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Cody Minnis

Professor Granillo

English 103

4 December 2019

Let Them Eat Cake Redesign

Wedding cakes are occasional cakes that people spent almost 17 billion on last year, and

these cakes do more than just commemorate (Minnis 1). Today, the wedding cakes can serve two

purposes: to celebrate the couple being married and to make a call for action of change in

society. The redesign of the “Poisoner of Your Love” cake allows for the audience to receive a

new message in social activism. The original cake used a feminist message that allowed the

audience to see why feminism is looked upon as a negative theme and pushes people away from

the idea of equality. With a redesign of the cake and using the feminist lens along with different

visual, gestural, linguistic modes, the feminist message can be a positive message and used to

create a society that allows people to feel valued without devaluing another. For a society to

successfully survive, ideologies have to adapt to the new social norms and allow all people to

feel that they are an appreciated member of society. In order to do that with this cake, it needed

to be redesigned.

The first mode of redesign is with the visual signifiers that are used to educate the

audience. According to Rachel Graham, an expert on cakes used for activism, “the theme, text,

and even the flavor of a cake should teach the audience about the celebratee’s interests and the

reason for celebrating” (32). The visual mode represents all of the things that can be seen like

colors, layout, and perspective. The original cake used a heart with jail bars, pink and purple

flowers, and the bride was placed in a position of power by standing and the groom sitting. In
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addition, the groom was attached to a ball and chain. The wording “Prisoner of Your Love” was

written on the cake. These visual clues to the meaning of the cake are that the bride is in control

of the relationship. She has the power. The problem is that when using the feminist lens, there is

the “ultimate goal to change the world by promoting women’s equality” (Tyson 87). The original

cake takes this message in the opposite direction from patriarchy and pushes it to the extreme for

women’s equality. Instead of having the man having all the power in the relationship, the woman

does. It takes away from the social activism meaning that the cake is trying to convey, which is

equality. The redesign allows a better message to be delivered to the audience members seeing

the cake.

In the redesign, there is still a bride and groom but the visual signs have changed. The

colors of the hearts are now red and silver, which represents love and increased self-confidence

along with modernism. Additionally, the hearts are open to allow feelings and emotion to not be

stopped by bars. Next, the bride is holding the groom. This is a reverse in the traditional ideology

seen when a groom carries the bride over the threshold. Here the bride does not need the man to

carry here. She is strong and can accomplish things on her own. The idea that a woman can be as

strong as a man starts with “the process of redefining cultural norms, especially those of gender,

[and] is a delicate, complex, and often ambiguous one” (Dean 288). To see a woman as an equal

with the ability to move heavy objects, both figuratively and literally, creates an even field

between both men and women. This action is redefining the cultural norm as men have typically

been seen as the strong ones. Also, the head heights of the bride and groom are the same which

helps show the equality between both. The final visual redesign has to do with the text of the

message given by the words on the cake. In the original cake the lettering used was in all capital

letters which are considered to be masculine in nature. The new lettering is flowing and feminine
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giving power to the bride. These visual clues, when used through the feminist perspective,

promote a positive view of women. That message will be carried by those who see the cake and

learn from the activism of the cake in that women have strength and do not need a man for

survival. It paints a picture that women are just as capable as men to do the heavy lifting not only

in visual but gestural modes as well.

The next mode of redesign was the gestural mode and builds on the visual modes. The

gestural mode deals with the movement on the cake. The old cake has several clues that there is

separation between the man and woman both in space and emotion. The expressions on the faces

of both the bride and groom show unhappiness. There are no smiles. To add to it, the groom is

sitting down with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands almost like he is sulking.

Furthermore, the bride is standing away from the groom with no contact between them. All of

these clues show that “signs are ever an available means for reproducing the events and feelings

which they describe” (Fox 397). This message tells the audience that the bride and groom are not

equal in their feelings to each other. The groom has less value in the relationship than the bride

because he is the one that is more affected by the marriage. The gestures tell the future of what

the relationship will be like. In order to use the cake as social activism, the message has to be

deliberate which means that it should help prevent future events. By keeping the message as

separation between a man and a woman, this cake is not promoting a changed societal view. A

new view must be given.

A new view from the redesign can be seen by using the feminist lens to promote the

message of equality in the gestures. Both the bride and the groom have smiles on their faces

showing that they are both emotionally equal in the relationship. Another gesture is that the

groom is holding the bride’s bouquet of flowers while she is holding him. By doing this, the new
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bride is able to do what she wants and not being confined to traditional gender roles. Lastly,

there is not a space between them. They are together in what they do as a married couple. These

gestures only strengthen the feminist message in a positive way. When people do things together

and not treated as if they are less of a person, then more things can be accomplished. The

gestures people make every day have an impact on those around them. Make them ones that can

be seen as equality building rather than separating. Gestures lead into verbal communication

which is that start of change.

The final mode of redesign is the communication mode or Linguistic mode. The

linguistic mode deals with aspects such as the word choice and its organization into phrasing.

The saying “Prisoner of Your Love” conveys the message that one person is controlled by

another. This is done by the words “prisoner” and “your” which show confinement and

possession. The word choice used is “an important way to signal to a community that you

belong. That you are an insider and not an outsider” (Petrolino). This cake’s message tells the

audience that the maker is not part of the social change community that brings people together.

