Apparently, housewives are extinct.
An acquaintance posted this link of Facebook a little while ago. I read it, and thought it was fine and had a bit of a point, though it reeked of 19th century gender roles.
Then I read the comments.
Holy hell, people!
It took me three days to cool down enough to write this while keeping the language clean. Well, cleanish.
Gee, I'm SO SORRY I was too busy studying quantum mechanics to learn how to make a perfect souffle. Apparently I'm an awful person.
There are women who are happy to be at home, to cook and clean, and take care of children, and be there when the husband comes home with a smile and a fresh, hot supper laid out on the table. And I think that's wonderful. I think women should be able to do whatever they want to do, whether that is being at home or being out on Wall Street, trading stocks. Mim was a stay-at-home mom, and it was so wonderful to know that she was always there and would help and support us in all our endeavors. But she always wanted more. She wanted to learn. She wanted to (someday) be able to go out into the world and do something else after we kids were raised and do something she really, truly enjoyed.
I have no desire to have children of my own. I also have no desire to quit my job, stay at home, and cook. I don't particularly like cooking (but maybe when I have a nice, new, big kitchen I'll be willing to learn...) and I don't want to do all the cleaning (although I would clean more around the house if someone would remind me to, hint hint). I'm just not the domestic type. And I have thought to myself, many times, "Thank GOD I was born when I was, because I don't think I could ever be happy in a fixed gender role like things used to be!"
(And, no, I didn't just take the Lord's name in vain, because I really DO thank Him)
(So nobody get offended, ok?)
I don't consider myself a "feminist", but I'm really happy that I found a man who didn't have...ideas...about how things should be run in our home. We're partners. We share. We help each other. We pick up each other's slack. And we split the work (not quite evenly, I must admit...he's so much better at remembering chores than I am!). We both go to our jobs and earn about the same amount of money. And all of this is totally fine with both of us. We're happy.
There seem to be a lot of men (at least, all the men who left comments on this article...) that think that just because they were born with man-parts they are entitled to having a woman who will do whatever he wants her to do.
Think again, jerks.
good. LORD. this guy is... yeah. not enough profanity in the universe for that kind of attitude.
ReplyDeleteon another note: i have always viewed feminism as the "outrageous" proposition that a woman has the right to choose what she wants to do with her life to exactly the same degree as a man. so based on that definition, most sane, rational people are feminists. i think the word got hijacked by its opponents somewhere down the line and mutated into some kind of man-hating foolishness. y'know, the equivalent of the woman-hating foolishness this jerk put out.
you should read "full frontal feminism" by jessica valenti. i think you'd like it.
Ha...yeah, by "feminist" I meant the crazy bra-burning kind.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the article made me pretty mad, but the comments, the comments, the comments! They were worse!