"I've been baking bread and looking after the baby...everyone who has asked me that question over the last few years says, "But what else have you been doing?" To which I say, "Are you kidding?" Because bread and babies, as every housewife knows, is a full-time job. After I made the loaves I felt like I had conquered something. But as I watched the bread being eaten I thought, "Well, Jesus, don't I get a gold record or knighted or nothing?" -John Lennon
I don't have an elaborate thesis about it, but this quotation strikes me as pretty damn insightful. Lennon knows that you can't really gain an appreciation of women's work and its meager rewards until you actually do it. As I've mentioned before I'm continually amazed by how much work my mother does, and it's only because in recent years I've actually started to (minimally) help her do it. Somewhere in the moral reform universe there should be a volunteer all-male cleaning service. Which brings me to one of my favorite Ann Oakley quotations:
Housework is work directly opposed to the possibility of human self-actualization.
And at the end of the day we're all better off with a little soul-crushing.
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