Caren White, Entitlement, and the Search for Normalcy
Yesterday I was mindlessly scrolling through my Facebook feed when I came across a link from one of the groups I belong to. It was a link to an article in Medium by a woman named Caren White. (The article itself was deleted later that day due to the amount of pushback it received from readers, but it was lampooned on Wonkette.) White was on a soapbox about how hobbyist bakers are depriving her and her family of their rightful share of organic flour.
White went shopping one day and found the ingredients she needed to bake bread were no longer available. She seems to be a walking stereotype of the entitled, clueless, narcissistic white liberal. (Even the name, Caren White, screams "Stereotype me!") You see, she needs to make everything from scratch because she doesn't trust any food that is ready-made. Also everything her family eats has to be organic. This means she has to have a steady supply of home-baked bread made from organic flour, because she has high standards and won't feed her family anything else.
What ruffled the feathers of everyone in cyberspace (and I do mean everyone, because I don't think I saw a single comment anywhere in support of her) was her belief that it was unfair the supply of flour and yeast has been snapped up by quarantined hobbyist bakers. Everyone else is baking bread in lockdown because we all have the free time to do so. We are only baking bread to show off on Instagram. Don't these people understand? White needs to bake bread to feed her family. She's not doing it for fun as all the influencers are doing. We should all be leaving the flour and yeast for her because she has no other options.
I don't think I could say anything more on this blog that hasn't been said all over the internet in the past twenty-four hours. She and her children won't die from malnutrition if she has to source her bread (and any other food) elsewhere. The advantages of organics are questionable at best. She forgets that everyone out there baking bread is eating it as well. Nobody is baking a loaf of bread, posting a photo on Instagram, and then throwing it out. Who is she to assume that other home bakers don't also need that bread to feed their families? If baking bread is "a way of life" for her, why isn't she buying flour and yeast in bulk so she doesn't run out (which is also seems more economical since she said she is "poor")? There is much to criticize.
I am going to be the first person to cut Caren White a tiny bit of slack.
The COVID-19 quarantine created a new normal for all of us. My life used to have a specific routine. I woke up in the morning and went to the gym. Then I went to work. After work I cooked dinner (mostly from scratch, just like White). Kevin and I would watch whatever was in the Netflix queue. I read a book, maybe did some stretching and meditation, and went to bed. Monday night was dance class. On weekends we drove to NJ to go visit the horses and go riding. We usually went out to dinner on Saturday nights. The only real shake up in the routine happened when one or both of us was doing a theater production and had rehearsals in the evenings or Sunday afternoons.
My most recent blog post was all about the pain of losing all of that. I miss my old busy life. I miss the people connected to that life. On the other hand, I am grateful that I have the means to reach out to people I can't see in person. I am grateful I have all I need to be comfortable at home (and Caren White should also learn to be grateful for these things). That doesn't mean I can't mourn what I lost. My routine was shaken up. My life was disrupted. I need to find a way forward to make this new normal tolerable, and even pleasurable, for both Kevin and myself.
One way I fill the endless time at home is with baking. I love baking. If there is one advantage to sheltering in place it's that I have more time to bake. I rarely had the time when I was still going into the office, and sometimes it felt like a chore the times I needed to do it for some occasion. Baking is not a new experiment for me. It's something I enjoyed doing all along. Since the day I brought home my laptop from the office and bought a mask, I have baked cornbread, waffles, pot pie, and blondies. I have scones ready to go into the oven as I type this. I have plans to make cinnamon rolls and pizza in the next couple of weeks. I would like to bake bread, but ironically, I probably won't because of the amount of flour needed. I don't want use up too much at one time in case it's not available the next time I want it.
Baking is one way I adjust to this new way of living. It's a way to do something I enjoy when none of my regular hobbies are accessible to me. Also, eating the fruits of my labor is a small pleasure for both Kevin and me in the midst of the tedium. I don't need to bake for survival (although in reality, neither does Caren White) I won't starve if I don't. I do it for my mental health. I do it for Kevin's mental health because homemade baked goods are something he looks forward to.
