Values Dissonance around the World.

I feel like the description of a trope was a relic of a time when some tropes were Japan-exclusive.

Pagetopper: It was about Real Men Hate Sugar; most of the paragraphs were about Japanese men hating sweets and for them, sweets are reserved for women and children.

Edited by alnair20aug93 on Jul 1st 2023 at 5:59:44 PM

I'm not so sure if the trope is that prevalent outside of Japan.

While candies and the like are indeed seen as childish and it's odd to see a man eat one outside of a kid's party, at least in my corner of the world (Latin America) sugary drinks like Cola are something that you drink with your family without issue and there are plenty of sweet foods that you can eat without being given a weird look.

However, a man is also expected to hold their liquour, and the most common alcohol will always be beer, so by extension a man needs to be able to handle bitter drinks for the sake of getting drunk. Mind you, this isn't always the case because combos like Cuba Libre are also a valid choice in parties but because beer is so prevalent you do need to learn how to handle the bitter taste.

So overall, I think the best summary would be something like "Real men handle their drink, no matter how bitter it is".

As an aside though, I think even that has some caveats to it because things like Gin are not exactly popular and you don't see Vodka being drunk pure.