I'm knitting my daughter a dress. The first one I attempted didn't turn out so well--first, the straps were too long, so I took them up. And then they stretched out.
So this one is going to have a different neckline.
(I'll post pics of the dress when it's done, if anyone is curious.)
About twelve years ago, when I was halfway through my BA degree, one of the professors in my department came out of her office, and found me sitting on the bench in the office, waiting for my appointment with my advisor. Knitting.
And she lambasted me for participating in patriarchal oppression by doing a traditionally feminine craft in public. Loudly. In the middle of the crowded department office between classes, forcing everyone to be an audience.
The more fool she: traditionally, knitting was a man's craft. Shepherds tended to do it while guarding the sheep. Men knitted in the evening, while women finished the household chores, or sat mending clothing by the hearth. Most of the time, it wasn't the women knitting. They did just about everything else, but not that.
No, I didn't make her aware of this. I was caught too flat-footed by her yelling at me for no discernible reason, and she was gone by the time I managed to gather my scattered wits.
I love cooking. Meals, specifically. I also like making cookies, but there's nothing quite so satisfying as planning and creating a meal for those you love, and watching them enjoy the food, knowing that because of something you did, they're no longer hungry.
I do not limit this to my own family. I am constitutionally incapable of having a friend come over hungry, and not feeding them if they don't have plans.
That professor, now my colleague, makes a huge deal that she isn't the cook in her marriage--that she sets water on fire. She acts like it's a huge accomplishment that she refuses to take care of her husband (no children--by the time she agreed to marry the poor guy, after a ten year engagement, she was too old to have them, despite desperately wanting one).
I cannot fathom how a radical feminist's mind works. If, indeed, it does.
10 minutes ago
You should have pulled out your .45 and cleaned it while intermittently scratching your crotch.
ReplyDeleteWould that have been manly enough for her?
She'd have had kittens about the gun.
DeleteGood.
DeleteYeah...right up until the time I got fired.
DeleteWhatever happened to "Free to be, you and me" and all of that other hippie stuff? I don't care if a woman knits, or if she cleans and rebuilds guns, or if she throws pottery, or if she raises dahlias - or all of those. I really don't get why so-called feminists get so outraged over a woman doing something domestic THAT SHE ENJOYS DOING. So all girls should be forced to do, I don't know, welding, even if they hate it? How is that an advance?
ReplyDeleteI suppose the whole thing stems from a person's general attitude: do you want the person to control their own behavior, or do you want to control it for them? I have no truck with people who wish to control other's behavior (at least when it is something that isn't hurting anyone else.)
It's more along the lines of "Sisterhood!!! U R betraying it!!! Cannot let the mens see women doing women things, or they'll force us all back into the kitchen barefoot and pregnant!!!" stupidity.
DeleteAt least she won't be breeding. Hopefully she will not discover the concept of adoption.
ReplyDeleteShe is a full-time college prof--arrives at seven and goes home at four or so. No time or energy or a child, especially now that she's in her fifties.
DeleteI can't fathom how she could convince anyone that marrying her was a good idea in the first place, but I guess there are guys out there who would pay good money to be set on fire.
ReplyDeleteI have visual proof that the guy likes verbal abuse. I dearly wish I had the brain bleach to be able to forget it.
Delete