Friday, May 12, 2006

Food Symbolism [II, 25]

The term “sexual appetites” alludes to the parallel between sex and eating. Different in many ways, the two activities are also similar. They may also be linked in practice. An old proverb has it that Venus (erotic desire) is cold without Ceres and Bacchus (food and drink).

A common conceit is that sexual preferences are tastes (cf. French gout). In this view, not only is homosexuality a taste but so are preferences for certain body types, ethnicities, and the like.

Food comparisons may serve to designate ethnic preferences in erotic activity. A rice queen favors Asians, while a taco queen is attracted to Mexicans or Mexican Americans. Note also potato queen and tanduri queen (both UK). Spag fag, a fancier of Italian partners, seems to be exclusively British. A chocoholic is someone who prefers black partners. The fascination with sailors as sex objects, a predilection that has declined in recent decades, was expressed by describing them as sea food. The principle of designating a member of a desired group in terms of food can be extended indefinitely.

By contrast a granola dyke is not someone who prefers a health-food partner (though she may), but one who herself favors such foods. Note also crunchy.

A muffin or stud muffin is an appetizing young man, probably collegiate, considered sexy. The word twinkie may belong here, though eating is not the primary reference, but rather the bright-as-a-button appearance of such persons.

If large and prominent, the genitals of a desired male may be termed meat. Hence the exclamation “Meat for days!” In various cultures milk is a common term for semen; cf. Spanish leche.

During the mid-twentieth century in the US heterosexuals were dismissively referred to as jam. (The interpretation of this term as “just a man” is fanciful.) This epithet was applied when the presence of straights was inconvenient, as at a party. Hence, apparently, the trope of stickiness.

Eye candy is a term for a very attractive person, usually available for looking at only, however.

The term buns is common for the buttocks. A graphic term for anal intercourse is Hershey highway. In the UK another brand of chocolate serves the same function: Cadbury Avenue. A British expression for one who takes the receptive role in anal intercourse is fudge packer. Typically American is the term cornholing. The cornholer is the one who performs the active role in anal intercourse (from the old redkneck custom of providing corncobs as a toilet-paper substitute in outhouses).

In Britain a vegetarian is a gay man who refuses to perform fellatio. The expression toss the salad (for an exuberant sexual coupling) seems to be mainly used by heterosexuals.

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