I've been thinking a lot lately as to what are deemed typical skills of homemakers and characteristics of feminists. It is commonly viewed that these two groups fall on opposite sides of a vast spectrum - one is bound and one is liberated. I find that idea to be hogwash.
How is self-sufficiency anti-feminist? Homemakers of past made healthy meals for their families from scratch. They made their family's clothes and mended them to ensure their long-standing durability. They grew gardens. They ensured healthy and clean environments. They educated their children at the same time.
They were self sufficient. Regular Proverbs 31 women. They did not depend on others to do their work for them. They worked hard for what was in their households. They did not just run down to the mall and spend money frivolously. They didn't dine out on the town just for the sake of not having to cook for themselves frequently. They didn't flit from man to man and hobby to hobby for the sake of "enlightenment."
These women learned classic and time-tested abilities that were useful and contributed to their households and communities. "Communities? Really?" Yes, really. These women passed their skills on to those younger who then used those skills to help their families, their neighbors, their friends. They bought their materials, their tools, their seed and plants and groceries locally. It wasn't always easy, but they did it. And if something wasn't in season or money didn't warrant having a new dress, they did with out and made do with what they had.
But we view these women as chained. Oppressed. Pushed down by the man to do his bidding.
Alternately, they took pride in what they did and who they did it for. They weren't reliant upon others.
Today, if I wanted to be a liberated cosmopolitan woman I would need to eat food out on the town that I did not prepare on dishes that I did not wash. I would need to buy over-priced and cheaply-made clothing that I did not make (but rather support an industry that thrives on sweatshops and real oppression). I would buy my groceries at a mass merchandiser who buys pesticide-ridden products because they are cheap. If I wanted something I would just jump out and pay someone else to produce a sub-standard item just for the sake of convenience. If I were to be independent by society's standards, I would be completely dependent upon others. I wouldn't have a skill to bear to my name to get me the actual things that I needed to live by.
How is being self-sufficient not being a feminist? How are creating, crafting and cultivating goods by means of acquired skills demeaning and shameful? It seems that the lens through which these two groups are viewed is highly and unfavorably skewed, doesn't it?
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