You’ve probably seen the TikToks. Or maybe you stumbled across a weirdly specific tweet while scrolling at 2:00 AM. It’s a grainy photo of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis—the woman who practically invented American elegance—and the caption says something like, “Jackie want sheet metal.”
Wait, what?
It sounds like a fever dream. This is a woman who wore Givenchy, restored the White House with museum-grade precision, and spoke French like a native. Yet, for some reason, a massive chunk of the internet is currently convinced that Jackie Kennedy eating metal was a thing. Or at least, they’re joking about it with such straight-faced intensity that it’s getting hard to tell where the meme ends and history begins.
Did Jackie Kennedy Actually Eat Metal?
Let’s get the factual heavy lifting out of the way: No.
There is absolutely zero historical evidence that Jackie Kennedy had pica (a medical disorder where people crave non-food items) or a secret habit of snacking on hardware. She didn’t chew on the White House radiators. She didn’t snack on pennies. She didn’t gnaw on the legs of Louis XV chairs.
So why is this even a conversation? Basically, it’s a case study in how Gen Z humor can take a historical icon and turn them into a "feral" cryptid.
The whole "Jackie Kennedy eating metal" thing started as an absurdist meme. It’s part of a broader internet trend where users take figures of extreme poise and suggest they are secretly chaotic, animalistic, or "feral." In Jackie’s case, the joke specifically targeted her face.
The Origin of the Sheet Metal Meme
It’s kinda mean, honestly. The meme primarily focuses on Jackie’s wide-set eyes and her broad, toothy smile. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, Twitter (now X) users started posting photos of her at awkward angles, claiming she looked like she “bites” or that she had the jaw strength of a predatory animal.
One specific tweet from 2020 really kicked it into high gear. A user posted a distorted, high-contrast image of Jackie with the caption "JACKIE WANT SHEET METAL."
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The internet did what it does best: it ran with it. Suddenly, there were videos of her "growling" (edited audio, obviously) and theories that she and JFK only met because they were both at the scrap yard eating iron. It’s a total subversion of the "Camelot" image. Instead of a refined queen, the meme treats her like a creature from a horror movie who happens to look great in a pillbox hat.
What Jackie Kennedy Actually Ate (The Real Story)
If you look at the actual records from White House chefs like René Verdon or her longtime cook Marta Sgubin, Jackie’s real diet was the polar opposite of "eating sheet metal." It was actually incredibly—sometimes concerningly—restrained.
Jackie was a woman obsessed with maintaining her 120-pound frame. She was 5'7" and lived in a state of constant, disciplined dieting. Her "refined" palate was mostly a tool for weight control.
- The Baked Potato Diet: This is a famous bit of Kennedy lore. Legend has it that when she needed to drop weight fast, she would eat exactly one baked potato a day. But because she was a Kennedy, it wasn't just a potato—it was topped with sour cream and expensive Beluga caviar.
- The Fruit Fast: After periods of "heavy" eating (which, for her, was a normal dinner), she would go on a strict 24-hour fruit-only fast to "reset."
- The Daily Routine: A typical day involved breakfast in bed (toast with honey and orange juice), a lunch of a cup of broth and maybe a slim sandwich or a bit of cottage cheese, and a dinner of cold poached salmon or lamb with string beans.
She was also a notorious "closet eater." Her former social secretary and several biographers noted that while she ate like a bird in public to maintain her image, she was occasionally caught in the kitchen late at night. One staff member famously bumped into her in the dark pantry, where she was eating ice cream straight out of the container with a large serving spoon.
No metal. Just Häagen-Dazs.
Why the Internet Is Obsessed with This Myth
There’s a deeper reason why "Jackie Kennedy eating metal" resonates with younger generations. For decades, Jackie has been held up as the gold standard of "perfect" womanhood—silent, stoic, and beautiful even in the face of horrific trauma.
By turning her into a sheet-metal-eating monster, the internet is essentially "de-sanitizing" her. It’s a way of poking fun at the rigid, manufactured perfection of the 1960s. It’s also just a symptom of modern "brain rot" humor—where things are funny specifically because they make no sense.
The Health Reality: Could It Have Been Pica?
Some people have tried to give the meme a "serious" medical angle, wondering if Jackie had pica. This is a real condition often linked to iron deficiency (anemia). People with pica might crave ice, dirt, or—yes—metal.
While Jackie was notoriously thin and a heavy smoker (which can affect nutrient absorption), there is no record of her exhibiting pica symptoms. Her health struggles were much more grounded in reality:
- PTSD: She suffered immensely after the assassination of JFK, which affected her appetite for years.
- Nicotine Addiction: She was a three-pack-a-day smoker for much of her life, which she used as an appetite suppressant.
- Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma: This is what ultimately took her life in 1994 at age 64.
Actionable Insights: Fact-Checking Viral History
When you see a bizarre claim about a historical figure like Jackie Kennedy, here is how you can spot the "meme" before you believe the myth:
- Check the Source: Does the "fact" come from a biography (like those by Sarah Bradford or Barbara Leaming), or does it come from a TikTok account with a profile picture of a cartoon?
- Look for Photos: In the case of the "sheet metal" thing, the photos are almost always distorted or "deep-fried" (high contrast/saturation) to make her look more intense.
- Contextualize the Humor: Understand that Gen Z humor often uses "absurdist juxtaposition." Putting a refined lady next to a caption about eating scrap metal is the joke itself.
Jackie Kennedy's legacy is complicated enough without adding "metal eater" to the resume. She was a brilliant editor, a tragic widow, and a woman who used food as a form of control in a world that often felt out of her hands. Stick to the books for the history—and keep the sheet metal for the memes.
To learn more about the real Jackie, look into the 1962 White House restoration project or read the transcripts of her 1964 interviews with Arthur Schlesinger Jr. These provide a much clearer picture of her intellect than any viral trend ever could.