Don't Call Me Anti-Feminist

Before anyone goes crazy on me, let me say this: I'm all for womens' lib. I am a woman, after all, how could I not be?

But I will admit: I am a woman who enjoys things like cooking and decorating. So sue me. When IKEA sent me (without my having asked for it) a 2009 catalog, I spent several hours looking at all the room set-ups and deciding what I liked and what I did not like. I'm all about bright colors and natural light; I never understood peoples' insistence on lighting rooms with dozens of fluorescent lights when you can simply open the windows - or even have windows. And then there are rooms which are decorated with all manner of furniture and rugs in very dark colors; burgundy and brown, and so on and so forth. I don't really understand that, either. Okay, it might pass for what one calls "classic" but it doesn't really make good use of whatever light the room gets - dark colors like this don't reflect light. Now, burgundy can still be a great color, if used in combination with walls that are bright and sun-splashed during the daylight hours. That, to me, is another kind of classic, mature look - albeit with an entirely different intent.

But these, of course, are just my opinions.  

As for cooking, I think that this ought to be a skill required for both men and women. I don't think that it is anti-feminist at all to be able to cook. To declaim these elements of home life simply for the purpose of declaiming anything that might be associated with what is often called "traditional roles" is simply ridiculous. I used to experiment with all kinds of things in high school and college; I used to try and make shawarma and falafel on my own (the former came out better than the latter) and I used to try to mimic my mother's Latin American recipes that she grew up with. It's kind of fun to be able to say "see? I made this." Perhaps it's just another form of "creating." Perhaps both of these are.