Students taste liberated snickerdoodle

Two eggs, a cup of sugar and a pinch of irony.

Students with a sweet tooth experienced liberation through baked goods this Monday at a Liberation Bake-off, part of a series of events for Gender Week on campus.

Hosted by UB's Gender Institute in the Student Union, the event was part of the fifth annual Gender Week's kickoff.

Students could experience emancipation through the act of baking or tasting the entries, rating their feeling of liberation on a scale of one to ten. A one signified oppression, while a 10 represented liberation. Other options included "satisfied" and "determined."

While a bake-off seems contradictory to the idea of deliverance, the Suffragettes and Women's Liberation, who organized the event, chose the domestic activity for exactly that reason.

"A lot of women enjoy baking and doing domestic things, but they feel weird because they think feminists fought against that," said Susannah Bartlow, an organizer of the event.

The amendment called for equality by law to be added to the Constitution to prevent sex discrimination, but never passed.

Bartlow was clad in a housewife costume, featuring an Equal Rights Amendment apron given to her by her father. She said the apron symbolizes what the bake-off is about.

"The bake-off shows how far women have come and how far we have to go. We can bake and be domestic, but be liberated at the same time," she said.

According to Bartlow, the goal of the bake-off was to inspire a "feeling of liberation."

"Once you can identify the feeling, you can find it in other ways and take it into other areas of life," she said. "The bake-off is symbolic of how you can use anything to liberate yourself."

The event was created to be somewhat light and fun, contrasting with the research-based and controversial lectures that will dominate the remainder of Gender Week. It also coincides with this year's Gender Week, "Advances through Activism."

"Even though it isn't political, it's liberating," Bartlow said. "But, in a way, it's a form of activism to try to take something that's usually conservative and make it liberated."

According to Bartlow, the goal of Gender Week is to "promote the awareness of gender, especially increasing awareness of research and education on gender at UB."

Elizabeth Knipe, a fourth year graduate student in Media Studies, recognizes the importance of holding the event.

"It's a really great thing for UB to have," she said.

Knipe participated in the bake-off, contributing a vegan mango "better-than-cream cheese" cake. She also checked out the competition, sampling a snickerdoodle.

"The cookies made me feel good, but I don't know about liberated," Knipe said. "I don't feel oppressed or liberated by my gender."

Other students felt the effects of the goodies that were spiked with emancipation.

"I'm free as a bird," said Richard Nocera, a senior communication major, after taking a bite of Knipe's cake.

The prizes awarded on Tuesday were the icing on the cake for recipients. The winners were determined by adding the ratings collected in open-judging. There was a tie for first prize between Shelby Crosby's snickerdoodles and Sarah Lewis' "Nut Up" peanut butter fudge.

Prizes included a recipe box with recipes from fellow participants, a tablecloth, a shaker and a set of kitchen magnets.

Michael Skvarch, a freshman engineering major, hopes to see a continuance for gender week.

"This is my first gender week ever and it has been amazing, and hopefully will only get better," Skvarch said, munching on an apricot chew.

The Gender Institute has coordinated 20 events for this year, including a lecture on Thursday titled the "Abortion Controversy in Context." The last Gender Week event is a one-woman show titled "SHOES!" taking place Friday.