Shots In The Dark: Do Women Like to Clean?

Monday, October 08, 2007

Do Women Like to Clean?

In the Washington Post, Rena Corey argues that women "yearn for that cozy, clean nest," and they're willing to do the housework in order to get it.

"....Maintaining a home is a worthwhile and creative pursuit, not just a series of menial tasks best contracted out to a weekly maid service. Keeping a tidy house needn't be an exercise in pointless, mind-numbing tedium, regardless of what girls of my generation were taught. Many of us for a few decades there refused to admit it, but deep down, we have a perfectly respectable desire to create an attractive, peaceful haven for our families and ourselves. Call it gender-typed indoctrination....be it genetics or societal brainwashing, 40 years of liberation has not changed the fact that the female of the species is most often the one who cares about matching towels and well-equipped kitchens."

"Be it genetics or societal brainwashing....."

Somewhere, Larry Summers is either laughing or crying.

¶ 9:48 AM

Comments:

She (or her editor, or you) might think she's arguing that she likes housekeeping but she only supports the claim that she likes a well-kept house.

"there are renegades among us who insist on liking housekeeping. Oh, I don't enjoy the minute-to-minute minutiae of the job, any more than someone in the corporate world enjoys time-wasting meetings or bureaucratic directives..." --
i.e., she doesn't like housekeeping at all.

Any decent editor would never have allowed the phrase 'minute-to-minute minutiae' through, and any decent editor would have killed this piece unless it developed a contentious claim.

Does she think no one can tell the difference between cleanliness and CLEANING?

(The interesting story here has to do with the maid-service industry.)

Writer has noticed that women care more about cleanliness than men. Writer creates the appearance of claiming that women are content to work for that cleanliness. To support latter claim writer offers no examples, evidence, or argumentation. Stop the presses!

No, really. Stop. The. Damn. Presses.

Just stop them.

SE

# posted by Standing Eagle : October 8, 2007 10:45 AM

Note also that she's not exactly a representative mother/woman—she has six kids. Yikes. Good luck cleaning that house.

# posted by Richard Bradley : October 8, 2007 10:49 AM

No. Here is what Larry Summers is doing.

http://www.insidehighered.com/
news/2007/10/08/politics

# posted by Anonymous : October 8, 2007 10:56 AM

Notice how you men can't really take seriously what she's saying, which speaks to an emotional truth and has to do with living life, but instead get lost in arguing the intellectual and/or rhetorical validity of her argument. That's fun, I guess -- the educated equivalent of the endless technical discussions one can find in Maxxim magazine or the like regarding the latest LCD/plasma TV, Maserati V-16 engine or silicone-enhanced Barbie Doll. Talk about "minutiae"!

- A Gender Challenged Person

# posted by Anonymous : October 8, 2007 11:16 AM

There are ways to write about and powerfully convey emotional realities. This ain't them.

SE

# posted by Anonymous : October 8, 2007 3:25 PM

More properly, This ain't those.

# posted by Anonymous : October 8, 2007 4:30 PM

i'm the worst housekeeper ever. it would seem my boyfriend's last girlfriend was like a nazi housecleaner. he enjoys my mess, says is relaxing.

# posted by grumpygirl : October 8, 2007 5:38 PM

YES

# posted by Anonymous : October 8, 2007 9:23 PM

About Me