Maybe more for the ladies!!

[thesunflowergal]

One of my close friends just sent me this, as part of a message on FB!!


"you're becoming a proper little housewife with your chickens, veggies etc!"

Have I far too many hormones running riot in my body, or is that a little bit condescending? I know that we do not share the same interests, but I thought that was a bit cheeky.

Nikki

[Milims]

Ooohh - go a flap your gingham pinny at her and slap her with a daffodil! Perhaps the cheeky so and so would like to take a page out of your book and get off her behind and grow some veg - or would she be too worried that she might snap a nail?
Oh dear - perhaps I have too many of those dodgy middle aged hormones running riot here - but yes she is being condescending - in my book anyway!

[hedgewitch]

She says it (or types it) like it's a problem. What's wrong with being a housewife?
Nothing.

[StripyPixieSocks]

Hmmm hard to say with one line taken out of context but I don't see that as an insult or anything else.

Some people just don't know how to phrase something correctly or maybe she was complimenting you on your housewifely-ness because she sees you as a good one *shrugs*

[Shirley]

I have to say that I would take it as a compliment myself - perhaps her choice of phrase wasn't the best but reckon she means well.

[ina]

So are men who keep chickens and grow veg housewives, too?

[Jandra]

So are men who keep chickens and grow veg housewives, too?

Certainly! Did you never notice???

Edit: By the way, you could reply and say something like: "Oh, I label myself as progressive, self-supporting and caring for the environment, but if you think it is housewifely, that's fine too."

[Graye]

I think it's the "little" I would object to. It sounds condescending somehow...

[Fizzy Izzy]

I'd probably take that as a compliment :) Although I agree that it's bit strange that she thinks growing veg is a particularly female pursuit...

I can really sympathise with the crazy hormones though

[StripyPixieSocks]

But she was talking to a female though... maybe if she were talking to a man she would have said something else.

I wouldn't say or do anything about it, what if you reply sarcastically and she's upset?

[Rosendula]

I don't think I would respond immediately, but I think I would probably spend far too much time and effort pointing out to her at every opportunity over the next 50 years all the stereotypical masculine things I do in the role of chicken keeping and growing veg. "Oo my shoulders are aching from moving the chicken run round", "Gotta go and clean the sh!t out of the chicken coop", "Don't 'alf build your muscles up, all that digging", "Excuse me eating with all this mud under my finger nails"... But then I do take things far more personally than I should, and as others have said, it probably wasn't meant the way us Hormonians take it.

[eccentric_emma]

I am like Rosey and tend to take this a bit more personally than they are perhaps intended. She probably didn't even think before she wrote it! My reply would probably be something like 'better a housewife than working in a job i detest!' or something along those lines (although obviously more wittily crafted....). But basically a comment designed to show that you're happy in your choices (and probably happier than most!)

[Millymollymandy]

In a way I think it's pretty good if the image of a housewife is seen as someone who keeps chickens and grows veg! It's come around from the olden days when that's what a wife did (back in the days before women generally went out to work) to the 1960s image of the sparkling clean house and keeping your husband happy. I rebelled against that kind of housewife when I was a teenager and never wanted to be one. Now I'm very happy to be one (the chicken keeping veggie growing, not very clean house kind).

[invisiblepiper]

I'm with Graye - its not the housewife - its the 'little' - defo condescending - but she's probably envious.
Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks - are you happy? you always sound it in your postings.
Took me years to stop trying to be what other folk wanted - you be who you want.

[Rosendula]

I too agree with Graye, that the 'little' is the offending word here. I struggled to phrase my last post on this thread because I've always hated the term 'housewife' and yet haven't been able to say why. Now MMM has hit the nail on the head (above). I grew up with the image of a housewife being someone who kept the house all sparkly, watched out of the window for hours for the husband to come home from work while the vegetables simmered to a slime on the hob, repeating the husband's beliefs like they are her own, voting for the party he does, being proud of him even when he's being a pillock. Oh wait, I've realised I'm describing my mother. Really, my mother was so proud to be a housewife, yet I could never see what she was proud of. So I guess that's why I have a problem with the term and try to avoid applying it to myself. I would hate for anyone to think I was like her. If I had grown up believing a housewife was someone who grew vegetables and wasn't afraid of dirt, I wouldn't have a problem with calling myself... one of them