Hippie Read: Radical Homemakers

Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture by Shannon Hayes "Mother Nature has shown her hand. Faced with climate change, dwindling resources, and species extinction, most Americans understand the fundamental steps necessary to solve our global crises: reduce driving; consume less; increase our self-reliance; buy locally, eat locally, rebuild our local communities. In essence, the great work we face requires re-kindling the home fires. Radical Homemakers is about men and women across the U.S. who focus on home and hearth as a political and ecological act; who center their lives around family and community for personal fulfillment and cultural change. It explores what domesticity looks like in an era that has benefitted from feminism; where the choice to stay home is no longer equated with mind-numbing drudgery, economic insecurity, or relentless servitude. Radical Homemakers nation-wide speak about empowerment, transformation, happiness, and casting aside the pressures of a consumer culture to live in a world where money loses its power to relationships, independent thought, and creativity. If you ever considered quitting a job to plant tomatoes, read to a child, pursue creative work, can green beans, and heal the planet, this is your book." This book is definitely an interesting read. It looks at how the role of a Homemaker has gone from a lucrative, skilled profession to one that is not even considered a legitimate career option. At one point, a homemaker was required to know how to manage and maintain a household. She (or he) knew how to be completely self-reliant and self-sufficient. But today, thanks to modern conveniences, the role of a homemaker is defined by consumerism. A homemaker is no longer required to grow food in a garden, make foods from scratch, or sew clothing. A typical day in the life of a homemaker now revolves around shopping and driving kids around. And as the homemaker's role has evolved from specialist to shopper, it has become more and more mundane, and women feel oppressed by being forced to remain in such a situation. And so, many women in today's society choose to work, which places families on vicious earning/ spending/ working cycles. Families have become forced into double-income lifestyles. By having both adults working, families must pay others to complete tasks that they could easily do themselves if they had the time: childcare, cleaning the house, lawn care, etc. They work more hours to make more money to pay for more conveniences to allow them to have more time to work. This book focuses on Homemakers across the country who refuse to fall into this vicious cycle. They opt to live with less in order to truly enjoy the important things in life. This book is definitely worth the read. Check it out at the library. Or, if you know me personally, you are welcome to borrow my copy. "For national and social disasters, for moral and financial evils, the cure begins in the Household." - Julia M. Wright, The Complete Home, 1879