backing. I wanted to buy it, but I just couldn't get over the absence of candy third base and home plate, even though I would just wind up eating them.

― felicity (felicity), Monday, 19 August 2002 15:23 (twenty-three years ago)

"candy third base" = I got there with cindy dombrowski in the 8th grade

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 19 August 2002 16:00 (twenty-three years ago)

felicity how did it go with the italians?

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 19 August 2002 16:01 (twenty-three years ago)

The combination of these two posts by Nabisco gives me fear.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 August 2002 16:21 (twenty-three years ago)

most women always used to ask for a straw though, even if drinking lager

What the hell kind of bar was this that you worked in? I worked in one for a year or two without anyone ever asking for a straw other than for cocktails.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 19 August 2002 17:11 (twenty-three years ago)

and then they all lez up

― david h (david h), Monday, 19 August 2002 17:27 (twenty-three years ago)

do they?

― david h (david h), Monday, 19 August 2002 17:27 (twenty-three years ago)

haha, it's working

― david h (david h), Monday, 19 August 2002 17:27 (twenty-three years ago)

i made up the cindy dombrowski bit, as in 8th grade i wasn't even up in the rotation. although if we read "candy" as a euphemism for "imaginary" it may well have happened.

the italians thing is just that felicity and i were arranging a big black market baby-smuggling deal with an italian heroin cartel. she was in milan for negotiations and i wanted to make sure fabrizio had worked things out okay with the romanians.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 19 August 2002 17:30 (twenty-three years ago)

once I wondered aloud to my roommate what it would be like to drink beer through a straw and he regarded the notion (and me) as absurd. pretty sure it wasn't because of the femininity of drinking beer through a straw.

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 19 August 2002 17:58 (twenty-three years ago)

People say that drinking beer through a straw gets you drunk more quickly. I don't know if there is any basis for this.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 19 August 2002 18:06 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah toraneko said so too

I am aware that the more posts to this thread I make the more like a crazy man about straw drinking I become, but oh well. consider it a freebie nitsuh!

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 19 August 2002 21:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, I generally like hard imaginary more than men do.

― felicity (felicity), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 07:12 (twenty-three years ago)

What the hell kind of bar was this that you worked in?

2 words: 'Nightclub'........'Dundee'

So 'hell kind of bar' is a pretty good description, actually.

― Ray M (rdmanston), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 08:10 (twenty-three years ago)

What are you LIKE?

That's the girls on the block with the nasty curls

Wearing padded bras sucking beers through straws

Dropping down their drawers, where did you get yours?

― Jerry the Nipper, Tuesday, 20 August 2002 08:49 (twenty-three years ago)

(That's from Miami by Will Smith, if anyone's wondering)

― Graham (graham), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 09:21 (twenty-three years ago)

(it's neneh cherry, buffalo mozzarella stance, if anyone's wondering)

― Alan (Alan), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 09:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Fuck you Alan.

― Graham (graham), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 09:38 (twenty-three years ago)

ess-kay is a MAN and he got a straw with his BEER last night!

― di smith (lucylurex), Thursday, 22 August 2002 19:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Felicity I read that as "I generally like hard imaginary men" etc.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 22 August 2002 20:17 (twenty-three years ago)

i think he was testing the theory about straws making you get drunjk faster.

― di smith (lucylurex), Friday, 23 August 2002 02:30 (twenty-three years ago)

I was outraged not to get a straw with my Mojito last night! Only then did I fully appreciate the importance of straws with cocktails. Then I realized I live in Chelsea and perhaps the usual female entitlements are of no interest to the local bar bar.

― felicity (felicity), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 16:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Oddly, I wasn't expecting this to go in the direction Nabisco took it. I can't help wanting some sort of sociobiological explanation. I think the straw thing is true. I've had male friends explicitly inform me that it's not good for a guy to be drinking through a straw. But I wonder if there isn't more of a taste issue with hard candy? Do women perhaps prefer a certain type of extremely sweet sweet?

I am convinced, at any rate, that women do eat more hard candy than men, at least at work.

― DeRayMi, Wednesday, 4 September 2002 21:31 (twenty-three years ago)

nine years pass...

what the fuck was this thread

― Fareed Zaireeka (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 05:27 (thirteen years ago)

too early for a jpg of madonna's hard candy

― ezra kleine nachtmusik (get bent), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 05:34 (thirteen years ago)

Do we mean that film where thingy cuts off Owlman's dick?

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 06:11 (thirteen years ago)

I have sucked on lots of ice lollies this weekend, but then I'm bisexual (i.e. what the hell kind of nonsense discussion is this?).
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, August 18, 2002 7:03 AM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― for reasons of sass (the table is the table), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 07:12 (thirteen years ago)

xpost i was gonna say, cause there's a castration scene?

― messiahwannabe, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 07:17 (thirteen years ago)

ps. not saying women necessarily like castration scenes! just that they're extra uncomfortable for dudes

― messiahwannabe, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 07:18 (thirteen years ago)

most women always used to ask for a straw though, even if drinking lager.

I have never seen this, re: beer.

― the same dope water as you (how's life), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 12:00 (thirteen years ago)

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