S.N. McKibbenDirty Stories. Social Taboos. Underdog Heroes.
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 Photo Credit: © Paulo Henrique via Compfight cc I'm in the midst of exploring reversed gender roles where I, the woman, am the "provider" for the family.
As I think about it, women tend to want to take charge and pick up the slack that men just don't care about. Women feel it's their duty to take care of "business". I know plenty of women who feel like they are "doing it all". If I don't do it, he certainly won't. But now that the roles are reversed for me and I don't have time to clean the house, make the dinner, or tidy the yard I've had to let go of these things. Did my man pick up the slack? Not entirely.
But here's the interesting part...I learned how to take the man's stance of apathy for things that in the end don't matter. Will the house implode if I don't vacuum the rug? Well, no. Will the dog suffer because I'm playing with her instead of scrubbing dishes? Certainly not. In fact, my GSD now IS the pre-wash cycle. I could go insane from an untidy house. But I accept the way that it is. We are safe and warm. We have a lot of debris along the pathways but we're safe. The yard terrifies people because it looks like Bubba went to the hardware store to get jacks for that 1990 Talon in the front yard. Thus, no one thinking we have anything of value in the house. The dishes are sanitary and so is the food. Our clothes are clean and have a place to stay that way before wearing. You see, priorities change. Cleanliness is Godliness, so I decided to go the way of the Goddess. I am a woman! Hear me bring home the bacon while he cooks it! The "traditional" gender roles we take for granted in the 21st C may be less traditional than we think. There's an interesting book by Andrew Kimbrell entitled "The Masculine Mystique..." an obvious take-off on "The Feminine Mystique." I'm sure Ms. Friedan was less than impressed. But he made some interesting if ponderous points, not the least of which was the effects the industrial revolution had on what was "expected" of men. Without going into the detail Kimbrell does, he opines that the waning Middle Ages gave rise to the exploitative Mercantile world we know & the "containment" de-emphasized their roles as nurturers/tenders & over-emphasized the provider/defender components. As the world we are crafting relies less on brute strength & more on intellect, the easier it is to erode the social models relying on patriarchal hegemony. It's difficult for the tradition-bound to accept, but it's inevitable...until dystopian upheavals push strength back to the front...which doesn't mean we won't have our share of "shield maidens" who can hold their own, but... ;-) Comments are closed.
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