Cooking is a relatively recent love. And A Love of which I am almost always conflicted. Because, where I come from, cooking has not (make that emphatically NOT) been reclaimed by women as something to be done out of love and pleasure.
To put it another way, even today cooking, especially in a domestic situation, is naturally (I'll talk about this in a bit) a woman's job. And in said domestic situation - when the man cooks (clearly, I'm only talking about heterosexual and pretty damn traditional domestic associations here - you know, husband/wife that kind of thing) it is .... well, it's an offer - which even when it is carried through is colored by self-importance, and framed, however subtly as an achievement, a favor.
Consequently, cooking which can be a glorious, fascinating hobby - for women becomes an immanent activity. An act of maintenance so that the household can sustain itself physically (Whereas it moves from the immanent into the creative for the man in this situation).
Right... where was I. Cooking.
What brought this on, FD? You ask, concerned (or not so concerned, if you know me). More than once in the last month, I've heard three (unrelated, unconnected) people (two women, one man) remark - "I don't like everyday cooking. I like to experiment and try new recipes".
And this has been on my mind ever since.
When I first took to cooking a few years ago, I did it because I had vast, unending amounts of time on my hands. And even then, I took to it reluctantly.
Now, I have to admit, I have enough fun with it that I sometimes forget my conflicts and my reluctance. Until the moment where someone says something entirely daft, or until I meet someone who has clearly not questioned her / his own premises / naturalizations about The Things That Women Naturally Do.
Here's where I want to point out the obvious thing - Cooking is not any more natural to a woman than it is to a man. Natural means occurring in / determined by nature. Have you ever seen a baby girl born with an apron and ladle?
No? Well, there you go.
I have more to say clearly. But this naturalization (women cook) is part of that other umbrella rubbish notion that "(Indian) Women Need to Be Able To Do Everything".
More on this at some later point.
But for now. Bah.
On an only tangentially related note, here are more books that you should read
To put it another way, even today cooking, especially in a domestic situation, is naturally (I'll talk about this in a bit) a woman's job. And in said domestic situation - when the man cooks (clearly, I'm only talking about heterosexual and pretty damn traditional domestic associations here - you know, husband/wife that kind of thing) it is .... well, it's an offer - which even when it is carried through is colored by self-importance, and framed, however subtly as an achievement, a favor.
Consequently, cooking which can be a glorious, fascinating hobby - for women becomes an immanent activity. An act of maintenance so that the household can sustain itself physically (Whereas it moves from the immanent into the creative for the man in this situation).
Right... where was I. Cooking.
What brought this on, FD? You ask, concerned (or not so concerned, if you know me). More than once in the last month, I've heard three (unrelated, unconnected) people (two women, one man) remark - "I don't like everyday cooking. I like to experiment and try new recipes".
And this has been on my mind ever since.
When I first took to cooking a few years ago, I did it because I had vast, unending amounts of time on my hands. And even then, I took to it reluctantly.
Now, I have to admit, I have enough fun with it that I sometimes forget my conflicts and my reluctance. Until the moment where someone says something entirely daft, or until I meet someone who has clearly not questioned her / his own premises / naturalizations about The Things That Women Naturally Do.
Here's where I want to point out the obvious thing - Cooking is not any more natural to a woman than it is to a man. Natural means occurring in / determined by nature. Have you ever seen a baby girl born with an apron and ladle?
No? Well, there you go.
I have more to say clearly. But this naturalization (women cook) is part of that other umbrella rubbish notion that "(Indian) Women Need to Be Able To Do Everything".
More on this at some later point.
But for now. Bah.
On an only tangentially related note, here are more books that you should read
2 comments:
Oh Sweetie, it's day five. Not four.
No. No. For me, Day 5 just started. Don't let the date fool ya, I started the post at 10pm and only posted after midnight.
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