To think Alison Roman was both unfair and racist in her comments about Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo?

[Rodehereonthebus]

I'd only vaguely heard of food writer Alison Roman but in a recent interview she did, she's singled out Marie Kondo and Chrissy Teigen as examples of people who have 'capitalized' on their fame by selling products and that Chrissy's business model 'horrifies' her. She's now been heavily criticised and offered an apology on her Twitter which was one of those 'sorry I hurt your feelings' apologies, after first posting that she wishes someone would hold her hand in the face of the backlash...as if she's the victim here!

Now, many people have noted that she's just 'coincidentally' chosen two very successful women who are both (at least in part) Asian as examples of commercialisation. I think this is entirely correct to call out - there are any number of men and women who sell product ranges with their name and branding, yet she somehow happened to land on these two women as examples of everything she doesn't want to be? Alison also posted that she didn't mean to attack other women, but she hasn't at all addressed the implicit racial bias she's demonstrated. (She does mention Goop briefly in another part of the interview, but not Gwyneth.) She also mentions that she's also doing a product 'collaboration', but of course when she does it it's fine, because she's so artisinal and whatnot, not like Marie and Chrissy

newconsumer.com/2020/05/alison-roman-interview/

She had to apologise due to having the same publisher as both, not because she ment it.

@VladmirsPoutine I am familiar with maya Jama ! I am not sure I’m a fan but like I said, I don’t know her. I listen to her on radio 1 sometimes and she gets so tongue tied and messes up her words I just wonder how she is a radio presenter. There’s so many more people with more training who can present eloquently. But that’s my opinion of her professionally, obviously someone somewhere high up is a fan of hers because she works consistently

I follow hillhousevintage now, what a fab account!

I do think Marie Kondo is a sellout. A very sweet lady, but a sellout. I don't have an opinion on Chrissy Teigen.

This may have been unintentionally racist on AR's part, but it's also a bit odd to suggest we aren't allowed to criticize capitalist consumer culture if the players involved aren't white. I also hate this idea that women aren't supposed to criticize other women. Why not?

I do think Alison Roman is thin skinned but her ultimate problem here is being a white woman. A white man would not be held to the same standard, or called out with such ferocity online. There is probably an element of racism here but there's a hefty dose of misogyny too.