I would very much like to rant about this AskMetafilter question and thread. I would. Alas, I am too damn sleepy to do so, and I have to get up early and get moving on some things away from the house tomorrow (weather allowing).

For now, read the question I linked to at least, and maybe skim a few of the comments. I’m interested in knowing what, if anything, offends anyone and why. It’s about gender roles at a family holiday gathering (and in families in general), so I’d be particularly interested in a feminist viewpoint, but really … anyone chime in.

Behind the cut is a bit of the rant I just say here typing with half-closed eyes and have saved as a draft. I got pretty shrill, and I am so tired that tying together thoughts isn’t working so well. The rest of the rant is probably just a bunch of foaming at the mouth anyway. I don’t dare read over it until tomorrow. This was actually a tangent to what I was really trying to say, but I just have to say it right here, right now because I am annoyed which makes it difficult to sleep.

Have equal rights really brought us to the point where it is considered servile and beneath anyone to cook and serve food to family members and loved ones?! I know they have brought us to the point that entirely too many women and men seem to view the choices I have made in my life as being the “wrong” choices and view me as some sort of poor helpless woman blinded by my years of slave-like servitude to see how sad and desperate my plight is. I thought equality for women meant being free to make choices for ourselves, whatever those choices may be … even if that means choosing to follow traditional gender paths like “women in the kitchen — men in the den”. It makes me raving mad that to some, my choices are seen as being not only degrading to me but to all of womanhood, as though I am personally holding back progress of women everywhere by bringing my husband a pint of ale when he’s thirsty, serving him a well-appointed plate of food I have lovingly toiled over when he is hungry, or (heaven forbid) spending kitchen time with other women without a man present.

I made choices. I am not stupid. I was not brainwashed from birth that all I was good for is waiting on a man. I am educated and have been out in the world living life. I discovered options along the way, and I made choices based entirely and completely on what pleased me the most at any given time in my life. I didn’t always make wise choices about what to do with my life, but I did always make them all on my own. No one, not even my parents, has ever told me to do anything and gotten results.

I went from being a stripper to a corporate suit to being a (gasp) somewhat traditional housewife. I could choose tomorrow to go back to either of the earlier choices. I’d instantly be thrown into a whole new tax table if I did. I could choose to throw all my energy into something else. My art. My writing. Something I haven’t even thought of yet. Or I could choose to be a somewhat traditional housewife. Hell, I could just pack up and leave if I wanted to. I know I have options … millions of them. I can’t be the only married woman in the USA who knows there are options other than becoming or continuing to be a traditional form of housewife or obediently serving a husband whether they want to or not. So … why the hell isn’t my choice, and the choice of millions and millions of other women to be housewives seemingly considered invalid, sexist and just plain wrong? I’m not demanding anyone else live by my values. I am only demanding that traditional values and gender roles be ALLOWED as a choice in my Women’s Freedom Package. Or am I only free to make the choices they would make for me? Hmm. Sounds a little like servitude to me, only now my masters are to be people flying the feminism flag.

Before these people look down their pointy little noses at traditional values and traditional gender roles, when those roles and values have been chosen freely by the people holding them, they need to crawl down out of their ivory towers and realize one thing: traditional housewives who are treated fairly and as equals by their husbands, have freely chosen what they wanted to do with their lives, and are happy to be doing it do, in fact, exist. Stop acting like I need to do something with my life, like become a lawyer or a shrink or an uppity New York artist. I am doing something with my life. I am running a household, feeding a family, and caring for loved ones, and that choice is just as valid and meaningful as any other.

Not that I am the perfect example of traditional housewife. My house is a wreck, the bills are never paid on time, but the meals … the meals are always plentiful and tasty. Oh, and also … I love it that Lin opens all manner of doors for me too. :lol: