“Even the Sex and the City Girls Eat Them!”: A Textual Analysis of DC Cupcakes and Cupcake Girls

• In Event: Cupcakes, Headphones, and Video Games: Explorations in Media Representations of Gender Roles, Sexual Identities, and Sexual Practices

Abstract

As food studies have become incorporated into media studies, discussions of gendered performances on cooking television shows have become popular. Although televised gendered food performances have been studied, limited scholarship exists on shows that combine food preparation with business ownership of restaurants or bakeries. My study, a comparative textual analysis of two seasons of DC Cupcakes and two seasons of Cupcake Girls, seeks to fill that gap, pointing to issues of gender representation that are complicated by taking on dual roles of chef/baker and business owner, as seen through cupcake television. I argue that portrayals of women on cupcake television, along with cupcakes as a cultural phenomenon more generally, promote female infantilization. Furthermore, such shows contribute to obsession with food consumption, and obsession with food preparation, signs of disordered eating typically linked to females. These programs exemplify food and prescriptive eating habits as forms of social control over women.

Author

• Donica O'Malley, University of Pittsburgh