The dangers posed to women by sweets and other items intended for internal consumption is a common trope in American literature. Young women were often warned to refuse treats of sodas, ice cream, chocolate, and candy from men. They were also warned about the dangers of consuming foreign foods. The explanation usually given was that men used such items to “overpower” women. I will argue, however, that the association of oral consumption with the loss of virtue was related not simply to concerns regarding seduction but to fears of white, native-born American women’s “purity” being violated by immigrants and Americans of color and of middle-class women’s “abuse” of cultural mandates to consume to exercise power over men. The entry of women into establishments that sold sweet refreshments, especially those owned by immigrant men or men of color, thus endangered not only their sexual purity but also the perpetuation of the white, native-born middle class and traditional divisions of power between genders.
About the presenterAnn Kordas
Ann Kordas is a professor in the Humanities Dept. at Johnson & Wales University. She teaches courses in American history, food history, and the supernatural.She has published two books, The Politics of Childhood in Cold War America and Female Adolescent Sexuality in America, 1850-1965. She is at work on a book on occult belief in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries.