Real Men Hate Sugar: Difference between revisions

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This cultural phenomenon is common in (but not specific to) Japan, the polar opposite being [[Sweet Tooth]].
 
From the very first time we partake in our mother's milk as infants, its soothing and sweet taste subconsciously indoctrinates us to associate sweetness with comfort, gentleness and the pleasant things in life. That's why sweetness is the favorite taste of children in general when they first graduate from infancy, before life experience allows them to gradually acquire new food preferences.
 
It is for the very same reasons above that sugar and sweetness are culturally coded as childish and feminine, as opposed to the "mature and masculine" flavors of saltiness, spiciness, bitterness and even sourness. Many a teenage boy (but not all of them) who wishes to be [[Rated "M" for Manly|a man amongst men]] are expected to indoctrinate himself to hate sweets, ''especially'' openly scorning it in front of his macho friends, as a means to accentuate and emphasize his masculinity. Complementing this is the stereotype that women do like sweets in general and chocolate in particular, and the trope in which a heartbroken young woman [[Drowning My Sorrows|drowns her sorrows]] in [[Heartbreak and Ice Cream|ice cream]] is well-known.
 
Woe betide the teenage boy who is caught liking sugar or (shock horror) caught having a banana ice cream sundae topped with a cherry; from that point onward, he is a socially dead pariah, no better than "those wretched [[Otaku]] losers who hang out at [[Cosplay Cafe|Cosplay Cafes]]s".
Eventually, this self-brainwashing becomes ingrained into the subconscious, and many adult men (or the [[Real Women Never Wear Dresses|particularly macho]] [[Straw Feminist]]) grow up to be physically repulsed by the very taste of sugar, syrup and honey.
 
Even in Japan, this is only partially [[Truth in Television]]; many men openly like sweet foods and will happily eat them in public. It is, however, generally assumed that women like their sweet stuff sweeter and more elaborate.
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In Western contexts, anyone possessing this trope is probably considered odd by society at large, because sugar ''does'' taste pleasant. The obvious attempt to force an image of toughness and masculinity will be plain as day for everyone to see if the trope applies to a man, and insecurities and potential anorexia or bulimia if to a woman. The main exception in the West is in regard to alcoholic beverages: "real men" drink cordials and sweet liqueurs only occasionally if at all, avoid fruit mixes (except perhaps fresh lemon or lime, or "classic" mixes involving fresh fruit juice); no, a real man relishes in the harshness of his whisk(e)y/brandy/rum/vodka, the pininess of his gin, the nausea of his tequila, and the bitterness of his beer, and avoids sweet wine if he can help it. Less often, coffee and tea are seen as more masculine if unsweetened (or if too hot to taste). It may still be played straight for other foods in cases of [[Testosterone Poisoning]], however.
 
Compare with [[Sweet Tooth]] and [[Real Women Never Wear Dresses]].
 
Contrast with [[Real Men Wear Pink]].
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{{examples}}
 
== [[Advertising]] ==
* The whole [https://web.archive.org/web/20130828121543/http://www.thefword.org.uk/reviews/2002/05/not_for_girls_the_yorkie_and_echo_adverts "It's not for girls" advertising campaign] for Yorkie Bars seems to based on an assumption that chocolate was in danger of becoming too feminine.
* A Miller Lite commercial had a bunch of men, after some debate, decide that putting fruit in bearbeer is completely unacceptable for a man.
 
