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Reprinted from the Weekly Times "Miranda Blog"
Genevieve Barlow
July 22, 2009
WHILE in the Northern Territory last week, I stumbled across a tasty little piece of equality between the sexes.
It was in Katherine, to be precise - the land of big hats and heavy drinking - where, a number of years ago, one of the country's most potentially controversial yet surprisingly unheard of allegations of sexual discrimination occurred.
It happened, of all places, in the cooking pavilion at the local show.
Yup, the blokes reckoned the show discriminated against them because there was no blokes' class in the cake section.
Now any show-goer knows that discrimination is rife in agricultural shows, especially in the cooking and craft sections.
All those cakes and all that icing scream the undeniable: "This is women's business."
You'd reckon after the Miss Showgirl stoush (the title was dumped for Show Ambassador when the blokes threw a hissy fit, alleging exclusion) organisers would have realised that country shows are a hotbed of discrimination and done something about it.
Not content with wrestling crocs and drinking copious amounts of rum, the blokes in Katherine wanted their own cake show.
Sure, the rule book didn't overtly exclude men, but only women seemed to enter and, well, make of that what you will, the blokes decided it was time for change.
So in 2002, the Katherine Show Society introduced a Blokes and Sheilas Cake Competition.
The new competition had one class for the ladies and a separate class for the gentlemen. The best of both would then meet and the overall winner would be given the ultimate crown.
"The rules for the Blokes and Sheilas Cake Competition are quite unique," cooking steward Danielle Aquino, 30, told me.
"It's really anything goes. It's just gotta taste good and look good. You can ice it, decorate it, leave it plain. It needs to be yummy, basically."
With the gauntlet thrown down, blokes took to their kitchens to whiz, stir and mix. Winners were anointed for their male-only class, but alas and alack, the overall title eluded them.
In the first year of competition, Gillian Hagger, then in her 60s, was too good, they conceded.
But a year is a long time in country show cooking circles and, in 2003, Gillian's grandson, James, then a mere boy of 10, redeemed the blokes' dignity.
He snatched the title, banishing forever the insidious discrimination that for so long has haunted country shows and held back men's modernisation.
Not only could the blokes cook, they could enter country cake shows and win. So there.
Jump forward to this year's competition, judged at the show on the weekend, and the update, however, is not good.
Men have won the title in just three years out of seven and a quick glance at this year's entries ahead of judging suggested the odds were long for a fourth victory.
Never mind, the men thought. Hot weather can do terrible things to anybody's icing!
Danielle, also a nutritionist, was ever so polite about their chances, suggesting only that the women had shown a little more decorating flair than the blokes.
Still they could win on taste, she said.
Judging occurred on Friday and, as it turns out, local vet Alex Burleigh has a deft hand at tasks beyond those related to our furry friends and was anointed this year's winner of the blokes' section.
His sachertorte, an Austrian chocolate cake, was a clear winner, decorated with a horse and rider as a homage to his equestrian wife.
But Katherine sheila Deborah Wildish had the last laugh, taking out the overall title.
Her whole orange and almond cake, a favourite among friends, proved unbeatable on the day.
So the women of Katherine hold steady, and know better than to ask for an equal footing in the croc wrestling pavilion.
Rising to the challenge: previous Blokes and Sheilas Cake Competition winner Bronwyn Hagger with one of her creations at the Katherine Show on the weekend.
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