After I said all this, I'm sure some of my readers are asking how I'm cutting White slack. My answer is that she isn't all that different from me.
I wrote a blog post about how I am missing going out and doing the activities I always did. The fact that I was able to do so before quarantine shows how privileged I am. Caren White was equally privileged, but she too is mourning what she lost.
Before the quarantine, White was doing all her own cooking and baking. This was her routine. This is what brought her pleasure. Yes, it did seem to feed her sense of smug, self-righteousness, but it was her life. It was her family's life. Her days consisted of gardening, cooking homemade food, and baking homemade bread. Her reliable method of procuring ingredients was going to the store and buying organic food. It may not have been the cheapest or best way to buy the specific foods she needed, but it was how she did it.
Now she is living in a changed world. She is unable to bake. It's not only about feeding her family (even if that's the excuse she uses). Her routine was disrupted. She can't do things the way she did them before. When I read White's article, I didn't only see a selfish, entitled woman who felt she was the only person who deserved the privilege of baking. I saw a woman desperately trying to hold on to life as she knew it.
This isn't only about whether or not one's bread is homemade and organic. This is about preserving one's identity and one's life. White encountered her new normal and now she doesn't know how to deal with it. Her immediate reaction was to deal with it by lashing out at the people she wrongly thought were taking her routine away from her - hobbyist bakers with too much time on their hands. What she should have done was reach out to women in similar situations. (Aren't there any Facebook or Reddit groups for organic bread bakers she could have vented to?) She should have talked to those hobbyist bakers and tried to find some empathy for their situation. She handled her situation poorly, but part of me understands why she felt the way she did. She needed a target for her frustration and stress and sadness.
The ones White should be blaming for her situation are not the lockdown bakers. She should be blaming those in power who did so little to keep this pandemic from spreading in the United States. She should blame those who are continuing to fight against the measures that will one day contain and stop the spread. She wouldn't be complaining about the effects of this life disruption if the reasons for the disruption hadn't happened in the first place.
That is a topic for another post, and it's a topic already done to death.
White went shopping one day and found the ingredients she needed to bake bread were no longer available. She seems to be a walking stereotype of the entitled, clueless, narcissistic white liberal. (Even the name, Caren White, screams "Stereotype me!") You see, she needs to make everything from scratch because she doesn't trust any food that is ready-made. Also everything her family eats has to be organic. This means she has to have a steady supply of home-baked bread made from organic flour, because she has high standards and won't feed her family anything else.
What ruffled the feathers of everyone in cyberspace (and I do mean everyone, because I don't think I saw a single comment anywhere in support of her) was her belief that it was unfair the supply of flour and yeast has been snapped up by quarantined hobbyist bakers. Everyone else is baking bread in lockdown because we all have the free time to do so. We are only baking bread to show off on Instagram. Don't these people understand? White needs to bake bread to feed her family. She's not doing it for fun as all the influencers are doing. We should all be leaving the flour and yeast for her because she has no other options.
I don't think I could say anything more on this blog that hasn't been said all over the internet in the past twenty-four hours. She and her children won't die from malnutrition if she has to source her bread (and any other food) elsewhere. The advantages of organics are questionable at best. She forgets that everyone out there baking bread is eating it as well. Nobody is baking a loaf of bread, posting a photo on Instagram, and then throwing it out. Who is she to assume that other home bakers don't also need that bread to feed their families? If baking bread is "a way of life" for her, why isn't she buying flour and yeast in bulk so she doesn't run out (which is also seems more economical since she said she is "poor")? There is much to criticize.
I am going to be the first person to cut Caren White a tiny bit of slack.
