When it comes to baking, the ingredients tend to revolve around some sort of combination of sugar, flour and butter. But this year's The Great British Bake Off seems to indicate that there’s a further ingredient required to make the bake show entertaining – not just camera crews, big tents, Paul Hollywood’s eyes and Sue Perkins’ puns, but an bulky herd of trolls, gobbing insults at contestants via social media.
Not content with making last year’s eventual finalist Ruby Tandoh feel like shit (trolls accused her of flirting her way into the final, being too pretty to be on the show through her baking merit, or just being a ‘filthy slag’) they’ve continued their dickheadery by tormenting Claire Goodwin, who dared to be a size 22 baker.
Claire, who was eliminated after the first episode of the fifth series of the show (yep, fifth!) had been warned about the abuse that she might face on social media by the BBC, who issued guidance to all of the contestants advising them to not ‘engage in negative exchanges online.’
READ MORE: GBBO Is Back And 17-Year-Old Martha Is Our Fave Contestant
But after making a Twitter account ahead of the show, she couldn’t help but look at the responses, as she couldn’t help but look at, because, as she puts it, Twitter is ‘indulgent and silly, fun and fast and also a little bit exciting’.
However, she wasn’t prepared for the nastiness of the comments launched her way – mostly by men – which we won’t repeat here as they’re quite gross, tbh.
Responding to the hate via her blog, which is mainly used to discuss baking, she’s made some really great points. First of all, she admits that her weight is an issue: ‘I get it, I’m fat… I don’t profess to be a healthy weight. I fully admit I am greedy. I am happy to share with anyone that I am a size 22 and my BMI is really not in any way shape or form ideal. I am also not proud of it.’
However, while ‘there is something poetic about a large woman in an apron spooning buttercream on to cake and talking about how much she loves pies,’ Claire’s weight is not the only way to define her. ‘What I do know is that my weight (anyone’s weight) is not a reason to denigrate everything I do, nor can you define me by this alone. A person should not be defined by any aspect of their appearance. For a second today, I felt like I shouldn’t have been in that tent because I am fat. The fact that I have achieved some of the things I have achieved was momentarily forgotten.’
READ MORE: What Liam Payne Can Teach Us About Being Fat-Shamed
She didn’t just complain about the trolls, though, but posited her theory as to why bored blokes watching bakery programmes on BBC2 on a Wednesday night get so ragey and angry they have to commit their anger to hashtagged Tweets. ‘I know if I Tweeted/wrote/said something as nasty as this (not that I would, I’d like to think I’m a little more human) my mum and dad and all of my family and friends would be so angry with me, and they would make me feel so very very ashamed,' she writes.
‘If we cannot as human beings monitor our own social conduct, then we must look to our companions to guide us. So maybe that is the answer. These so-called trolls don’t have any significant social contact to help them monitor their own behaviour. No one cares enough or is close enough to guide them. I’d rather be fat.’
READ MORE: The Absolute Filthiest Moments From The Great British Bake Off
If you don’t quite believe Claire’s theory, then look no further than her exact opposite, the not-size-22 Gwyneth Paltrow. She basically said exactly the same thing about trolling a few months ago. Speaking at a coding conference, she explained: ‘It's taken me a long time to get to the point where I can see these things and not take it as a personal affront and a hurt. I see myself as a chalkboard or a whiteboard or a screen, and someone is just putting up their own projection on it.’
Maybe, just maybe, the way to treat these miserable trolls is to kill them with kindness. Or just let them eat cake, but maybe a cake with a tiny bit of shit in it.
Like this? You might also be interested in...
As Michael Gove Axes Fried School Food, We Reminisce Over Our Favourite School Dinners
Here's How To Spend A Tenner And Take Five Lunches To Work For A Week
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.