Oreo-Gate is About More Than Just a Kids' Lunchbox

Maybe it's a mom thing, but my algorithm has been full of Oreo-gate content this week. If yours hasn't, a quick breakdown: Oreo-gate refers to this mega-viral video series about a mom group chat. As the name suggests, Oreo cookies are at the center of the drama.

Essentially, the text exchange features a mom requesting that the fellow moms in her group chat stop sending their kids to school with Oreos in their lunchbox. Her own daughter, Ava, isn't allowed Oreos. According to the text exchange, Ava sometimes comes home crying because her friends have Oreos and she's not allowed to have this treat.

As a mom of elementary school kids, I get that it can be hard when your friends are around people who are allowed to do things they're not. As parents, it's tough to reiterate for our kids that we don't all have the same rules.

Unfortunately, this mom decided to take it in a different direction: She continued to harp on her friends for sending Oreos with their kids lunches, even though — last time I checked, at least — what somebody else (or somebody else's kid) eats is actually not something you can dictate.

In the Oreogate videos, the moms ask "why Oreos?" — they wonder why the mom is so insistent that her daughter avoid this specific treat. We never really get a clear answer.

And while most people on the internet are talking about what an absolute Karen the mom is being (which is fair, TBH), I think there's something else at work here. Because maybe it isn't all the mom's fault, even though yeah, she's likely going to pass some weird views about food down to her daughter.

But when we're navigating a world that puts messages about health and wellness and "toxic chemicals" and "junk food" and whatever other moralizing language we're using to describe food these days right in our faces...well, why are we surprised that this particular mom, (just like so many other moms, women, people across the country) has gone a bit off the deep end here?

Is it any wonder that someone is clearly fearful of Oreos when we live in a world with so much fearmongering around food?

Listen, this drama is kind of hilarious, especially because many of the moms involved in it are legitimately funny. I'd encourage you to watch the multi-part series. But also: It's worth thinking critically about what's going on here.

Yes, this mom is acting an absolute fool. But also...maybe we can look to the larger culture to gain a better understanding of why so many people have become so controlling and restrictive where food is concerned.