Comments on: Is the Slow Food movement oppressive to women? http://www.hippiemommy.com/2008/08/03/is-the-slow-food-movement-oppressive-to-women/ The life and thoughts of spunky, funky, little punkie Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:28:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Kate http://www.hippiemommy.com/2008/08/03/is-the-slow-food-movement-oppressive-to-women/#comment-13797 Kate Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:52:10 +0000 http://www.hippiemommy.com/?p=376#comment-13797 Thanks for posting this, Amanda. I just wanted to add that people often think of cooking as making giant meals that take hours to prepare. Cooking can be easy and simple meals are wonderful. You can put together a wholesome meal out of nothing processed in a half hour. You really can. Buy a pressure cooker, experiment with some unusual grains, etc. Of course, everything is a matter of priorities. If you'd rather spend your time "grooming", then so be it. Just remember that nutrition is one of the keys to good health... Thanks for posting this, Amanda.
I just wanted to add that people often think of cooking as making giant meals that take hours to prepare. Cooking can be easy and simple meals are wonderful. You can put together a wholesome meal out of nothing processed in a half hour. You really can. Buy a pressure cooker, experiment with some unusual grains, etc.
Of course, everything is a matter of priorities. If you’d rather spend your time “grooming”, then so be it. Just remember that nutrition is one of the keys to good health…

]]> By: Realrellim http://www.hippiemommy.com/2008/08/03/is-the-slow-food-movement-oppressive-to-women/#comment-13795 Realrellim Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:42:33 +0000 http://www.hippiemommy.com/?p=376#comment-13795 The main distinction in your post is that cooking as a choice can be enjoyable. It can. However, Bittman tries to guilt "people" into cooking, namely by noting that women don't do as much of it as they used to because family life has changed. I hardly think that domestic chores are automatically degrading. I like to clean my house. I"d never hire my housekeeping out, unless circumstances forced me to for someone reason or another. I find a great deal of satisfaction in that and in other womanly, domestic chores--and I do them by CHOICE. Cooking I do because I have to (and unlike the average woman apparently, I have no idea where those leisure hours of eating out of a bag in front of a TV are). Sure, it's possible to find the joy in that (take Paul's suggestions or be Zen-like about it, either way), and I think that can be true regardless of the gender that's cooking. Bittman lays the guilt trip on women, without suggesting that modern family structures require modern solutions if he thinks all desserts, breads, and snacks should be homemade (that's with my assumption that yes, most dinners will be homemade. Perhaps that's not true of the average household, but it is in ours and it was pretty clear from his talk that that wasn't nearly good enough). I rather think God gave me some gifts outside the domestic realm not because he expects me to put them on hold indefinitely. Our current family structure generally means that chores take away from research time--in a field in which God has blessed me. I'm still looking for the balance between gifts and gender (I am, after all, the only person who can nurse my child so that too must be a gift I've been blessed with and should put to good use too). I don't know where the balance lies, or which gifts God thinks I should ignore.... The main distinction in your post is that cooking as a choice can be enjoyable. It can. However, Bittman tries to guilt “people” into cooking, namely by noting that women don’t do as much of it as they used to because family life has changed.

I hardly think that domestic chores are automatically degrading. I like to clean my house. I”d never hire my housekeeping out, unless circumstances forced me to for someone reason or another. I find a great deal of satisfaction in that and in other womanly, domestic chores–and I do them by CHOICE. Cooking I do because I have to (and unlike the average woman apparently, I have no idea where those leisure hours of eating out of a bag in front of a TV are). Sure, it’s possible to find the joy in that (take Paul’s suggestions or be Zen-like about it, either way), and I think that can be true regardless of the gender that’s cooking. Bittman lays the guilt trip on women, without suggesting that modern family structures require modern solutions if he thinks all desserts, breads, and snacks should be homemade (that’s with my assumption that yes, most dinners will be homemade. Perhaps that’s not true of the average household, but it is in ours and it was pretty clear from his talk that that wasn’t nearly good enough).

I rather think God gave me some gifts outside the domestic realm not because he expects me to put them on hold indefinitely. Our current family structure generally means that chores take away from research time–in a field in which God has blessed me. I’m still looking for the balance between gifts and gender (I am, after all, the only person who can nurse my child so that too must be a gift I’ve been blessed with and should put to good use too). I don’t know where the balance lies, or which gifts God thinks I should ignore….

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