Unrolling Wipegate: What toilet paper teaches us about media, capitalism, privilege, implicit bias, and racism.
Thanks, Parth Salva for sharing this.
Disclaimer: Written only for those who give a crap as this requires wiping your own shit. Toilet paper not needed. And yes, I will start with my own sweet ass.
Uncredited & Unknown Source*.
Wipegate — The ubiquitous meme spawned by COVID-19,— toilet paper sold out, everywhere. Toilet paper is the hero of the unrolling wipegate story. Read on with courage and humility, if that is available for you.
(Article Credits: ‘Wipegate’ was coined by Ben Jaffe during a recent conversation with me. This piece was patterned by me, Mansi Kakkar and enriched with the help of my amazing weaver friends Yi Zhang and Cecily Victor)
Thanks, Cecily Victor for sharing this.
We all have seen the images of people fighting over toilet paper that have been circulating the news. The stories of a delivery person robbed at knifepoint of 600 rolls. This behavior is amusing to some, appalling to most. Well if you are appalled by it, don't be just yet. This is a perfect opportunity to interrogate the complexity of human and market behavior. And I am sorry to tell you, our shit is stinkier then we’d like to believe.
To start, toilet paper selling out is more a lesson in basic market economics than about bad human behavior. Moreover, we all did the same, I did the same. We each have some ‘thing’ that we hoarded. For some, a narrative has been created around toilet paper. From my perspective, there is much more appalling human behavior amok during this pandemic and that has nothing to do with toilet paper being sold out. Let's look at the logical reasons to acquit toilet paper and then the stickier stuff under the hood (bum?. too much… sorry, not sorry)
PART 1: Understanding why toilet paper sold out — OVER the hood.
For us humans, nothing is scarier than uncertainty. This is a fact. The evolution of human civilizations with the start of agriculture was to do just this — limit uncertainty. Agriculture was the pursuit of food certainty. To have a base need taken care of. To not have to worry about hunger every day. So wanting certainty is a human need. Our entire civilized (primitive?!) urban sprawl is designed for that. I get what I need when I need it. No uncertainty for all the things I need/want as per Maslow’s hierarchy within the limits of my paycheck. For this reason, there just cannot be any moralistic judgment on panic buying. WE ALL DID THIS, based on the biology of our brain on fear.
The system we created for this instant gratification of needs is the marketplace — designed on economic theory. We all must remember a few bits of this from school. I will spare you my opinions about the fallacies of economic theory for now.
In short, market economics put very simply works on two main variables. supply and demand. They have a dynamic relationship of interdependence. If demand increases, supply decreases. Supply runs out when the demand exceeds the current stock in the market. This is because supply chains have a regular cadence that they follow and a volatile and sudden fluctuation as caused by the pandemic will naturally run stocks dry.
Shelves are empty. Yes. But because more people are buying the same things — Essentials. Grains, rice, toilet paper, things in the US that are considered essentials. Empty shelves do not necessarily mean people are hoarding. Hoarding is more the exception than the rule.
Important to note though: Empty shelves are temporary. Ideally, the supply chain can react to this new change and restock, it just cannot happen overnight. Markets generally increase the prices, to reduce demand. This is done to stabilize the marketplace while stocks increase. This way the market is designed to self manage. I have a lot of opinions about the fallacies of this too but moving along…
Sidenote on price increase: There are always going to be a few people trying to profit by price-gouging i.e. selling sanitizers for $80 on Amazon. Given that we are in a state of emergency, many states like California have laws that make price gouging illegal. (Read here about this) Amazon, Walmart already got a slap on the wrist for this, see below
Because of this protection on basic consumer goods from price gouging during an emergency— prices will remain low and with a pandemic at hand demand will remain high. Making the stocks run low for longer. (Read more about this correlation here)
This clearly shows the complexity of our many siloed systems affecting each other adversely and positively. Most people bought whatever they needed to reduce their own fear of uncertainty. You did this too. Just in your own unique way. And that natural human behavior affected the behavior of the markets, naturally. Thus far, the logic checks out from both a human and market behavior perspective —wipegate happened — #warriorgoddess be like…dah doi! Please let’s stop hating folks!
