Baking competition for IWD

[DorotheaDiamond]

So (girls) school are recognizing international women’s day by —keeping the girls in the kitchen all weekend— I mean a baking competition.

Dd won’t do a “woman AHF” cake …any suggestions that aren’t too tricky to make? I’m thinking of buying one and putting a label on it “bought by my mother from her own income because she has better ways to celebrate IWD than being stuck in a kitchen”…

I like your buy a cake idea.

Did they give any rationale for it? Are they studying traditionally female crafts and exalting underappreciated female artistic talent or something?

Given that the theme is "Break the Bias", maybe you would make a "Break the bias" sign out of metal instead, or electronics, or some other traditionally masculine field. Or get DD's dad to bake the cake (and include a "break the bias" card saying so).

It's bloody depressing when this sort of thing happens.

Funnily enough I’d had the idea of getting dh to do it too! Annoyingly dd is away this weekend and we are both busy all day both days so we don’t have time to do anything funky with metal etc (it’s for Tuesday)…otherwise we would.

I think the rationale is girls like eating cake so it’s a reason to have a cake sale to raise money…now I need to double check the charity it’s going to…

Make one out of cheese or steak... you know, "man" food.

Love the idea of buying it or having her dad make it, and labelling it to say so.

A plaited loaf? Women have always overcome their physical challenges by banding together for strength. Bread isn't hard to make, just do a bread dough,.three strands and plait them.

Combine craft, politics and art. Depending on the student's age, meet the letter if not the spirit of the assignment (if it is a school assignment). Roll out cookie dough for alphabet cookies. You will need a small sized cookie cutter set, 1.5" is the smallest I know of. Cut, bake and assemble a message. "WOMEN SHOULD BAKE THEIR WAY OUT OF MISOGYNY?" "FEMALE DOES NOT EQUAL BAKING" or anything cutting but clean enough for school. Ice everything in black, or pretty colors but ice the BAKE in red. Document the effort with photos. The point would be sharper if a number of students did the same.

Same idea but maybe with less impact and less effort: make enough sheet cakes, use cookie cutters to punch letters out, apply icing, assemble. This method leaves you with delicious crumbs. If sarcasm is her style, place cake crumbs in individual paper cake cups so the children can each actually take one, present over a message in icing: WHAT PATRIARCHY ALLOWS WOMEN.

I mean, I'd be writing to them asking if they had really thought this through...in the exact terms of your original post.

What a horrendous assignment. On the one hand you do not want girls to disparage female coded tasks. Baking is craft and high art, a truly civilizing act tied to sustenance that adds value to life. On the other the school is applying cultural pressure to teach girls that baking is their approved means of self expression.

Getting dads/brothers/any other bloke who is (or pretends to be) a feminist ally to do it sounds like a good idea.

Another alternative is a deliberate incompetence approach. Make a truly inedible cake and put a card in saying - “In an attempt to free my mind and time for more public roles I tackled being assigned domestic chores like a man.”

Some ideas here - obviously use shop bought cake!

Buy a cake, and a sledgehammer. One meets the other.

Caption card, "on IWD we smash the patriarchy".

Buy a cake and take out a wedge and label that it is there to represent the gender pay gap.

God, how retrogressive.

I like your idea, OP.

"I’m thinking of buying one and putting a label on it “bought by my mother from her own income because she has better ways to celebrate IWD than being stuck in a kitchen”…"
@DorotheaDiamond I would absolutely do this.

I like your idea of a labelled shop bought cake.

Hold that thought a moment...

Look up Mr Kipling new CEO Alex ?? Phone won't let me add a link.

Anyway, he's the man who saved the cake manufacturer named after a man.

Sod their every day sexism.