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
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* This is not only used in ''[[FLCL]]'' but is in fact a major plot point to show Naota's immaturity, by the fact that he hates spicy and sour food. The series starts and ends with Naota saying "I don't like sour stuff." This also extends Amarao who also loves all things sweet and hates spicy and sour foods, show casing to the audience his immaturity as well.
** At one point Amarao makes some kind of speech about how sugar gives you energy and it's natural to like sweet things. He's trying to sound deep, like his supposed immaturity is really some big conspiratorial secret, but...well, it's Amarao.
* Hardcore martial artist Saotome Ranma of ''[[Ranma One Half½]]'' is a subversion of this trope: He personally ''loves'' ice cream, but would not be caught ''dead'' saying he does, much less going to restaurants and ordering it. Fortunately, [[Cursed with Awesome|he is able to turn into a cute girl when he comes in contact with cold water]]. This "curse" allows him to openly and gleefully order chocolate sundaes with a cherry on top in public; heck, he even uses the cuteness of his appearance to scam ''free'' ice cream cones off the young and impressionable clerks!!
* The main character in the ''[[Moe]]'' [[Gender Bender]] [[Manga]] ''[[Moonlight Fromage]]'' is turned from an [[Eroge]]-loving 15-year-old boy into an adorable 15-year-old girl and transported from modern Japan to an alternate Elizabethan Europe. His caretaker is an absolutely ''moe'' teenage [[Tsundere]] who tends to cook with a ''lot'' of sugar. He initially ''pretends'' to like her sweet-tasting creamy spaghetti, but after spending a month or so as a girl, eventually grows to ''actually'' like it.
* [[Ouran High School Host Club]]: Hunny tries to stop liking sweets in order to seem more manly, but it doesn't work. In contrast, his brother Yasuchika despises sweets.
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* In ''[[Fruits Basket]]'', when Kagura tries to present Kyo with chocolate for Valentine's Day, he makes a big deal of how he's too manly to like sugary food. Shigure then rags on him by saying that the truly manly thing to do would be to suck it up and eat the chocolate rather than break a girl's heart by rejecting her gift.
* ''Very'' averted by [[Axis Powers Hetalia|Hetalia]]'s Turkey, a very manly-looking [[Boisterous Bruiser]] who ''adores'' sweets. Considering how Turkish cuisine gives a lot of importance to desserts and all kinds of pastries, it's a [[Justified Trope]].
* Subverted in ''[[The Secret Agreement]]'', where it seems like Kyuusei rejects all sweets because of this and is subtly teasing Yuuichi for being unmanly. It turns out he was being literal about not being able to eat sugar as it actually kills people from their clan, and Yuuichi is only abnormal because he doesn't react to it until later in life.
* Shou of ''[[Skip Beat!]]'' dislikes anything that's too sweet, but claims to the public that he'll eat anything. This causes trouble when Mimori makes lunch and includes an eggroll that's too sweet. He tries to discreetly throw away the sweet parts, but his childhood friend Kyouko (who knows he doesn't like sweets but is holding a grudge against him) silently pressures him to eat the whole thing since Mimori worked hard to make it. Unfortunately for Kyouko, this helps Shou figure out who she is.
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', Zorro doesn't like chocolate, claiming it's "too sweet".
* Invoked and subverted in ''[[Bleach]]'': Ichigo loves chocolate.
* ''[[D.Gray-man]]'': Completely averted with Skinn Bolic, [[The Brute]] and "Wrath" of the villainous Noah family led by the [[Big Bad|the Millennium Earl]], and the one with the [[Hair-Trigger Temper]]. He is utterly obsessed with sweets, earning the nickname "Sweet Tooth" by one of his family members. When he is was served a boiled egg during a family meeting with the Earl for dinner, he went into an [[Unstoppable Rage]] and proceeded to ruthlessly beat and tear apart one of the Akuma (who are unwilling [[Slave Mooks]]) who served him for not following his orders to make it sweet.
* In ''[[Satisfaction Guaranteed]]'', one of Anything, Inc.'s clients is a baker, and Shima complains about having to meet him at his pastry shop, which is frequented by teenage girls. [[The Rival|APP]] tells him to quit whining and deal with it. {{spoiler|Interestingly, it's the baker's female love interest who really dislikes sweets. She didn't want to hurt his feelings by telling him, but fortunately, he had already figured it out by the time she came in to confess and had gotten around that obstacle by making her a chicken pot pie.}}
* Parodied in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'', where Keiichi is able to blackmail a star pitcher into throwing the game to the Hinamizawa home team by threatening to out him as a closet [[Sweet Tooth]].
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== [[Film]] ==
* In the finale of ''[[Kindergarten Cop]]'', John Kimble is visibly gargling at the taste of the sweet fruit jelly that the orderlies fed him as he lies bedridden in hospital. His visiting partner [[Lampshade Hanging|points this out]] to the nurse.
{{quote| "What are you doing, feeding him Jell-O? Tough guys hate Jell-O!!}}
 
 
== [[Literature]] ==
* According to Bruce Fernstein's book ''Real Men Don't Eat Quiche'', not only do Real Men stay away from quiche, they never eat desserts of any kind, if it can be avoided.
* Even though they have known each other for some three years, when Lord Peter Wimsey dines with Harriet at the Egoists’ Club (in Chapter 4 of [[Gaudy Night]]) he still has to remind her not to put sugar in his coffee.
 
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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* Gunpei in ''[[Engine Sentai Go-onger]]'', though he will try to eat Saki's cake.
* Matt Kennedy Gould from ''[[The Joe Schmo Show]]'' is disgusted by the taste of chocolate. One challenge forced him to lick chocolate off of a woman's body. He spent half of the challenge choking and gagging at the taste.
* Subverted with protagonist and ultra-conservative blue collar worker Archie in ''[[All in the Family]]'', his love of Twinkies being a [[Running Gag]].
 
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* You'd expect [[Rated "M" for Manly|professional WWWF wrestler]] turned actor [[Dwayne Johnson]] aka "The Rock", a man amongst men, to be of this trope. On the contrary, he openly professes his love (and weakness) for chocolate and (shock) ''[[Strawberry Shorthand|strawberry]]''-flavored doughnuts!!
** DON'T FORGET PIE!!!!
 
== [[Real Life]] ==
* "Men's Pocky," which is coated in substantially less sweet dark chocolate, the stick itself being made slightly bitter with unsweetened cocoa powder.
 
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In one scene in ''[[Professor Layton and the Curious Village]]'', Inspector Chelmey professes to hate sweets with such fervor that even the sight of them makes him nauseous, demanding that the serving boy get rid of the tea-cakes he's brought out. {{spoiler|This turns out to be a key hint in exposing him as Don Paolo in disguise, when Layton and Luke find a newspaper article which casually mentions that it's a widely-known fact that the famous Inspector Chelmey loves his wife's sweet potato fritters}}.
* Raven in ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]''. Ironically, he admits in a skit he knows how to bake sweets and did so to impress girls.
* A lot of characters in ''[[Blaze Union]]'' have trouble eating candy and even some kinds of fruit because of how sweet they are, but this isn't limited to just the men--Medoutemen—Medoute, Sleip, Eudy, Emilia, and Baretreenu hate sweets too. Comically, the loud and proud manliest man of the party is a [[Sweet Tooth]].
 
== [[Real Life]] ==
* "Men's Pocky," which is coated in substantially less sweet dark chocolate, the stick itself being made slightly bitter with unsweetened cocoa powder.
* Unlike his mother, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_III King Charles III] does not like chocolate at all. He also does not like cookies unless they are heated.
 
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Food Tropes]]
[[Category:Gender and Sexuality Tropes]]
[[Category:Real Men Hate Sugar{{PAGENAME}}]]