"For the Love of: Gooey Butter Cake Bars"

Question for you, what is worse for you Gooey Butter Cake Bars or the person that tells you it's ok to eat them?  Hmmmm, I'm thinking, I'm thinking. Seriously, how did Paula Deen come to have so much power and influence in the food world with her obviously self- destructive behavior and her health destroying recipes?  In case you are thinking she is finished after her revelations under oath that she used racist language in her restaurants and maintains attitudes from the pre-civil war south you are mistaken.
Yes, she has been dropped by: Smithfield Foods, Wal-Mart, Target, QVC, Home Depot, Penny’s, Sears, K-mart and even the Type 2 Diabetes insulin manufacturer Norvo Nordisk BUT AFTER her teary eyed confessions her book Paula Deen’s New Testament: 250 Favorite Recipes shot to number 1 on the Amazon best Seller book list. The week before that she was languishing around 1500 on the same list. Americans love a good fall, the tearful, humbling, begging for forgiveness and then the resurrection. This is all so predictable and disgusting I don't even know where to begin.

Look, I appreciate that Paula Deen grew up poor in Albany, GA and was left virtually penniless after a divorce. I appreciate that she was prone to panic attacks, and agoraphobia. Through luck and determination she clawed her way up the food chain (pun intended) to fame and fortune in the cooking world. Her fame mostly has come as a result of her shows on the Food Network. Her first show began in 2002. She got on the Food Network because she had set up two successful restaurants in Savannah, Ga.  Give her credit for not being a quitter, but let’s turn the coin over and see the other side.  Paula Deen might be savvy in the business world but she is not intelligent or knowledgeable. She’s less sophisticated than the least sophisticated person you know. Is it any wonder that she regularly used the word (nigger) in conversing with staff at her workplace, allowed a culture at work where words like this were often used or had the unbelievable stupidity to announce (recently) that she was planning her brother’s wedding reception and that she was going with an old fashioned "Southern Plantation Style Reception" complete with black servers. Focus in on that last line, doing a southern plantation theme with black servants. What was the entertainment going to be an Al Jolson look alike in blackface singing “Mammy”? Paula, Paula, Paula!

Why she is famous is what bugs me so much.  She is famous for serving “southern comfort food” which means fried, fried and deep fried. She is all about fried lard, fried butter, fried Oreos and the list goes on and on. She eats crap, serves up crap, has creative recipes for crap, markets and sells the crappy idea that eating this stuff is perfectly ok. It's bad enough that obese American adults found someone to give them two greasy thumbs up on their bad eating habits but what's worse is that she encourages kids to eat just as badly as their hillbilly  parents. That really pisses me off. She did a book called Lunch Box Set for moms that encouraged kids to eat: Cheesecake for breakfast, meat loaf and chocolate cake for lunch and French fries all day. Do we really need more adults and children with obesity and Type II Diabetes? She is a hypocrite on so many levels. Tub of goo, Paula Deen filled with oils, sugar, salt, and grease was diagnosed with Type II diabetes in 2009. Duh! My question is what took so long? Did she change her show content and encourage others not to do what she just did? Of course not, instead she saw another money-making idea. Since she started taking the Type II diabetes insulin manufactured by Norvo Nordisk, she became a spokesperson for this insulin/company. So imagine a fat, unhealthy woman getting paid a fortune to cook up Old Fashion Fudge Cake and Gooey Butter Cake Bars, all the while telling people they could eat this stuff and not worry and then get paid as a spokesperson for Type II Diabetes insulin. That's like selling the drugs and then opening up a  drug rehab clinic down the street. That went on for 3 years. She did not admit her own Type II diabetes and connection to Norvo Nordisk until the story leaked out. I swear to God if Paula Deen told people  to eat a shit sandwich every day, not only would so many of them do it but they would deep fry them first.

I don't like Paula Deen because she represents the worst of entrepreneurship.  Devoid of conscience, self-centered, manipulative, fake; a bull shitter extraordinaire, that’s Paula Deen. The fact that even one person ever listened to or watched her on TV only gives credence to what I've said for years that the average American is a lot more stupid than most people think. Look at her, listen to her; does she look like a person that should be telling you how to eat?

The Food Network channel should be ashamed of itself. She was on for 13 years and you mean to tell me they didn't know she was a racist. No one in 13 years ever heard her use a racial term, or any other ugly term?  Really? What is more plausible is this: they knew it but as long as she never said “jigaboo salad” or “coon pie” on camera they just looked the other way. Apparently we are also to believe that none of those other companies, so eager to drop her now, ever knew she was a racist? Didn't they check her out before signing her to lucrative deals? No, it’s about the money. She made money for them and as long as she didn't call her line of cookware the “Paula Deen Plantation Cookware” available only in white they were more than willing to keep her on board. They are every bit as hypocritical as she is. 

The Food Network should drop the “its America, and we just present shows, it’s up to people to decide for them what to eat” mantra. That’s irresponsible. You have an opportunity to present cooks and shows that could change America’s concept of food and eating for the better. That network could be presenting people that will help foster a food sustainability program for our country. There is so much good they could be doing now and for the next few generations. Again, I'm not suggesting that every show on the Food Network be 10 ways to eat granola. Food should be tasty and fun but fried Oreos? C’mon!

 America you get exactly what you deserve. I remember telling my son Austin in the year 2000 that Americans vote for whom they want in office and you know what, whoever they put in office, regardless of the reasons, they get exactly what they deserve be it good or bad. The same holds true for watching the Paula Deen show. Food that will hasten your Diabetes, hardened arteries, heart-attacks, strokes, indigestion,  colon issues, double and triple chins, plus, plus, plus sizes, extra loose fits and mumu’s should be avoided not sold as "fun foods" or "comfort foods". Last time I checked Type II diabetes is not fun or comfortable. I just wish they would do a survey about Paula Deen viewers:  I'll bet a month’s salary a vast majority of those people also smoke and drink.  The “average American” has to start getting smarter. Look, the American author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. once said, “Cigarette smoking is the only socially acceptable form of suicide”. If he'd known about Paula Deen he would have added her food to his list. 

Finally, a friend recently said that Paula Deen will reinvent herself and continue to make money chubby hand over fist. Maybe this was all orchestrated by Paula herself to get out of her Food Network deal where her ratings were dipping below the grease line and her sales of books and other related Deen accessories had really fallen off. No doubt Paula will retrench into the Deep South, start a local eat all the boiled peanuts, and fried everything you want cable show and continue to make money.  Some readers might think:
Will  you're picking on Paula Deen pretty heavily here. I think people in the public eye have a responsibility to find a proper balance between making money off their fame and using their talents to help others have a better life. If Paula Deen were my aunt; I would have written the same blog post.