{"id":108045,"date":"2025-10-31T15:56:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=108045"},"modified":"2025-10-31T15:56:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:56:00","slug":"oysters-aphrodisiac-grazia-fall-winter-2025","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/oysters-aphrodisiac-grazia-fall-winter-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story of ‘O’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fawn
Fawn Rogers, The World Is Your Oyster<\/strong><\/em>, Video Still #14, 2021 (Courtesy of the artist and Wilding Cran Gallery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Words by <\/span>Fiorella Valdesolo<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The oyster\u2019s association with desire stretches back centuries. As legend goes, Giacomo Casanova, the 18th-century Venetian whose surname has become synonymous with seduction, would start each morning by slurping 50 raw oysters to, quite literally, gird his loins for a day of sexual encounters. In Greek mythology, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty and pleasure, is said to have been born of the sky god Uranus after his testicles fell into the sea, and she then emerged from the foam of the frothy waters perched on an oyster shell. In the richly rendered paintings depicting domestic settings by 17th-century Dutch Masters like Jan Steen (in 1658\u2019s The Oyster Eater<\/i>) or Frans van Mieris the Elder (in 1661\u2019s The Oyster Meal<\/i>) oysters were positioned as devices of flirtation. Something that has continued into this century in films like Tampopo<\/i> (1985) and Tom Jones<\/i> (1963), where slurping their moist, briny flesh is a vehicle of temptation.<\/p>\n

There are theories about what exactly it is about the oyster that gets our proverbial juices flowing. Scientists point to its high zinc content\u2014they contain more per serving than any type of food; a half dozen oysters has almost five times the daily recommended amount for adults\u2014a mineral that boosts fertility and testosterone levels, which impacts sex drive for men and women. A 2013 study conducted on male mice found that giving them oyster extract increased their mounting behavior (which needs no further explanation). Zinc has also been found to boost dopamine, aka the feel-good hormone, which helps us experience pleasure and has been linked to sexual response. Beyond their chemical composition, there is also their placebo effect: Simply believing that a briny bivalve can boost your libido is effective enough. Because, as Dr. Jennifer Evans, a medical historian and reader in early modern history at the University of Hertfordshire, points out, there are few foods that haven\u2019t been considered aphrodisiacs at some point in time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the 16th and 17th centuries, people were living in a world where they believed the body was very much permeable to its environment, and could also be managed and manipulated, and that included both their fertility and their sexual drive,\u201d says Evans. Food was medicine, and there were many foods believed to heighten one\u2019s sexual desire, some more appealing than others. Evans points to one 17th-century theory that for men to sustain an erection, they needed to consume vast quantities of beans and peas to have windiness in their body. A gut swollen with gas would, in turn, also inflate the penis, an idea that, says Evans, was thankfully short-lived. Evans also highlights the writings of Swiss naturalist and philosopher Charles Bonnet who wrote that salinity qualifies something as an aphrodisiac, sea salt stimulating because Aphrodite was born of the sea. Then there is the notion of an aphrodisiac by association: If something is rare or expensive, and therefore more unattainable, that can add to its appeal. In the 17th century, says Evans, oysters were bountiful and relatively cheap (not so nowadays, of course) but something like chocolate was harder to come by and, therefore, desirable.<\/p>\n

\"Fawn
Fawn Rogers, Our Lady Guadalupe<\/strong><\/em>, 2020 (Courtesy of the artist and Wilding Cran Gallery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both back then and now, the context of where you are enjoying an oyster impacts its potential to titillate too: shucking and slurping at a roadside oyster stall hits quite differently than doing the same in a dimly lit dining room. In Consider the Oyster<\/i>, legendary food writer M.F.K. Fisher\u2019s 1941 book devoted to contemplating their appeal, she writes: \u201cOften the place and the time help make a certain food what it becomes, even more than the food itself.\u201d But context also plays a role in how an oyster actually tastes. In the world of wine, we have terroir<\/i>, a word that speaks to how the soil and climate and topography of one region versus another is expressed in what you\u2019re drinking; in the oyster world, there\u2019s merroir<\/i>, which means \u201cof the sea\u201d and abides by the same principle, but with water as the ever-evolving landscape. \u201cOysters soak up the flavor of their home waters\u2014the tides, the seaweed, the silt, the minerals, even the moon\u2019s pull,\u201d says Sims McCormick, co-founder of Real Oyster Cult, a farm-to-your-table oyster delivery service. \u201cBut salinity? That\u2019s the loudest voice in the room. It tells you an oyster\u2019s origin story.\u201d Crisp and salty, that\u2019s likely East Coast, says McCormick. Mellow brine with cucumber and melon, you\u2019re in West Coast territory, and balanced with a minerally bite, it\u2019s pure Canada, she adds. Deriving a particular pleasure from an oyster that is literally close to home is common. For the oyster aficionado, it\u2019s their Sailor\u2019s Valentine from Duxbury Bay in Massachusetts. \u201cEating a Sailor\u2019s Valentine is like sipping the bay I grew up swimming in and sailing on,\u201d says McCormick. \u201cA deliciously fresh and salty sense memory that connects you to the essence of the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

French filmmaker Agnes Varda was famously fixated on the ocean, beaches showing up again and again in her work. In Varda by Agnes<\/i>, a 2019 documentary about her, the camera follows along as she strolls across the sand. \u201cIf we opened people, we\u2019d find landscapes,\u201d she quips. \u201cIf we opened me, we\u2019d find beaches.\u201d It\u2019s hard not to see the oyster\u2019s particular allure as one that is deeply rooted in the earth from which they spring forth. And at a time when so many people feel increasingly disconnected from nature, the oyster\u2019s not-so-subtle invitation to taste the ocean offers a powerful and primal kind of pleasure that\u2019s unmatched.<\/p>\n

Read\u00a0GRAZIA USA<\/em>\u2019s Fall\/Winter Issue<\/a> featuring cover star Havana Rose Liu<\/a>:<\/strong><\/h4>\n