The Sugar Devil: Demonizing the Taste of Sweetness in Denmark
Susanne Højlund
Chapter from the book: Frederiksen M. & Harboe Knudsen I. 2021. Modern Folk Devils: Contemporary Constructions of Evil.
Chapter from the book: Frederiksen M. & Harboe Knudsen I. 2021. Modern Folk Devils: Contemporary Constructions of Evil.
This chapter focuses on how a food item, namely sugar, suddenly emerged as devilish in Danish children’s institutions. How, the article asks, has it become possible within a relative short number of years to change the perceptions of sugar and agree on it as a dangerous foodstuff to an extent that there are written rules for its use for nearly all children in Denmark? The folk devil here is someone, or something, that has always been there but which suddenly (re)emerges as particularly evil.
Højlund, S. 2021. The Sugar Devil: Demonizing the Taste of Sweetness in Denmark. In: Frederiksen M. & Harboe Knudsen I (eds.), Modern Folk Devils. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33134/HUP-13-5
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Published on Dec. 13, 2021