Now, during the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine, these forces have shaped how we feel we should spend our time at home. Raised garden beds became a hot commodity, and everyone from lawyers to pharmacists to financial advisors started to chalk-paint their old furniture, whip up their own household cleaning products, and make their own bone broth. Websites like Etsy flourished on our newfound desire for authentic handmade items - and our desire to make things ourselves. How many thousands of “lifestyle” blogs popped up seemingly overnight featuring calming, washed-out photos of scratch-made baked goods, breezy cotton curtains, farmhouse decor and smiling barefoot children? From The Pioneer Woman to Fixer-Upper, Ina Garten to Real Simple magazine, entire empires have been built on the idea that Americans really just want to slow down and live simpler, more beautiful lives at home with our families. Following the 2008 economic crisis, the United States saw a huge trend towards a more agrarian, rustic, DIY ethos. It makes sense that, especially during times of economic uncertainty, we romanticize women’s unpaid household labor. But the new domesticity becomes especially complicated and stressful when it requires modern women to “do it all” without the support structures on which we usually rely. This phenomenon of idealized household labor, known as “the new domesticity” (a term first coined by journalist Emily Matchar in her 2017 book “ Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity”), is a documented trend in modern American life. Women are suddenly facing the pressure to live up to stylized and romanticized notions of domesticity while also working full time from home and homeschooling our kids. Women were more likely to be portrayed in movies and on television as pregnant and in a home setting.
For example academic papers have noted that following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there was a marked upswing in the portrayal of traditional gender roles in the media.
Throughout modern American history, we have tended to see a resurgence of traditional gender roles and a celebration of domesticity during and after times of crisis. This essay isn’t intended to convince you that all the things we are doing to cope with this pandemic are wrong, it’s meant to start a conversation about why we are trying to do so much. And I will confess that I have taken on these arguably unnecessary tasks even as I stress about parenting and online schoolwork and working from home. I’ve baked zucchini bread, started a garden from seeds, reorganized the playroom, and repainted my front door. I am not pointing fingers I am 100 percent in the same boat.
0 kommentar(er)