PART 2: Understanding why toilet paper sold out — UNDER the hood (..bum?! 😛)
Now, let’s dig deeper and find the more unseen, subtler and stinkier reasons for wipegate.
What is hoarding really?
Hoarding is buying more of something at a cheap rate to sell later at a profit or to limit access to goods in the present mostly for making it available in the future. And some people are doing this. But not the people you are thinking of right now. More on this in a bit.
According to google: Capitalism is an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
To decode that definiation, Capitalism is essentially the hoarding of resources to sell at a profit through goods and services by those who have power. And that has been happening with a jubilant and celebratory acceptance and normalcy in the US and other westernized countries.
The stock market is a prime example of hoarding, IMHO.
Thanks, Gil Friend & Maya Zuckerman for sharing this.
Under the bum stinky shit 1: The basic theory on which countries build their markets to fulfil their basic needs is essentially a system of hoarding. If it was not, we would not have poverty, inequality or lack of any kind atleast for basics like food, shelter and heath care.
We can easily extrapolate that poverty, in general, exists for the same reason as the paucity of products in the market during this pandemic. A system of capitalism is the problem, not the pandemic or people hoarding.
We are labeling this natural survival behavior of buying essentials as hoarding, because well there is greed in this world. I will get to where I see this greed in a bit.
Okay, so people are buying essentials and most people are not hoarding. Then, Mansi, pray tell me why am I using a coffee filter to wipe my butt?
The real reason toilet paper sold out is because of the dangers of a single story (Concept Credit: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie). The scenario that logically played out is this — people are buying a little bit more to feel certain and safe within their means — at some point, a news channel chose to focus on toilet paper, not rice, or grains even though those were also sold out. That single story kick-started Herd Mentality. This mentality cannot kick in until something instigates that mentality, in the case of the US — a trusted source like a new channel created that spark.
(Sidenote to fellow nerds: Watch this ted talk by the amazing Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about the danger of the single story from a cultural and racial perspective.
The reason any human would choose to focus on toilet paper to feature as the story is because of a specific cognitive bias — Negativity Bias. Simply, toilet paper is a more interesting story. Why? Because it has a negative charge of mocking people. It also has more emotional intensity than flour is sold out, rice is sold out, even though those are also equally true. (Read this if not sure)
Under the butt stinky shit 2: Quentionable behavior among media agencies: What news will sell? Which story will sell? The commodification of information/news for maximum eyeballs is the stinkier reason for toilet paper seeling out.
The more that meme got shared, the more people started buying toilet paper out of fear. Fear’s job is to find more fear. Credit: the clickable sharability of the meme through Facebook and IG, ie: our collective negativity bias. Hence, there is a cascading fear effect of causality which shows the irrationality of human behavior on the part of the reporters, the consumers, the meme sharers, etc.
We are all responsible for wipegate. We all played a part in it.
So the current narrative of hating on others for sold out things, or creating an image of the masses are bad, greedy, immoral is just plain incorrect. #warriorgoddess calling BULLSHIT! And honestly, it is doing more harm than good.
Understanding the complexity of omni-directional causation is the biggest lesson this pandemic is bringing us.
So, please let’s acquit toilet paper that already has to stain its innocent white with our crap. The following are the true villains of wipegate:
Villian 1 — Capitalistic system for basic needs
Villian 2 — News Agencies’ internalized capitalistic mindset and dangerous storytelling.
Villian 3 — Those that 🤣 at and shared Toilet Paper memes because of the fallacy of our own minds.
Villain 4 — (To be revealed at the end, haha I am dramatic like this…read on folks)
Thanks, Maya Zuckerman for sharing this.
