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Hyperborealis's avatar

"A lesson Bourdieu taught but which no one seems to take to heart is that no expression of taste is ever innocent."

So your argument is true by definition. Amusing of you to illustrate it by academic name-dropping and inequality sign-posting. What GINI coefficient do you assign to the class of brave intellectuals who have the leisure to cite Bourdieu against bread-makers? Do you think we will come out of this pandemic with notably less inequality due to their heroical struggles? Just wondering!

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Steady Drumbeat's avatar

This is dangerously stupid. People are baking bread because they like to eat bread, bread is highly perishable, and they can't go to the bakery. Oh, that, and they're working from home now, which means you don't have to fit your bread prep schedule to your daily going-into-the-office routine.

Midway through the post you justify your stance that baking bread is status-seeking behavior by arguing that access to time and bread-making materials is a "class marker." First off, holy non-sequitor, Batman! If an activity is "status-seeking" because it's easier for the rich to do it, then everything is status-seeking. By this argument, going to a restaurant is status-seeking -- it costs money, after all, something the rich have more of, and one cannot eat out if one has to take care of children at home. But then again, eating in is also status-seeking, because you need a kitchen and materials, and time to clean up.

Secondly, flour is hard to get right now, but the people who have it are not the rich: they're the ones who went to the supermarket first, before the supermarkets ran out of flour. If there was a massive black market for flour, and only the rich had access, you might have a point. But everyone I know who is baking bread is doing so with supplies they got at a regular supermarket, before the shelves went empty.

In conclusion this is dumb.

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