by GWEB member SarahJane

At first glance, The Cupcakes Club seems innocent enough. A series about five girls going through middle school, the two books that are out so far appear to be your average growing-up books. But dig a bit deeper into the website and you’ll see this isn’t such a good thing. In this case, being all sugar and spice and everything nice is the root of the problem. I checked out the website to find out more.

The most obvious problem is painfully, glaringly obvious: the title. The Cupcakes Club leads to an entire site full of cupcake-like terms for girls, seeming to indicate that all young women can be related to a fluffy dessert. Even when connected to good messages the site has to reduce the level of intelligence, saying things like “Knowledge is power, cupcake” and “Protect yourself, sunshine!”

In the section entitled “Meet the Girls,” each of the five has a picture and quick “about me” section, in which they each discuss not only their talents and interests but what kind of cupcake they are most like. Sierra, the “girly-girl” who likes dance and shopping, calls herself a vanilla cupcake saying “Cupcakes should always be fresh; just like a girl’s wardrobe.” Ashley is “So So Sweet Ashley” and the super-planner while musical and artistic Jessica still has domestic tendencies in her love of “sharing baked goodies with her family and friends.” Valentina, the Mexican-American girl has a sweet bio…with a Spanish mistake. It says “mi amigas” instead of “mis amigas.” Even jock summer has a cupcake that is “tangy and tart” just like her!

Sadly, the book characters and the book take a backseat to the marketing. The most obvious things on the home page are five “meet the” links…that all lead to the same page, and things to buy. There is a Cupcake store selling alarm clocks and t-shirts, then a separate link to “GET THE BOOK NOW”. Funny how the author is only on the image of the book and the summary is extremely short.

Then of course there is the club. Every page I went to had some way for you to sign up for their $9.95 a month club giving you four books a year, special gifts each month, and access to more parts of the website. But really, if the amount of writing on the parts of the site you can access without the membership is any indicator of what is to come with that fee, it’s not worth it.

I obviously can’t judge the book series. It seems to be a sweet enough story, but I haven’t read it. I have, however, spent a great deal of time exploring the website and all I’ve learned is that every girl is, apparently, a cupcake. Gee thanks. Good to know that I can be summed up in one food! The entire site, actually, is the epitome of packaged girlhood: what we are supposed to be as young girls that grows into demure teenagers and young women that love to shop and cook and shop and plan.

Every girl isn’t a cupcake. There are a few, sure, but there are also zucchinis and pineapples and kalamata olives. It seems unfair to categorize us so blatantly as various flavors of sweet treat. But you know what the kicker is? The Cupcake Club books are written by a woman. Sexism in this country is now just as much the fault of the woman as the man. Chew on that, cupcake zucchini.