PART 3: But, before we flush wipegate down the toilet for good… we need to find and wipe the actual shitty behavior still sticking on our own behinds. Please read on.
Firstly, a meme like wipegate is a perfect example of our implicit biases. Don’t shake your head. Every single person has them. The only indicator that one does not have them, is the absence of a pulse. You will image the people who you hold implicit biases against as the ones responsible for wipegate.
This is why a news channel that shows African-American women fighting is revealing less about the issue and more about their own racial bias against them.
The way we tell stories, have within them the biases we hold. Who is telling the story and how the story is told can be dead give aways of the biases of the storyteller.
Secondly, I have seen within my own circle, middle-class (not only white) folks, filling their tubs with groceries and ice. This is hoarding in my eyes. Taking more than one needs because one can afford it. The keyword being because one can afford it. The bottom of the pyramid might want to do that, but their limited means will never let them.
Let me impress on you one thing very clearly. A single mother of 3, rushing to costco to buy 5 packs of toilet paper is not greedy, nor is she hoarding. An immigrant family of 7 from the labour class, buying essentials in bulk to feed themselves for a month is not greedy or hoarding. A white freelance artist who works the land for income is not hoarding.
So those who had the means and bought more than they need for a few weeks, they are the greedy ones. Those that bought in bulk at whole paycheck (wholefoods) those are the ones hoarding.
Please let's stop looking at ‘the masses’ with blame for sold-out stores, and instead look sideways, above and at a mirror. The stores you go to are mostly frequented by people like you at your level of means in society a few degrees away from you.
Growing up my family of four lived for a few years in the small town of Shimla in Himachal Pradesh in Northern India. We lived on the 4th floor of a building in an apartment complex. We had no internal heating. During winters, the temperatures would be below 30 degree F. The basic water piping systems would freeze and our taps would run dry. The solution in this crisis? — The entire complex had one tap which would flow water every day for a few hours….(wait for it)…for ALL the households to fill as much needed. For the kitchen, the bathrooms, all needs basically. Every morning people would wake up way before the sun in the freezing cold and line their coloured buckets in front of this revered tap. One might guess fights would be common, survival of the fittest you know. Nope. People would work together. If you did not come back before your buckets turn had come, someone else would honor your spot and fill your bucket and leave it on the side for you. Older people’s buckets were filled by younger ones. Little kids like me would carry small little jugs of water up the 8 flights of stairs to help. It was something everyone did. It was a basic need and everyone pitched in as a community. If one neighbor did not get enough, my mother would give away from our waning share.
A grassroots organizer that I collaborate with from one of the poorest communities in North Philadelphia mostly populated by African Americans told me this in a recent conversation “Scarcity is normal for us. We know what to do in this crisis as we do it all the time. We stay strong together.”
People who have seen adversity, who have seen poverty, seldom act greedily. Seldom do they need to trick and cheat. There is a deep bonding that gets birth in shared suffering that only brings out kindness, solidarity and community strength. Bad and selfish behavior in poverty is the exception not the rule. Selfish behavior is more a feature among those with more than enough means.
You can act selfish only if you have the privledge to do so. 🤷🏽♀️
This third point is probably going to alienate me from my POC friends. But not giving a fuck is my chronic disease, so here goes 😎.
You can be brown/black and have privilege. You can be white and have none. Because privledge is not inherently a race issue. It is intersectional and complex. Race & Socio-Economic Class, Gender also lend themselves to priviledge. So if you are a white homeless veteran on the streets, you dont have priviledge. If you are woman of colour and make a tech salary you have priviledge. This statement does not wish to wave off the historical weight of colonization, slavery, patriarchy and other oppressions. That is real and our identity is affected by that either way. But privledge is not solely the burden of white folk.
