Just bought some groceries I'm kind of excited about--I've been stress eating a lot lately and so the theory behind my shopping this week was that I would buy nicer groceries but fewer--same price, less food, but possibly (hopefully) same amount of satisfaction. Maybe people will be shocked at the amount of groceries that is "less than usual" for me. I eat and cook a ton, I pretty much never eat out except that there's this 2 dollar hot and sour soup from the chinese place downstairs that I'm really addicted to.
So here's what I got:
Pork roast and mesquite bbq sauce (Stubbs. I love Stubbs.) for pulled pork (I've been waiting for like three weeks until I had the time to make pulled pork. Now that I'm on SB '10 and not going anywhere or celebrating in any other way, I figure--how can I not?!)
Stilton cheese (actually not that expensive--does that mean it's not good?)
Sourdough bread from bougie market
Bananas (not a luxury or anything, I know, but I usually don't buy fruit.)
Cucumbers and red onions (for salads, to eat with the hummous I made last night, etc.)
Mushrooms and white wine and new garlic for pasta sauce.
Bacon.
Another thing, regarding lady times:
I just spent a few hours REALLY cleaning the kitchen and our common room, and it was SO SATISFYING. (Stop with the caps lock, Eva!!! Your writing is surely suffering!) And I was thinking about guys I've known well enough to be in their kitchens, and some stuff I was reading in Cosmo (Ok, I know it's a horrible magazine--somehow extremely smutty and elitist at the same time, a tool of oppression, etc. But I've got a yearly subscription. And I like reading it. And, for whatever this is worth, I DO think it's a fairly accurate barometer on current white upper middle class attitudes on "feminism" or at least lady times. And if there is one biddy on this website who is completely immersed in white upper middle class dudes at the moment, it's me.)(Is everyone losing all of their respect for me right now?) Anyway, I wish that our society valued "women's work" more, and I wish that everyone (male and female) had the opportunity to be taught by their mothers the way I was the value and even the pleasure in doing these tasks. Which is not to say I don't find these chores annoying and that I don't really hate the way washing too many dishes makes my fingernails get all gross and my hands dry and smelly.
It's more just the idea that you are making a good environment for yourself, and for everyone you live with. That's something that can give one a lot of satisfaction, and if you get good at it it's useful and can save a butt load of money. But I think a lot of people miss out on the pleasure of cooking and cleaning and working with children, since it's been "women's work" in the past, and so as a society we've been taught to think of it as less valuable, as something to be avoided, done grudgingly, and then abandoned as soon as we have made enough money to pay someone (poor woman of color) to do it for us.
Is this too much of a generalization? I feel like there might be something slightly wrong with what I've said--if anyone disagrees please let me know.
Also, maybe I sounded a little bit like my grandma just then... But, hey. She's a pretty freakin wise lady.
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Also, I feel it necessary to clarify--when I say white upper-middle class "dudes", I mean it in the genderless way.
ReplyDeleteBammy would never have a dish washer because she didn't trust machines (still doesn't) and said she liked getting her hands clean in the dish water. Every Friday of my life my job was to clean the bathroom. I used to love, love, love scrubbing the tub and behind the toilet. Seriously. And cleaning the bathrooms is still my job. No one else does it right and thoroughly. The work I do now is still really women's work--taking care of kids and the small and simple daily work that makes a large system go. It's a cliche, but when I'm on committees with women, stuff just gets DONE. Men, it seems, area always dodging the everyday tasks that are essential to making the world function.
ReplyDeleteIf ladies didn't take the time to appreciate and cultivate the diversity of food and food preparation, the whole world would eat nothing but raw cans of Spam and Dorito dust.
ReplyDeleteAlso, remember when Homer has to pack lunches for Lisa and Bart for the first time, and he packs part some peanut butter smeared on a playing card?
*Packs BART some peanut butter spread on a playing card. Bart. No, not the SanFran train system, but the character on the television show "The Simpsons" that is popular.
ReplyDeleteYes!
ReplyDeleteI hate how the intellectual is privileged over the tangible. I heart the tangible, and spent four hours a day every day last week teaching an intensive two week cooking class. It was amazing how blissed out the students were the whole time. I was really scared they'd get bored, but they loved the chopping and washing and stirring, and some of them claimed they loved the clean-up too.
Yes, all the students were girls.
Loved this post, Eva.
Take a sexy close-up of the pork for us.
xo
I was just thinking, the other day, about how society sort of assigns certain characteristics to women and then makes those characteristics seem less valuable. As you may have noticed, I tend to enjoy the ladyhood-- when was the last time I wore pants? I bake all of the time, and avoid guns, cars, sports, etc. at all costs. For a while I felt like a bad feminist because of my femininity and domesticity, but maybe it's good to celebrate the characteristics we've been assigned (but only the ones we like) and pursue the manly ones, but also only the ones we like.
ReplyDeletePS, this is Ingy
ReplyDeleteI loved that post coming from dad.
ReplyDeleteWhen WAS the last time dad wore pants? ...
But yeah I DEFINITELY don't think that hopping on board the lady-gendered qualities are worthless, dude-gendered qualities are to be strived for train that most of society seems to have been riding for the past little while.
eva, i think you're exactly on the money about how society devalues stuff that women traditionally have done and, even as gender roles equalize, continue to do the majority of.
ReplyDeletei was reading _the good earth_ recently. i love the first wife (can't remember her name) silently made everything better and literally was the reason the main character became rich. she just gets in there and, like you said eva, just makes everything better in their house.
then when he is rich he notices how big her feet are and decides to get a new wife. she continues to work until she dies; the new wife lives in luxury and leisure in a courtyard. lame!