In The Home Is an Essential Place for a Woman, Morales states that "There is a power in the role of motherhood, and the home in lives of the family. It can be a place feminists acts can occur, in the sense that some women would like to change the narrative of feminism towards the home as an oppressive place, in that women should be able to choose to stay at home if that is what they truly want. But it can also be a place of solidarity, renewal, resistance, and safety". This holds true for many homes today, including my own. When it comes to the balance of the sexes in my home, my mom is outnumbered as the only woman amongst my dad, brother, and myself. In greater patriarchal society and media, you would think my mom spends a lot of time cleaning up after us boys. In reality, not the truth at all. My mom started my brother and I off with chores and other housekeeping responsibilities at the age of seven. We were always taught that our mess was our responsibility to clean up, not our mother's or any other woman. This is one of the few ways that the home is used as a place of resistance to patriarchal norms.
Another way that the home may be used as a place of resistance is through the practice of sustainability. Due to the institutionalized marginalization and disenfranchisement of people of color, practices of sustainability is heavily implemented into many ethnic households. For example, in many black American homes, there is a certain compartment in the home for the storage of plastic shopping bags from grocery stores. The plastic bags are kept after groceries are taken out and stored to be re-used for bedroom and bathroom trash bags amongst many other uses. Whether the practice is a direct effect of pure ingenuity or side effect of poverty, sustainability is taking place which resists the harmful effects of waste. These are a few ways of how the home is used as a place of resistance to some of the dominant norms in greater society.
Hi Myles,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post and I thought you included excellent examples to demonstrate how home can act as a place of resistance and go against norms created and accepted by society. I agree that what is taught to individuals within a household definitely transcends into behaviors and practices that take place outside of the home. What is taught within a household often reflects the greater norms created by society. The home is often seen as a place for women and where women are responsible for domestic tasks, however, women should have a choice and not be entirely responsible for domestic work. I think most households don’t adhere to the typical norms associated with gender roles within a house. While the balance of sexes is equal in my household including my mom, dad, brother, and myself, household responsibilities are not unevenly distributed. Similar to you and your brother, my brother and I grew up having to do basic chores and cleaning up after ourselves. Our mom wasn’t going around and picking up after us. I like how you included home as a place of resistance with regards to sustainability practices. Some practices may be used as a way to save money and repurpose products whether or not the intention is to save money or to simply reduce that amount of waste within a household.