![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Oh, I'm a regular posting machine since classes ended.
(Got A's on all my finals, which pleases me. The Egypt one was only a 90%, which does not please me greatly, but since I was only auditing the class, and had virtually no chance to study, I will take it.)
Today's topic: chores.
It turns out that it's a lot less oppressive-feeling to wash the dishes, do the laundry, and sweep floors in a bright, airy room with sunny windows opened out towards a pretty back yard than in a dank, cramped, smelly kitchen with a flickering florescent light and no windows. Who would have guessed?
...actually, I would have guessed, because I have often complained that half my problem with doing unpleasant chores was that the environment I was in was so miserable. And...and I was right. Honestly right. It wasn't just an excuse to get out of doing the dishes! There really was an environmental factor involved!
I'm sure the novelty will wear off eventually, but right now I'm actually keeping up with chores, aside from keeping the floor clean in the rooms that are All Boxes Always. And that'll get dealt with one way or another as soon as those damn boxes are unpacked, which I am indeed working on, if slowly.
I don't really know how to cook properly anymore, but I'm trying there, too. It's actually nice to sit down at the real table with real plates (thank you, Ikea!) and serve out some sort of food that I at least assembled myself, even if I didn't exactly prepare it.
...of course, being myself, all of this marvelous freedom has thrown me into massive anxiety because Gender Roles Yo. It makes perfect sense for me to do the cleaning at home, and I'm actually kinda enjoying some of it--or at least not minding it--in the new environment, but I am incapable of doing so much as wiping a counter without suffering from the conviction that I'm perpetuating damaging gender roles in modern society. Of course the student with no summer classes should do the laundry! I like doing the laundry now that I have a washer and dryer at home! But it's one more data point in the relentless societal noise machine that says Cleaning Up Is What Women Do, And What Women Are For.
But I like using the shiny new appliances. And sweeping the big airy kitchen is kinda satisfying. And it's a little annoying to have to do laundry and dish collection around the house, but it's a two-minute job that makes for a more pleasant environment, so why shouldn't I?
I just wish I could do household chores without feeling like I'm propping up the patriarchy again or something. Stupid patriarchy. It gets in everything! Even my dishes.
(Got A's on all my finals, which pleases me. The Egypt one was only a 90%, which does not please me greatly, but since I was only auditing the class, and had virtually no chance to study, I will take it.)
Today's topic: chores.
It turns out that it's a lot less oppressive-feeling to wash the dishes, do the laundry, and sweep floors in a bright, airy room with sunny windows opened out towards a pretty back yard than in a dank, cramped, smelly kitchen with a flickering florescent light and no windows. Who would have guessed?
...actually, I would have guessed, because I have often complained that half my problem with doing unpleasant chores was that the environment I was in was so miserable. And...and I was right. Honestly right. It wasn't just an excuse to get out of doing the dishes! There really was an environmental factor involved!
I'm sure the novelty will wear off eventually, but right now I'm actually keeping up with chores, aside from keeping the floor clean in the rooms that are All Boxes Always. And that'll get dealt with one way or another as soon as those damn boxes are unpacked, which I am indeed working on, if slowly.
I don't really know how to cook properly anymore, but I'm trying there, too. It's actually nice to sit down at the real table with real plates (thank you, Ikea!) and serve out some sort of food that I at least assembled myself, even if I didn't exactly prepare it.
...of course, being myself, all of this marvelous freedom has thrown me into massive anxiety because Gender Roles Yo. It makes perfect sense for me to do the cleaning at home, and I'm actually kinda enjoying some of it--or at least not minding it--in the new environment, but I am incapable of doing so much as wiping a counter without suffering from the conviction that I'm perpetuating damaging gender roles in modern society. Of course the student with no summer classes should do the laundry! I like doing the laundry now that I have a washer and dryer at home! But it's one more data point in the relentless societal noise machine that says Cleaning Up Is What Women Do, And What Women Are For.
But I like using the shiny new appliances. And sweeping the big airy kitchen is kinda satisfying. And it's a little annoying to have to do laundry and dish collection around the house, but it's a two-minute job that makes for a more pleasant environment, so why shouldn't I?
I just wish I could do household chores without feeling like I'm propping up the patriarchy again or something. Stupid patriarchy. It gets in everything! Even my dishes.