Food polemic

"Why I Hate Food: A Polemic" by Mary Rechner

This is sort of provocative, although essentially Rechner is just saying that she'd rather write than cook, and well, so would a lot of people.

But, no, of course there's more than that. Rechner is concerned that women who are hopping on the F.L.O.S.S. band-wagon are taking on too much domestic to allow them to create other more abstract works. Make poems, not pickles, so to speak.

As a Portlander, I imagine that this is a brave declaration. Among my close girlfriends, exactly one of them, like me, does not relish cooking. Going out to eat or to a friends for great food, yes! Going to the market and cooking up the goods... pas tellement. Either way, à chacun son goût. If you revel in getting your hands into the dough, bake some delicious bread, dammit. If you prefer to cover blank pages with lots and lots of black lines, than do that.

(Does anyone else feel like these outbursts against women (and only women -- I have yet to read a missive against men taking time and energy away from their careers to raise their children) doing things that aren't well-paid -- like staying at home to raise your child, opting out of your stable job for a while to learn a handy trade, etc. -- seem like misplaced criticism?)

Comments

Hannah said…
Ugh, yes. I'm so tired of women telling women what to do, not do, do better, do less of, etc. It feels like the conversation just keeps going around and around and around without end or resolution. We are none of us perfect nor the realization of the complete woman. Can't we just leave it at that? Oh yes, and get on with living our imperfect lives and raising our imperfect children and going to our imperfect jobs?
Hannah said…
Also, sorry, if there was as much effort put into helping women around the world like Malala Yousafzai get the education she deserves as there was about writing a polemic on the virtues of a woman creating "real" art instead of "fake" art (making pickles or raising a child or fetishizing food) the world would be a different place. For women in particular.
Aralena said…
Hear, hear, Hank. I concur fully. It's time to take the activism for women's fundamental human rights to the corners where they are still horrifically abused. Instead of getting on women's case who enjoy craft art (as opposed to real art, bien sur) or not working a nine-to-fiver.

I wonder if the sort-of vacuum that's been created with men not telling women what to do AS MUCH AS THEY USED TO has freaked some ladies out a little, and they feel they need to fill the void?

Then again, I don't like to buy the story that women are women's worst enemies. Maybe it's a universal problem that some people, who happen to have access to a big soap box, just feel the need to control those around them? To make them feel better about their choices?

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