# I could eat her right up - what is this phenomenon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 28, 2006, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-eat-her-right-up-what-is-this-phenomenon/366432 "2006-07-28T18:09:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-eat-her-right-up-what-is-this-phenomenon/366432/41 "2006-07-31T18:09:28Z")
We quite often use terms associated with oral taste in an abstract but natural way when speaking of people, describing a person as "sweet, " “sour,” or “bitter”. I think this is quite common in many languages, and may point to the feeling the OP is suggesting. I’d always assumed the correlation between the flavor “sweet” and a “sweet person” was either because (1) the similar expression each puts on your face, or (2) our instinctive phisiology is such that as infants we will continue to eat sweet foods and avoid sour/bitter ones. The second point is probably a better explanation for “sweet person,” but I think facial expressions are the only way to explain the different connotations between a “sour” and “bitter” person. Finally, please note I’m not presuming one use predates the other, just that the two uses appear to be correlated from an early point in language. Based on this, I guess I’m inclined toward **naita** ’s explanation the “delicious” and “cute” are closely wired in the brain, and would further posit that other taste sensations have close affiliation with aesthetic feelings. Freud’s Oral Phase (the sexual notions aside) is a rather plausible explanation, given that taste is the primary aesthetic sensation for an infant. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-eat-her-right-up-what-is-this-phenomenon/366432/42 "2006-07-31T22:43:04Z")
> [@Velma](#): > > Sometimes when I see something that is super, overly cute, like a puppy cocking its head, or a kitten stalking a toy, I get this urge where I physically want to bite it and put it in my mouth. ? I tell you this, we’re not having you over to our place when we put out the hulled sunflower seeds for the wild birds outside our window so our four cats can watch and stalk. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-eat-her-right-up-what-is-this-phenomenon/366432/43 "2006-08-01T02:02:03Z")
> [@Velma](#): > > ok, do I sound like a total freak yet? I really thought this was much more common than what others here seem to think. I may have to slink away for a few days. Please don’t slowly back away while calling the authorities. We can slink off together. I’m almost embarrassed how often I think “she is so cute I could just eat her up” and variations on that theme. I’m also guilty of the southernism of “give mama some yummy sugar” Hey, she’s 10 months old and 15lbs more than she was when she was born. I revel in her plumpy, rolly, chubby little self. [CITE!](http://www.chicksrock.net/kate/pages/74.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-eat-her-right-up-what-is-this-phenomenon/366432/44 "2006-08-01T06:14:15Z")
[This picture](http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~zpayne/cats/catmolestor3.jpg) depicts nicely what I’d sometimes like to do with my cats. Not that I’d _actually_ do it… Hey! Stop looking at me like that! ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-eat-her-right-up-what-is-this-phenomenon/366432/45 "2006-08-01T10:43:51Z")
This thread certainly sheds some light on [this](http://www.voraphile.com/whatis/) odd sexual [fetish](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vore). Apparently, it’s not quite as odd as I thought at first. ---
**Author:** ![dawson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@dawson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dawson)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-eat-her-right-up-what-is-this-phenomenon/366432/46 "2006-08-01T13:14:13Z")
> [@Red Rover](#): > > I know the feeling, like when I am petting a kitten and I want to love him and hug him and squeeze him and call him George. It’s almost like trying to absorb the cuteness into your body - become one with the cute! This is exactly why I named my dog George! Well, this and a youth misspent on Bugs Bunny. ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-eat-her-right-up-what-is-this-phenomenon/366432/47 "2006-08-01T13:18:18Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > [This picture](http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~zpayne/cats/catmolestor3.jpg) depicts nicely what I’d sometimes like to do with my cats. Not that I’d _actually_ do it… > > Hey! Stop looking at me like that! Ok, the expression on your cat’s face just made me laugh until I cried. This thread is getting MPSIMS-ish, but I am just relieved other people feel this way too. Even if there is no accepted scientific reason for it. Because if you’re too odd for the Dope, well…that means…something. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-eat-her-right-up-what-is-this-phenomenon/366432/48 "2006-08-01T13:50:50Z")
> [@Sarahfeena](#): > > No, you are not the only one…certainly with babies. Just about every parent I know has wanted to “nibble” on the baby’s foot. I don’t know why, but I definitely did, and I still say “she’s so cute I could eat her up.” We have taken this impulse to an art form in our house. The darling yummy little arms are for nibbling like corn on the cob. Nibble, nibble, nibble, right down to the “finger food.” Then you get a big norsh of drumstick on that chubby little thigh. Roll cutester over and snack on the scrumpious baby back ribs. Smoochy-smoochy-smooch right down through the rump roast, another snorgle on the drumstick, and then down to the toe niblets. Yum, yum. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-eat-her-right-up-what-is-this-phenomenon/366432.md?page=2)