Man-Candy

Strolling in Asian grocery stores would at some point lead to a certain product from the confectionery section screaming for your attention. You've probably seen it before, the same product with different flavours placed along side each other. Yes, you guessed it (or would of taken the picture above as a hint), I'm talking about Pocky. 

What's Pocky? 

A type of Japanese-made confectionery in which biscuit sticks are covered in chocolate but can also come in different flavours (strawberry, kiwifruit, milk, green tea just to name a few).

A while ago, I saw a 'flavour' I've never seen before, it was the flavour of 'for men'. It was quite shocking at first because underneath, it simply says bitter chocolate. I know more girls that can handle dark and bitter chocolates better than guys. I didn't give it much thought and assumed it was another one of those Japanese products that uses English mainly to make it look fancy.

It was not until recently, that I read an article about Japanese maculinity and understood the real reason behind this man-candy phenominon.

Have you ever heard of gender associated foods? Probably not, everyone eats anything these days. But perhaps, just perhaps, it is still in some people's mindsets, like men prefer big meaty meals over women or women prefer to eat more chocolates other men. "These preferences do not mutually exclude each other". However, in Japan, that is the case traditionally. Men are stereotyped to enjoy bitter foods and drink such as beer and offals and women to sweets and chocolate. As a consequence, confectionery of any sort is considered 'kawaii' and a male buying any sort of sweets would be looked down and probably be seen the same as buying headbands or handbags.

However, many young males in Japan today are trying to break away from the Japanese traditions, such as the hegemonic salaryman, marriage etc. This new breed of men WANT to do things that appear perfectly normal in other cultures but seemingly girlish and strange for a male to do, they WANTS have have sweets, they WANT candy!

The solution?

Chocolate and confectionery 'for men'

Well, it's not the complete solution, but it's part of it. Don't expect to go into a Japanese supermarket and find an isle of just 'for men' products. Society is well aware of today's youth revolutionising traditional culture. 

Just don't forget to look around before buying a girly headband.