Privilege is what makes one hoard. And not just hoard toilet paper, rice, and flour, but more importantly:
The hoarding of freedom/safety, by the ones especially young and healthy still roaming around increasing the chances of becoming asymptomatic carriers to weaker people in the community. Somebody’s life is less valuable than the freedom to go outside without urgent/necessary cause. That is shittier than buying an extra pack of toilet paper.
The hoarding of compassion, by letting our blame, anger, unresolved justice issues compare and belittle the suffering of any human right now because of this virus. That is stinkier than buying an extra pack of toilet paper.
The hoarding of abundance, by those that are telling themselves — I will buy and raise chickens so that I have eggs and dont need to depend on the markets. You have the privilege to have that as a choice. Most in this society do not.
The hoarding of interdependence, I am going to a farm to live in self-sustenance. You have the privilege to have that as a choice and that is you separating yourself from the whole.
If you have had thoughts like this, you have hoarded. Period.
The marketplace of human behaviour in piled full with a big stock of shit — the shittiest shit of HOARDING from our IMPLICIT BIAS, RACISM, PRIVILEGE, GREED, SELFISHNESS, SEPARATION MINDSETS and no particular race of people need to he be held accountable for the burden of this alone. We are all guilty of this in our own ways despite our skin color.
Here is an article that illustrates a new class divide in the US into four categories, it is essential you reckon with where you sit in these categories and use your privilege with responsibility.
Part 4: A loving provocation for the reader
I will start with myself, as I will never ask anyone to do something that I am not willing to do myself. So here goes:
I hoarded on safety by going into work even after I knew I should not have, I hoarded on compassion by comparing the death rate of this virus to genocides of the past. I tried to buy masks online in my ignorance of their uselessness for me and panic of the situation. They never got delivered. Once, I realized the shortage among the medical community, I returned them, not realizing I could have donated them if I ever received them. 🤦🏾♀️ 🤦🏾♀️ 🤦🏾♀️ (Does anyone have spare toilet paper for me to wipe my ass?)
The privilege I hold is of having a salaried job with benefits and I can just sit at home and continue to work and write articles like these. Staying home is the least I can do with my privilege in support of social solidarity. Did I tell you I am a brown woman and an immigrant to this country?
Yes, I have privilege in some ways, and I don’t in other ways. But I cannot use the ways I don’t have privilege as an excuse to not interrogate the ways I do.
Perhaps a look within will up-level my/our activism.
Now your turn:
Sip on your favorite cool/hot beverage.
Play the song ‘Learn Yourself’ by The Beautiful Girls below and reflect on the questions that follow:
If you are white: What did you hoard? You can know this by looking at what you prioritized when the reality kicked in for you. How does that reflect your
privilege? Who do you picture when you think about the ones hoarding toilet paper? Those might hold clues for the implicit biases that still need interrogation by you.
If you are poc: What did you hoard? How does that make you examine your privilege, that you perhaps forget to interrogate while marching along for POC rights? What is the privilege you hold? Who do you picture when you think about the ones hoarding toilet paper? Those might hold clues for the implicit biases that you still need to interrogate.
So now for the big reveal of the villain number 4 for wipegate. This should not come as a surpise to you — it is YOU my dear reader.
Social solidarity is very hard when it breeches on our freedoms, and yet that is exactly what is being asked of and for us. Can we then please stop hoarding on safety, compassion, abundance and interdependence while we wipe our shit with paper towels?
Everyone’s liberation is tied to everyone else’s. There are no exceptions to this rule. Except baby yoda cause he is so darn cute he is exempt!
And if the coffee filter/paper towels are causing blemishes on your cute ass, below is a PSA from my friend and amazing artist LoWell Waters Brook in direct service to you posterior.
#badassbrownbitch #warriorgoddess
(Article Credits: ‘Wipegate’ was coined by Ben Jaffe during a recent conversation with me. This piece was patterned by Mansi Kakkar and enriched with the help of my amazing weaver friends Yi Zhang and Cecily Victor)