I've had a thought forming since last spring and feel now that it is developed enough to write. I'm a bit appalled at the feminist movement whose mission seems to be the degradation of household chores and traditionally feminine roles in the home. Why not, dare I suggest, flip it around and contend that instead of females needing to be more like males that males need to be more like females? Or, more specifically, why not insist that males do more household chores and assume more tasks traditionally assigned to women? Why am I so appalled?
"It is well established among us that you may hold up your head in polite society with a public lie in your mouth or other people's money in your pocket or innocent blood on your hands, but not with dishwater on your hands or mud on your shoes" (The Hidden Wound, Wendell Berry, 13).
You see, the basic root of the problem, viewed in this particular way, is not sexism at all. It is the basic assumption that somehow, traditionally feminist roles are inferior, and when attached to a woman, somehow then makes that woman inferior. It is the role when attached to the woman through generations of tradition that has made the woman inferior. It's not even the actual task that is considered inferior, but the social stigma and meaning attached to it that makes it inferior in people's minds. Those tasks are NOT inherently inferior, but they have come to have that connotation because of society. The danger then becomes:
"When a nation determines that the work of providing and caretaking is 'nigger work' or work for 'hillbillies' or 'rednecks' - that is, fundamental, necessary, inescapable, and inferior - then it has implanted in its own soul the infection of ruin" (113).
It is not a problem of sex, gender, or race. At this point it becomes the thought implanted in some people that certain kinds of people are exempt from certain kinds of work, and because of this thought that somehow those who are exempt from lower status work are superior. It is why racism did not bring about slavery of the blacks, but rather slavery birthed racism towards the blacks. Unable to bring their Christian consciousness and words in line with their deeds, these slaver owners used racism as a justification for enslaving humans who were, by faith, their equals and their brothers and sisters (this may be why verses in the scripture talking about following their faith with actions rings hollow and are explained away in some Christian churches). Whites felt exempt from work performed by the blacks, and feeling superior, naturally came to see the blacks as inferior. What started out as a form of cheap labor evolved into a school of thought that justified slavery.
Back in the beginnings of humanity, males traditionally hunted for food, while females gathered. It was the maximization of the strengths of the two genders. Somewhere in our history, female roles became delegated as secondary, less important, but necessary work and became looked down upon. This elevated the status of the male.
And this line of thought in comparison with that of the line of thought to feminism is absolutely ridiculous especially in a time and age where there is a sense of entitlement and growing rifts in class and growing feelings of superiority. Ironically, the aim and any subsequent success of the above brand of feminism is not solving the problem of sexism (or racism, or classism), but is succession into converting the movement into the ideals of traditional white male ruled, classic capitalistic society.
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