St. Pete Man Wins Baking Competition Amid Gender Dispute

Chuck Plinderston of St. Petersburg clinched a blue ribbon Saturday at the Great Pinellas Bake-Off following days of sharp scrutiny and online abuse as controversy about his gender have exploded into a larger clash about identity in baking competitions.

Plinderston won the overall judge’s choice in a unanimous decision with his ironically titled submission of ‘Chuck’s Cheatworthy Cherry Pie’.

“Oh, it’s cheatworthy, all right.” said Bonnie Hamberstam of Clearwater, one of Plinderston’s vanquished opponents. “Look at her; that’s obviously a woman.”

“I call it that because it’s so good, it’s worth cheating on your diet,” said Plinderston defensively. “Not because I have an abnormally low level of testosterone for a male or anything like that which might give me an unfair advantage in what has been perceived traditionally as a female-centric pursuit.”

Plinderston has faced scrutiny after he quit playing softball last year to focus on his new hobby, baking pies.

“I’m 62. My knees are shot. I’m getting too old to play softball anymore,” he said. “And I just love baking.”

“Whatever, bitch,” said Nancy Spoonhauer of Dunedin, another losing opponent.  

Tonya Bloch, president of Rolling Pin-Ellas, the organization that presents the annual event said, “Let’s be very clear here: We are talking about baking delicious pies. What we see now is that some want to own the scientific definition of who can bake a delicious pie. If they are coming up with something, we are ready to listen. We are ready to look into it, but we will not take part in a sometimes politically motivated cultural war. What is going on in this context in the social media, with all this hate speech, with all this aggression and abuse, and fueled by this agenda, is totally unacceptable.”

“Bake better pies, losers,” she added.