seen<\/em> Pinterest? (No really\u2014that was my immediate reaction.)<\/p>\nDo you know how many parents I follow on facebook who post pictures of things they\u2019ve done to their kids\u2019 rooms? Special shelves, themed beds, new organizational systems. It\u2019s at birthday parties that parents go the most all out, though\u2014with themes and decorations and elaborate planning. And Pinterest feeds it all.<\/p>\n
Need to reorganize your craft room (or craft closet)? Pinterest! There are all the ideas! Discontent with your current kitchen setup? Pinterest has new organizational ideas! Have a problem with your shoe storage? Pinterest! You can fix it!<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a sort of hyper competitive homemaking that has accompanied the hyper competitive parenting that has become so predominant in the U.S. today. Children have to be in supervised activities 100% of the time, they need ice skating lessons, and speciality camps galore. A child is never just a child\u2014and a house is never just a house.<\/p>\n
And yes, all of this is gendered\u2014it falls on the woman. She\u2019s the one who is expected to create those new organizational systems and arrange rooms just so, she\u2019s the one who is expected to enroll the children in programs and make sure they get there.<\/p>\n
Consider Marie Kondo\u2019s \u201ctidying up,\u201d which has taken the internet (and my friend networks) by storm. This, too, is largely marketed toward women. Organize your rooms just so. Take charge of your homes. Make them spark joy.<\/p>\n
To be sure, no one actually lives up to the lofty ideals of Pinterest\u2014or Marie Kondo. But the idea that \u201cno one wants to take care of the home,\u201d in the era of Pinterest\u2014and Marie Kondo<\/em>\u2014is laughable. It is patently, manifestly not true. It would seem, these days, that everyone<\/em> wants to take care of the home.<\/p>\nWhat does Lori Alexander offer as evidence of her claim?<\/p>\n
Take this example of what has been spread around Facebook:<\/p>\n
A man named Brian wrote: \u201cNo man working 40 hours a week wanna come home to a hot pocket and fruit punch!\u201d<\/strong> A woman named Jessica responded to him: \u201cNo woman working 40+ hours a week wanna come home to sweep, mop, dust, vacuum, wash and fold laundry, scrub tubs, toilets, cook a %$#% post roast with sides, and have to clean the fr%#%#g kitchen\u2026But here we are.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nBrian is right, most men who work 40 hour weeks don\u2019t want to come home to a microwaved meal and fruit punch night after night. But the reaction he received from women is expected \u2013 outrage! Jessica shared the feminists\u2019 reaction loudly and clearly. Since she works 40+ hours a week, she doesn\u2019t want to come home and do housework. If she was a full-time keeper at home as God has commanded women to be, she would have plenty of time during the day to sweep, mop, dust, vacuum, wash and fold laundry, scrub tubs, toilets, cook a pot roast with sides, and have time to clean the kitchen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Um. Hm.<\/p>\n
Look, I\u2019m pretty sure that essentially no one likes sweeping, mopping, dusting, vacuuming, washing and folding laundry, scrubbing tubs, toilets, and cleaning the kitchen. Some people like cooking, but that other stuff? It\u2019s stuff that has to be redone over and over and over again, no matter how well you do it. It\u2019s basic drudge cleaning.<\/p>\n
The Proverbs 31 woman had servants. She did not scrub her own toilets. The Bible does not say \u201cwomen, scrub your family\u2019s toilets.\u201d Sure, someone has to scrub their toilets, and unless you have a lot of money that\u2019s going to be you or someone else in your family. But I think we can all be forgiven for\u00a0not wanting to be the one to do it.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nLori\u2019s contention that \u201cno one wants to take care of the home\u201d is only true if we ignore Pinterest and ignore Marie Kondo and focus very narrowly on whether women want to scrub toilets\u2014something I suspect effectively\u00a0no one\u00a0<\/em>wants to do. (Marie Kondo followers also aren\u2019t exclusively women, of course\u2014it shouldn\u2019t be surprising that there are men, too, who like having homes that they feel good in.)<\/p>\nBut Lori ignores all<\/em> of this.<\/p>\nThis is what happens when you decide your conclusions before you even start gathering evidence. For Lori Alexander, a single meme about how annoying it is to have to clean the kitchen and scrub toilets (especially without help) becomes reason to conclude that \u201cno one wants to take care of the home,\u201d all other evidence to the contrary be damned.<\/p>\n
One last note: I do not hate Pinterest and I really like a lot of what Marie Kondo has to say. I use the term \u201chyper competitive\u201d to describe my experience in this day and age, but that doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t do more than my fair share to sustain it. I like<\/em> having a home that functions well and looks nice! And yes, I also have a job.<\/p>\nI have no idea how Lori Alexander would categorize me, because\u00a0I don\u2019t fit in her framework.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nI have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I almost spit out my drink earlier this week when I read a headline on fundamentalist homemaker Lori Alexander’s blog: No One Wants to Take Care of the Home, she titled \u00a0it. Has she even\u00a0seen Pinterest? No really—that was my immediate reaction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":41062,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,25],"tags":[135,197],"class_list":["post-41035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism","category-christian-patriarchy","tag-gender","tag-homemaking"],"yoast_head":"\n
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