Yesterday was International Women’s Day. Google had a rather nice special logo. It made me smile to see that there were quilts in it alongside the more politically correct image of female professionals. And this morning I read the following at the end of a post that is mainly about cookbooks.
…the irony is not lost on me that I happen to be posting about cooking, cookbooks, and entertaining – all traditionally “women’s” domain – on International Women’s Day. What can I say? I don’t think there’s ANYTHING wrong with cooking or entertaining if you enjoy it. I love to cook, myself, and it frustrates me when I – occasionally, still – hear people go on about how it’s somehow antifeminist to enjoy domestic things. What I would argue is antifeminist is telling other women how they should live their lives, whether that’s telling them not to work outside the home or telling them not to enjoy nurturing themselves and others…
Indeed! The women’s movement was supposed to be about giving women more choices but it seems like most feminists are embarrassed by anything that is considered traditionally feminine – like it’s morally unacceptable. That is just another form of oppression. It makes me want to start a movement. Liberal Housewives Unite!
(UPDATE: Actually I consider myself a moderate, left-leaning, semi-libertarian, get-offa-my-lawn, capitalist, imperialist – or something like that – but “Liberal Housewife” has more shock value.)
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Another thing I neglected to mention yesterday, something I am far more interested in, was the 100th birthday of composer Alan Hovhaness. Not much to say, actually. I like his music. I guess you could say he’s one of my lesser favorites. His music is pleasant and sort of New-Agey. It usually makes me think of water somehow – ocean depths, rain, rivers…
If I had to pick a favorite by Hovhaness it would probably be this: (I watched a lot of videos and couldn’t find one I was completely satisfied with.)
March 9th, 2011 - 11:43 am
Contemporary feminism is an offshoot of Marxism, which is why you see so many feminists decrying “traditional female occupations” like cooking, cleaning, and being a wife and mother. Destruction of the traditional family is part of standard Marxist societal restructuring. Power comes first, before freedom from oppression, before everything. That’s why feminists have become muted about the way women in, say, the Middle East have to live. It’s okay for a Muslim woman to be confined to her home and child-bearing. (Or, as I read years ago from one Western feminist whose name I forget, wearing a chador in Iran was actually “freeing” because she didn’t need to dress up nice and wear makeup to “please a man.”)
Anyway, Western feminists have gotten everything they supposedly wanted — no one can legally stop a woman from doing anything she wants — but they’re still going, so there is obviously another agenda.