The association of sweets with femininity has historically led to a stigma against male consumption of sweets. However, there is no evidence to support these claims.

If a viral cartoon image being circulated on social media is to be believed, it’s important to keep men away from “sissy salads”. Sweetness and “masculinity”, supposedly, don’t go together. 

Do sweet foods really impact maleness in any manner? Here’s what we found: A reverse image search led us to an older post on Reddit. According to the post, the cartoon image is from the book Knox Gelatine, published in 1938. 

Further, a keyword search on the claim – “Sweetness can make a man a long-time bachelor” – took us to an interesting study from Japan. While it states that “the association of sweets with femininity has historically led to a stigma against male consumption of sweets”, there is no scientific evidence to prove that they impact masculinity in anyway. 

Dr Anjana Kalia, a nutritionist and Ayurveda practitioner based in Delhi, India concurs. “There is no correlation between food and masculinity or gender identity. These claims are baseless and have no evidence to support them,” she says.

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