The Forbidden Aphrodisiacs
so bad they must be good
We all want what we can’t have. Like me. I want to release this newsletter once a month, like I originally intended. I would like to not ever experience writer's block or, dare I say it, laziness. But as it appears, I simply cannot have that!
I began writing newsletter at the beginning of January while on Day 7 of my own personal C*VID isolation journey. I was sniffly and tired, but mostly fine. I locked myself in my parents’ guest bedroom, where they delivered tea and cheese snacks to my door. It could have been much, much worse. And yet… I felt deep angst. I had the sudden urge to redecorate my house. To travel to Mexico. To reinvent myself. To escape! But lo -- all was forbidden. Just like distance makes the heart grow fonder, so does making something restricted, or taboo, increase the urge to just DO IT ANYWAY. It’s the reason why the children will surely read the forbidden books, and why Romeo and Juliet died in each others’ stupid arms.
So, it’s only fitting that this month’s topic be about the Forbidden Aphrodisiacs, and the fears that drove them to be banned to begin with.
People fear food for more reasons than I care to get into, but one of them is because of the meaning ascribed to eating certain foods. As long as I can remember and despite literally all evidence, popular American cultural lore has warned men against eating tofu because it could turn them into women by giving them breasts. NEVER MIND there is no dearth of men in cultures where soy is a staple, and NEVER MIND that there’s more to gender than… simply whether or not one has titties. But no, America says: Meat-eating is manly. Tofu-eating, vegan/vegetarianism, general salad-eating etc. etc. is womanly. These are the rules. Stray from them, and you threaten the very fabric of our society, and yes, the backbone of the American family!
Not only is it the alleged estrogen content in soy that arouses fear, but according to Carol Adams, the author of The Sexual Politics of Meat, those who steak their identities to meat (hehe) are also repulsed by the stereotypically feminine qualities associated with plant-based eating, like “compassion, conscientiousness, and empathy—for animals or the environment,” which are in direct opposition to more “masculine” traits such as physical domination and self-interest. Proximity to foods (or people) that don’t share these values, therefore threaten certain American white cishet males’ identity (Men’s Rights Activists like Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan have even taken it so far as to pursue an all meat diet — a wormhole which I’m tempted to go down, but for the sake of time will not. I digress!!)
Anyway, back to the point — while meat consumption brings up questions around gender, the meaning ascribed to aphrodisiacs, is, obviously, sex. But what could society POSSIBLY fear when it comes to sex? (???)
Here is a short list of foods that have been banned because they were, simply, too tantalizing:
Chocolate: In 1624, Austrian Professor John Franciscus Rauch strongly warned against (and some sources claimed even BANNED) monks from eating chocolate lest it “inflamed their passions.”
Onions: Not only do they have layers, but onions are believed by some to increase the libido and “strengthen the [male] reproductive organs.” The Ancient Egyptians must have sensed this, as it was forbidden for celibate priests to eat them.
Mint: Alexander the Great, lover of Cleopatra, and fearer of the herb, reportedly banned his soldiers from consuming mint before battle as it made them way too horny.
Arugula: In Ancient Rome, arugula was found to be so arousing that it was forbidden from being grown in the monastic gardens of the Roman Catholic Church.
Artichoke: In researching the history of the artichoke as an aphrodisiac, the word “scandal” appeared more times that I could count. According to multiple (yet somewhat dubious) sources, in 16th century France artichokes were believed to be such potent sex bombs, that women were warned not to indulge in them. That is until the influential queen Catherine de Medici began to eat and share her apparently addictive love for them publicly, hence #normalizing artichokes.
Spanish Fly: If you thought our days of banning aphrodisiacs were behind us, you haven’t met the FDA. In 1990, the agency made a sweeping ban of substances that were alleged aphrodisiacs, but that they claimed had no effect on sexual desire. Among them was Spanish Fly, a chemical derived from the dried bodies of beetles. So sexy!!! (In realm of the more normal, ginseng and fennel were also banned from being marketed as aphrodisiacs.)
Of course, those who have been allowed to consume aphrodisiacs has depended on who has cultural permission to experience and seek out sexual feelings. Religious beliefs have shaped much of how Western culture views both food and sex. Both are awarded their very own Deadly Sin, and the very inception of sin itself in Christianity centers on forbidden fruit. Lusty, lusty apples are baked into our collective pie of a psychee. It makes sense then, that aphrodisiacs have not always been received with open arms and opener legs.
But interestingly aphrodisiacs haven’t always been frowned upon by the men of the cloth. Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions found great use for aphrodisiacs and even devoted studies to them, believing them to be useful for aiding conception for both men and women, rejuvenating older men, and “to counteract the spells of witches that caused impotence and sterility” (not the witches!) Women’s pleasure was seen as an unnecessary but useful tool in conception, hence giving them permission to indulge in the odd aphrodisiac as well. The problem, it seems, appeared only if the motivation for indulging in an aphrodisiac was purely pleasure instead of procreation, like in the case, say, of a monk. Off I go on my tangent about pleasure again! But it speaks volumes that a whole class of sexy foods was studied and approved by major religions — only to be confined to very unsexy conditions. And as for queer people, we are largely erased from this conversation altogether because if you’re not allowed to exist, how can you be forbidden from eating artichokes??
Perhaps then, it is time to eat what we previously could not have, to taste the forbidden foods and experience their pleasures, regardless of, and especially if, you’ve been told pleasure is not something that belongs to you.
In lieu of my own recipe this time, I share with you none other than The Pasta Queen’s Forbidden Pesto recipe (featuring arugula, you dirty dogs). May I suggest following the meal with some impermissible mint chocolate chip ice cream, unsanctioned onions, verboten artichoke and a sprinkling of illegal Spanish fly?
I’d love to hear from you! Why are you here? What would you like to read? Drop me a voluptuous line by commenting below ;)