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Second-wave feminists in the 1960s worked hard to reject housework and domesticity as the lot of women their modern counterparts may now ask if we are sliding back to a position where domesticity is being fetishized without any thought to what else that implies about women’s status. However, these same traits can also make disheartening reading for those who hope to divorce female identity from all of these trappings of beauty, slimness, and restraint: the assumption that femininity goes with the color pink and things that are cute and glittery, and that ties women to a consumer culture which elevates baking and providing sweet treats to a high order. Lastly, shop-bought gourmet cupcakes are a sure signifier of modern good taste and disposable income another attribute which makes them appealing to women in particular, who still make most of the spending decisions when it comes to household, and particularly kitchen, matters.Ĭupcakes’ size, shape, and appearance all promote a view of femininity which similarly dwells on size, shape, and appearance. Their one-portion size makes them ideal for the body-conscious, a facet of womanhood which has endured through the years. They are also a relatively manageable bake-at-home project which lends itself to the sort of decoration that both impresses and demonstrates motherhood (think of those children’s parties so many of us slave over). Cupcakes are pretty, and in a way thought of as traditionally female: neat and beautifully made-up. The ongoing mania for cupcakes fits into this idea very neatly. What is it about the cupcake and its ilk which is inextricably linked to women? And is this, ultimately, a good thing or not?
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The point about daintiness remains, however, and is still a factor in the popularity of cupcakes today, as is a link with femininity. The little queen cake and mince pie moulds from earlier decades indicate that small cakes had long been popular. We should probably not read too much into this theory, however, appealing though it may be. But cupcakes also catered for a new sort of femininity, one which put ever-increasing emphasis on appearance, dress, and physical beauty–including, from the 1840s, the desire to stay trimly corseted into an hourglass shape.
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Teatime was well bedded in as a social occasion by this time, and small treats, neatly encased in their own wrapper, were easy and tidy to eat. The presentation of little cakes in their own paper cases give us another idea as to why they were becoming popular: they were fashionable and well turned out.
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Perhaps it is no coincidence that the small and dainty cupcake became popular in Britain at the same time as mass production of the corset.