Nancy Matos

Reader question:

“Marilyn Monroe had already had mini-roles in eight movies when she turned up as George Sanders' arm candy in the party scenes of this film.”

What is arm candy?

My comments: The quote you used in your question refers to the 1950 Hollywood film “All About Eve” in which Marilyn Monroe made one of her first screen appearances. It stars Bette Davis and features Sanders along with Anne Baxter and Celeste Holm. It’s no surprise that Monroe, for all her legendary beauty and sex appeal, should appear as “arm candy” in the film.

A handy resource for popular phrases and slang like “arm candy” is “Urban Dictionary”, who defines the term as follows:

• “A remarkably attractive person of either gender accompanying you or some other lucky person.”

• “An especially attractive date, escort or other companion to a special event. Called ‘arm candy’ because one locks arms with their ‘candy’ (valuable possession) when they enter. A popular connotation of arm candy is a date that someone is using not to enjoy their company, but simply to appear important, wealthy or worthy of attention.”

Candy is something sweet and a pleasurable food experience for some. Therefore, using the word to explain someone equally as sweet and pleasurable to show off on your arm is quite clever—just don’t ever refer to your date as arm candy in front of them.

Another similar phrase that you may also come across is “trophy wife.” It can refer to a man as well, but you won’t hear “trophy husband” as much. Sadly, this is probably a reflection of the importance of women being beautiful and made up to be objects paraded around on men’s arms that the term “trophy husband” isn’t as prevalent. However, some of these so-called trophy wives and arm candies are quite happy in their roles, as they get something out of it too: a popular and wealthy male companion who takes them to glitzy and extravagant affairs.

People in popular culture that are sometimes referred to as arm candy are Melania Knauss (Donald Trump’s wife, who is perhaps the King of trophy wives and arm candy companions), Ashton Kutcher (married to Demi Moore, although some may say that she is HIS arm candy) and pretty much anyone who dates socialite Paris Hilton and “Playboy” founder Hugh Hefner.

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Nancy Matos is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Nancy is a graduate of the Broadcast Journalism and Media program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Her journalism career in broadcast and print has taken her around the world from New York to Portugal and now Beijing. Nancy is happy to make the move to China and join the China Daily team.