No person should be made to feel that they are controlled by another or that they are a possession

People need to move away from this way of thinking and change the ideology that patriarchy has

given to society.

Redesigning the phrasing needed to show a relationship between marriage and feminism

without lessoning the credibility of either one. The wedding cake now reads “To Have and to

Hold”. This is a saying that comes from a traditional ceremony of marriage to tell the audience

that there is a commitment to each other. When the saying is used with the context of the

feminist perspective such as the cake topper, the words strengthen the message that she is strong

and does not need to be taken care of by a man. It is a pun that has more than one meaning and
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“Once two meanings have been brought together, the two senses may either coexist, or one of the

two may win out” (Attardo 93). The first meaning is that the bride and the groom hold each other

with love. The second meaning is the feminist one in that she can hold up her groom as in having

strength and power and not need him to support her. For this cake to have the two meanings

received by the audience, there has to be a judgement made by the audience. This judgement

helps in the promotion of social activism that the cake is trying to achieve.

For a cake to be considered social activism, the message needs to promote an important

call to action. In this case, the call to action is for women to be treated as equals to men and not

be subjected to traditional roles. From the feminist perspective, women are strong and powerful.

This idea is shown through the redesign of the “Prisoner of Your Love” wedding cake with use

of visual, gestural, and linguistic clues. The ideologies that many people have in our society are

based on outdated gender roles and beliefs that are no longer acceptable. For society to continue

to grow, the ideas that the societies are based on need to grow and evolve as well. Change cannot

happen if thinking remains stagnant. Social change is the responsibility of all of us and the

messages that are received need to be understood.

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Works Cited

Attardo, Salvatore. “Universals in Puns and Humorous Wordplay.” Cultures and Traditions of

Wordplay and Wordplay Research, edited by Esme Winter-Froemel and Verena Thaler,

1st ed., De Gruyter, Berlin; Boston, 2018, pp. 89–110. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvbkjv1f.7.

Attardo was able to show that words and gestures can be universal through humorous

word play. His studies came from looking at multiple cultures and seeing that many texts

can have linguistic mechanisms that impact how words are interpreted. This article

was helpful in the research because it clarified how words play games with messages. I

was able to tie the pun of the phrasing to the situation. It allows both meanings of “to

hold” to be understood.

Dean, Pamela. “Learning to Be New Women: Campus Culture at the North Carolina Normal and

Industrial College.” The North Carolina Historical Review, vol. 68, no. 3, 1991, pp. 286–

306. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23519484.

Dean’s article deals with the societal changes that were taking place in 1892 when

colleges were recruiting southern women to be teachers. She describes social interactions

between the women and men along with other organizations like churches that were

against the women changing roles in society. This article was helpful because it showed

that the struggles for equality have been evolving for decades. It laid the foundation for

Feminism. I used it to show cultural norms have to change in order for real social

activism to happen.

Fox, Thomas Francis. “SPEECH AND GESTURES.” American Annals of the Deaf, vol. 42, no.

6, 1897, pp. 397–401. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44463180.

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Fox used his studies with deaf children to learn that speech and gestures can be

understood even when the language cannot be heard. The gestures seen can have as much

of an impact as the words that are spoken. This article was helpful because it contributed

to the reasoning that people could received a message from just looking at the gestures

on the cake. I was able to use his ideas and relate them to the gestures of the bride and

groom on the original cake.

Graham-Lussos, Rachael. (2018). Have your epideictic rhetoric, and eat it, too.. 2. 28-47.

Graham-Lussos uses this article to show social activism through the use of occasional

cakes such birthday and weddings. These cakes are a way to show social change and give

a compelling claim that there are deeper meanings behind them. The use of this article

allowed me to see how cultural values and rhetoric can be used to create change. This

article helped with the ideas fort redesign. It also helped in the understanding of how to

see things for more than just the surface.

Minnis, Cody. “Let Them Eat Cake”. 26 October 2019. English 103, College of the Canyons

This essay talked about the rhetorical and semiotics of the Wilton Cake decorated cake

“Prisoner of Your Love” and the societal impact that the message was sending. The

essay was helpful to see how the lenses and concepts we learned in class has advanced

the understanding of the original message of the cake.

Petrolino, Laura. “How to Improve Your Word Choice (And Why You Should).” Spin Sucks, 27

Jan. 2019, https://spinsucks.com/communication/word-choice/.

Petrolino writes about the use of words and word choices. She shows how your words

can have an impact even when there are only a few of them. I used this article to show

how only a couple of words can have a huge impact on the message received. The word
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choice for the original cake was promoting negative feelings rather than positive ones.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: a User-Friendly Guide. “Feminist Criticism” pp. 79-127.

Third ed., Routledge, 2015.

Tyson uses the chapter of “Feminist Criticism” to explain what feminism is and the

terminology that is associated with it. She describes the feminist premises and how it

relates to multiculturalism, gender studies, and literature. This was helpful because it

gave an extensive overview of how to look through this lens and the impact it has on

society. The ideas that are given are an explanation to why things are the way they are in

society. By doing this, it gave me a way to look at things differently for the redesign of

cake.