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Thursday, December 18, 2008

"Why Study Home Economics" - 1955

Here's another home economics video. This one is shorter but clear and to the point - girls will need to know all aspects of home management for their roles as homemakers and wives. One major assumption that came with early home economics study was that it was for heterosexuals. Of course, understanding how the economy of a home works is for everyone regardless of gender or sexual orientation; economy is gender neutral, right? I think it is the "home" part of home economics that has been assigned to women in our culture, and thus home economics in general remains the domain of women. How do we, or should we, de-genderize the home so that this type of economy becomes something for everyone?

1 comment:

  1. I was making an observation the other day about how my wife and I tried hard not to fall into traditional or stereotypical gender roles in regards to household activities. The weird part was that have fallen into these roles sort of by accident, because those are the particular things were found we were best at. Of course, the boundaries between these roles are very fuzzy and likely to shift all the time. I just thought there was something to it if, without forethought or conscious predilection, we still managed to at least resemble the stereotypical roles.

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