From the dawn of time, or at least, from the dawn of humanity, since humans have been around to make up stories, fruit has been a symbol of (im)morality.

Consider the bible, one of these ‘stories’ I’m referring to, and how an apple was used to explain the downfall of man, no less. A symbol of temptation and morality, ‘Eat the apple, the ‘forbidden fruit’, and be condemned to a lifetime of sin’, the bible blames all our struggles today, poverty and misogyny, and racism and fascism, and all the divisions that exist in our society, on Adam and Eve and their lack of willpower at withholding themselves from taking a bite of an apple in the Garden of Eden.

The insitgator?

Eve.

Because of course it’s always the woman’s fault.

Eve took a bite of the forbidden fruit, and passed it on to Adam.

Woman responsible for the downfall of man.

Woman the instigator of sin.

Is it a coincidence that the very thing that women resemble has been lauded as the symbolism for sin and immorality?

The fact that fruit is the universal symbol of sin, fruit literally being the ‘ripened ovary’ of a flower within which the seeds for reproduction are enclosed, the resemblances between fruit and women, ‘sin and sin’, are blindingly obvious…

Look at a grapefruit, peel back an orange, and tell me that it doesn’t resemble what you’ve got between your legs…

In fact, so much are women like fruit that American multimedia artist, Stephanie Sarley, has had her account suspended several times on Instagram for posting ‘sexual imagery.’ The so called ‘sexual imagery’ being, wait for it… fruit. Because it looked too much like a vagina, depicting fingering. And, where virginity equals purity, sexuality equals immorality- ‘no sex before marriage’, and as for masturbation… Don’t even get me started on female masturbation: the devil’s work. The opening of fruit for our pleasure, this is what men hate/why they tell us it’s ‘wrong’/’dirty’, because it’s for OUR pleasure, not to be observed by the male gaze, but for us alone. This, our desire to feel pleasure, to ‘take a bite from the apple’, viewed as being ‘immoral’ through the eyes of men with a superiority complex over women- ‘how dare she express her sexuality without my involvement!!’

It’s not all about fingering fruit though, just consider how fruit is sexualised in the use of innuendos/’flirty’ texting via emoji’s, and in language/common turn of phrases (e.g., ‘pop the cherry’ being an idiom for losing your virginity), and even in body types- apple vs pear vs hourglass.*

*(Granted, the latter is not a fruit but ironic that the body type that women so fervently aspire to have is symbolised by the passing of time, the time that we waste in our pursuit of unrealistic beauty standards set by men to ‘keep us in our place.’ Men are intimidated by women, because they recognise our power- ‘the downfall of man’, as in the bible- ‘don’t eat the forbidden fruit.’ Men have to stay in power to restrict our power as women)…

What have men got in the fruit department? Bananas, a fruit that doesn’t even resemble the shape of most dicks (not that I’ve got much experience in that department, but most don’t curl round like that, and if they do, then there’s probably an issue there. And, unless we’re talking fun size bananas, you know like the 3 inch ones for kids packed-lunches, then most aren’t that size, either).. But men don’t want to be associated with fruit, hence why the term ‘fruity’ was historically used as a derogatory term against gay men to point to their ‘effeminate’ nature, because fruits resemble women/women resemble fruits- the very thing that we are told to be ‘cautious’ of/that are brandished as ‘sinful’ in the fairy-tale of religion.

Where fruit resembles women, where gay people are referred to as ‘fruity’, a term which has now been reclaimed but was once a homophobic slur, where fruit is the universally recognised symbol of sin and immorality, I don’t know, maybe I’m reaching here, but the connection between fruit and women, forced compliance, the idea of female pleasure equating to ‘sin’, it’s something to think about, if nothing else.

Something to think about whilst remembering that the forbidden fruit cannot spoil.

When we are already ‘sinners’ in the eyes of God, what’s one more sin gonna hurt?