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Easter Dinner Entertaining: What’s the Feminist’s Role?

L

Lesley1

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For a feminist, holiday meal preparation can seem like a bit of a trap. I was reminded of this conflict after reading this article; hopefully you can copy and paste it:
www . divinecaroline . com/article/22360/27705/?CMP=KNC-DC_YSM_6

If you celebrate Easter by a having Easter dinner, how do you and your family divide up the cooking and cleaning for the meal? Does it end up being the women in the kitchen, or is it a family event?
 
All my life it's been the women in the kitchen in our entire family. Every holiday and Sunday the entire family ate at our house - and all they were to bring was their appetites! Mom and I were the ones in the kitchen - cooking, baking, and cleaning up after dozens!!! With more than enough food and desserts for everyone to take home!

It will never change in our family.
 
my family is like Mama's. It's the women in the kitchen (my mom and myself - my sister is a kitchen/cooking idiot :p ) while the men are watching tv or talking cars/sports/guy stuff.

I'm a bit of a traditionalist, so this arrangement really doesn't bother me one bit. I think it's my job to bring a meal to the table for my family to enjoy and I don't see that changing any time soon.
 
one more thing - regardless of gender and beliefs - it is nice when a guest that has enjoyed a full meal offers to give a hand with clean up, taking out the trash, cleaning the roaster or helping to get leftovers ready for the fridge, taking down the extra tables, etc. - it's just a courteous measure

mom and I both worked full time jobs (mine was always overtime) and it was a lot of work - but we did it and we never complained
 
It has always been a woman event in both my dad's side and my mom's side. We are on the East Coast.

Now on my husband's side.. the males do a lot of the cooking.. and the women usually help clean up. They are on the West Coast.

Not sure if that makes much of a difference, but I thought it was a little strange seeing the guys doing the holiday cooking.
 
Wow mtmomj! If the men in our family lifted a finger (other than to eat) it would be a miracle! They are too spoiled and too old-fashioned and some of them should stay out of the kitchen anyway. You know the old saying - "if you want something to turn out right you're better off to do it yourself!"
 
we'd be having bowls of cereal if the men were left in charge to cook. :p
 
I can't even count on my hubby to make a bowl of cereal right now. Stinkin' cripple has to rely on me to do everything....*sigh* I'm not the one that ran into a concrete wall. haha
 
medako said:
we'd be having bowls of cereal if the men were left in charge to cook. :p
Click to expand...

This is kinda what I was about to say, although in my house if the men were left to cook we'd have burgers on the grill. Which actually doesn't sound too bad, now that I think of it. Hmmmm.......

:D
 
Well, same goes for me. I'm not really a feminist or something, but all through out my life I have seen my grannies and my mom to be the ones fully in charge of setting up and cooking meals. This, however, turned when it was my turn. Because, although I am interested in cooking I don't thiknk I'm endowed with the proper skills to do it fully. But my boyfriend is! And in our house, he's the one in charge of the cooking I just help out on the table setting or dish cleaning or something.
 
Great article!

Thats a fabulous article!

My family distributes holiday work evenly among the girls and boys. We feel its important for our kids to know that kitchen and home duties are everyone's responsibility!
 
I guess I'm different from other guys, I make more meals then my wife does. I spend a good 20 minutes a day thinking about what we can make that would be different and yet we have the food on hand. I love to cook, and eating is one of the most enjoyable things in life. I love flavors, herbs, spices, etc, and love to mend and blend them for savory enjoyment.

But there are lots of professional cooks that are men. So it's really that at home the lady is expected to cook. Right?
 
I am with you Old bay, I do all of the cooking. When we have Easter dinner, I cook it. My wife usually cleans up what is left after dinner which isn't that much really as I clean stuff as I cook.

There really isnt any "man do this, woman do that" in my home, the only reason why I cook is because most of my wifes recipes start with: "Set your microwave on high"...
 
Anytime a conversation starts with words like "as a feminist...." I look for some place to hide. That's usually a code for, "I'm looking for a fight."

When I grew up everybody did whatever had to be done. Gender never entered into the equation. At big events, family and friends automatically helped with clean up---we were all raised at a time when that was the courteous thing to do.

In my household, whether for a special event or not, I do all the cooking. Friend Wife was raised differently, in a mileiu that says the only thing a lady makes for dinner is reservations. So, when we were first wed, she could easily burn water.

I taught her to cook. And, when she cares to do it, she's pretty good at it. But anything that takes more than a half hour bores her. So there's no way I'd consider letting her make a complete holiday meal (but she will make the turkey, cuz she does that better then me).
 
Wonderful Kimberly!!! That is the way it should be in my book! May you have many happy years together with many blessings!

Mama
 
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