So what crunchy stay-at-home-mom spit in Peggy Orenstein’s organic frozen peas? That’s the question we found ourselves pondering upon reading the Waiting for Daisy author’s New York Times Magazine piece, “The Femivore’s Dilemma.” On the surface, Orenstein’s story, which examines the decision of some of her Berkeley stay-at-home mom friends’ to keep chickens, is supportive of said women. She lauds them for “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?”
Yet a closer read displays Orenstein’s true agenda, to send up her friends as Marie Antoinettes playing milkmaid. They’re suffering from “an increased risk of depression, a niggling purposelessness, economic dependence on [their] husband[s].” She diagnoses them as “precious” and sniped that those who go so far as to homeschool their kids and go without health insurance as “a bit like being Amish, except with a car (no more than one, naturally) and a green political agenda.”
Blogger Natasha Burge aptly expressed her disquiet upon reading Orenstein’s article on the blog Feminuity: “I truly believe that growing our own food is a revolutionary act, so to see it framed as just another hobby for idle, wealthy housewives is disappointing,” she writes. “And must we continue playing into the assumption that all feminists think housewives are not good enough, or are not making a legitimate choice? Feminism is about women having the choice to do whatever they want with their lives, and respecting the choices they make, whether it is to raise children and care for their family, work in an office outside the home, or both.”
Um, yeah. What she said.