The Association Fromages de Terroirs has, for the last eight years, produced a pin-up calendar with the goal of raising funds “for the conservation of biodiversity, which guarantees the beauty of the “terroir” and the quality of our cheeses.” This juxtaposition of cleavage and cheese brings together two classic elements of French popular culture – gastronomy and titillation. But I wonder what the reaction would be if the calendar actually found its way on to the wall of a North American cheese shop. Here it seems that the popular imagery associated with cheese is grounded in a morality of consumption that is at odds with the soft-cheese-porn (couldn’t help myself) pictured in these calendars. It’s more likely in a city like Toronto that a pic of buxom bessie the cow, udders hanging low over the meadow grass, would hike cheese sales more than a svelte gal in a thong hoisting a wedge of comte.
Cheese Poet 