[Vocabulary] cookie cutter queen

[maiabulela]

Dear all,

What is the meaning of "cookie cutter teen queen"?

Context: "Rihanna did started as this sort of cookie cutter teen queen"

What exactly does that phrase refer to?

Thanks a lot.

 

[SoothingDave]

A "teen queen" would be the most popular (and/or feared) girl in a school.

She would be exactly like all of the other teen queens in all of the other schools in the land. Like she was cut from the same pattern. Cut out with the same cookie cutter. Mass produced.

 

[Munch]

I more or less agree with the above, but Rhinna was more than just the queen of her school – she was a pop “teen queen”. So she was a manufactured, mass-produced teen idol, like many others who came before and will come after her.

 

[BobK]

:up: But another image at the back of the writer's mind may have been the Cookiecutter shark - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . In the words of Del Shannon (?): 'Whatever you do, Keep away from Runaround Sue'... :-?

b

PS I guess this is a question of cultural background. To Munch and SD, 'cookie cutter' means (primarily) 'kitchen implement that guarantees uniformity'. To me, its primary meaning is 'shark' (although we all know both meanings).

 

[Barb_D]

Actually, I didn't know about the shark! Thanks for teaching me something new.

In the US, we refer to many things as cookie cutter. Cookie cutter houses, cookie cutter strip malls, etc.

I completely agree with the "mass-produced teen idol, in the same mold as others who have come before and others who will come later" interpretation.

 

[BobK]

Yup. ;-) I'm sure you're all right, and the shark was lurking at the very depths of the writer's unconscious, if it was there at all!

b

 

[Barb_D]

And after I read why it's called that, my reaction was "Ewww!"