Check out this interesting article about femivore's (feminist locovores/do-it-yourself-ers) or radical homemakers.Here's how Peggy Orenstein defines the movement:
Femivorism is grounded in the very principles of self-sufficiency, autonomy and personal fulfillment that drove women into the work force in the first place. Given how conscious (not to say obsessive) everyone has become about the source of their food — who these days can’t wax poetic about compost? — it also confers instant legitimacy. Rather than embodying the limits of one movement, femivores expand those of another: feeding their families clean, flavorful food; reducing their carbon footprints; producing sustainably instead of consuming rampantly. What could be more vital, more gratifying, more morally defensible?
As you may know if you've followed this blog, I love to garden, I like to compost and I'd love to keep bees and chickens, but that's not going to happen for me for quite a while (as I've decided to return to graduate school to get a Ph.D. and I'm back to urban apartment living). I enjoy these things and I'd like to get more self sufficient in terms of learning how to can/freeze my produce, I'd like to learn how to made cheese and soap, but I know that sewing is just not in the cards for me, let alone trying to be a completely self-sufficient homesteader. Sometimes I think that "radical homemaking" especially in cases when the "wife" starts to homeschool is far too close to traditional (read: oppressive with little economic self-sufficiency) homemaking for me. I generally view all extremes with suspicion. So, what do you think? Are femivores really radical homemakers or just Betty Draper's grandmother in the making?
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