The COVID-19 quarantine created a new normal for all of us. My life used to have a specific routine. I woke up in the morning and went to the gym. Then I went to work. After work I cooked dinner (mostly from scratch, just like White). Kevin and I would watch whatever was in the Netflix queue. I read a book, maybe did some stretching and meditation, and went to bed. Monday night was dance class. On weekends we drove to NJ to go visit the horses and go riding. We usually went out to dinner on Saturday nights. The only real shake up in the routine happened when one or both of us was doing a theater production and had rehearsals in the evenings or Sunday afternoons.
My most recent blog post was all about the pain of losing all of that. I miss my old busy life. I miss the people connected to that life. On the other hand, I am grateful that I have the means to reach out to people I can't see in person. I am grateful I have all I need to be comfortable at home (and Caren White should also learn to be grateful for these things). That doesn't mean I can't mourn what I lost. My routine was shaken up. My life was disrupted. I need to find a way forward to make this new normal tolerable, and even pleasurable, for both Kevin and myself.
One way I fill the endless time at home is with baking. I love baking. If there is one advantage to sheltering in place it's that I have more time to bake. I rarely had the time when I was still going into the office, and sometimes it felt like a chore the times I needed to do it for some occasion. Baking is not a new experiment for me. It's something I enjoyed doing all along. Since the day I brought home my laptop from the office and bought a mask, I have baked cornbread, waffles, pot pie, and blondies. I have scones ready to go into the oven as I type this. I have plans to make cinnamon rolls and pizza in the next couple of weeks. I would like to bake bread, but ironically, I probably won't because of the amount of flour needed. I don't want use up too much at one time in case it's not available the next time I want it.
Baking is one way I adjust to this new way of living. It's a way to do something I enjoy when none of my regular hobbies are accessible to me. Also, eating the fruits of my labor is a small pleasure for both Kevin and me in the midst of the tedium. I don't need to bake for survival (although in reality, neither does Caren White) I won't starve if I don't. I do it for my mental health. I do it for Kevin's mental health because homemade baked goods are something he looks forward to.
After I said all this, I'm sure some of my readers are asking how I'm cutting White slack. My answer is that she isn't all that different from me.
I wrote a blog post about how I am missing going out and doing the activities I always did. The fact that I was able to do so before quarantine shows how privileged I am. Caren White was equally privileged, but she too is mourning what she lost.
Before the quarantine, White was doing all her own cooking and baking. This was her routine. This is what brought her pleasure. Yes, it did seem to feed her sense of smug, self-righteousness, but it was her life. It was her family's life. Her days consisted of gardening, cooking homemade food, and baking homemade bread. Her reliable method of procuring ingredients was going to the store and buying organic food. It may not have been the cheapest or best way to buy the specific foods she needed, but it was how she did it.
Now she is living in a changed world. She is unable to bake. It's not only about feeding her family (even if that's the excuse she uses). Her routine was disrupted. She can't do things the way she did them before. When I read White's article, I didn't only see a selfish, entitled woman who felt she was the only person who deserved the privilege of baking. I saw a woman desperately trying to hold on to life as she knew it.
This isn't only about whether or not one's bread is homemade and organic. This is about preserving one's identity and one's life. White encountered her new normal and now she doesn't know how to deal with it. Her immediate reaction was to deal with it by lashing out at the people she wrongly thought were taking her routine away from her - hobbyist bakers with too much time on their hands. What she should have done was reach out to women in similar situations. (Aren't there any Facebook or Reddit groups for organic bread bakers she could have vented to?) She should have talked to those hobbyist bakers and tried to find some empathy for their situation. She handled her situation poorly, but part of me understands why she felt the way she did. She needed a target for her frustration and stress and sadness.
The ones White should be blaming for her situation are not the lockdown bakers. She should be blaming those in power who did so little to keep this pandemic from spreading in the United States. She should blame those who are continuing to fight against the measures that will one day contain and stop the spread. She wouldn't be complaining about the effects of this life disruption if the reasons for the disruption hadn't happened in the first place.
That is a topic for another post, and it's a topic already done to death.
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