A Radical Homemaker

What a great label for the kind of feminist I am -- although I'm not sure I'm up for chicken coops, they're lovely and all, but I don't think our yard is big enough for the smell, and I'm sure our cats would love the chickens way too much. But what a wonderful sounding book. Here's an article all about the concept, 'The Femivore’s Dilemma.'

The book, Radical Homemakers, by Shannon Hayes, describes the new woman, a femivore. "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?"

Perhaps that goes too far for me, but I do currently have a knitting project, a crocheting project, I made by hand the gift I took to a baby shower yesterday, the nasturtium seeds are sprouting, and my son refused to toss a banana peel into a trash bin in SF this afternoon, lamenting that I wouldn't let him bring it home in the car to put in our compost. Who knows where we all will land, but I like that it's somehow correct to be domestic again.