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cupcakesAmen! Let’s hear it for the cupcakes! Cupcakes are muffins that have their ducks in a row.

I’d forgotten all about cupcakes when this little meme just happened to float though my FB feed. What’s a cupcake, you say? In the boonies, it’s an endearing term of affection, a bit of good-natured teasing, an expression of brotherly love often shown to women.

It is a word of encouragement as in, “Come on cupcake, you can do it!” Very important words to know if  you are trying to lift a four hundred pound log and your only helper is someone half your size of the female persuasion.

I suppose tone, intention, and affection are important here, too. “Cupcake, can I have a cup of coffee,” can be sweet, charming, said with some degree of respect, especially by older gentlemen around these parts. It’s a recognition of your femaleness, not a designation of inferiority.

So what is a “cupcake” in the fancy places, on the East coast, in academia, in New York city? An insult. A demeaning term meant to convey sexism, disrespect, contempt, and inferiority. It’s a bit funny, I get into trouble with this all the time, as the demographics and culture of our community have changed. So you bump into another woman from these parts, “hey cupcake, how’s it going?” It’s a bit like saying, “hey, girl.”

Don’t do that to someone from New York city, ‘cupcake’ means something entirely different.

My daughters were often “cupcakes,” as in girls, sweet, precious, and enjoying a certain amount of pampered privilege. Princesses, royalty….who can also fish, cut firewood, and participate in amazing physical feats that far exceed our abilities. Soft, sweet, but strong. You know, cupcakes.

I was just pondering these little cultural quirks, the gaps between city folks and rural folks, people sharing the same country and language, but having such differences. I’ve never paid any attention to how much disrespect is often directed towards rural people, (don’t forget to sneer and toss ‘uneducated’ in there, too.) We be ignorant, uneducated sexists and any other -ism you can apply. What’s with that, what’s it all about?

I’ve been observing this thing for a long time, the way our tiny community has become so populated by people fleeing the area they are from, often the city, seeking what we have, desiring what we have, and yet bringing those same city values with them….and immediately setting about changing the nature of the culture and lifestyle they once desired.  It’s crazy. People will move here, buy a house right next to the airport… and than to proceed to complain about the noise, the planes,….the culture, our way of doing things, the people who already live here.

It’s a clash of culture, a clash of civilizations.

We cupcakes will adapt, survive, and thrive in the midst of all this change, but some of you city folks, well, I often worry about some of you……

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