Housework!!!

I find this so sexy! When is the last time you have seen this? Ok for all you exceptional guys out there that make this the normal part of your day, bless you! You own up to the household responsibilities and you equally chip away at it...WAY TO GO...What about all the others out there where they have responsibilities such as a career, commuting,pick up children at daycare, sports, dinner, homework....then the ever so challening role of completing all the 999 chores that are weighing you down like a pizza crust on a baby ant. We all wonder why marriages are ending in divorce????..check out the below stats:

http://www.divorcerate.org/

Not one person can do it all folks. Not one person is expected to do it all. Let's help one another..take the burden off and work as a team. The expectations a woman carries to take care of house, cooking, cleaning, laundry, children is enough to send somebody over the edge.

My ex and I fought over this very topic. If I work full time and so does he, we both should be contributing to housework equally. You tend to start to resent the person whom is not pulling his/her own weight. Mainardi states that we women have been brainwashed more than we can imagine. It is true..very true...does anyone remember the Heart Family barbie dolls??? I grew up playing with those...I found this picture of the dolls..please check it out: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieE-BSJ7AHid1ya9Ug8YRHTAiiS7DDUKPrxOfOcHvomEnzepDFO3g-lVQv7Fp0cA9_YZ6aYnl47kJ2ct3cCmDCp_OjZraXdDG3HQ69__BjKvIkbraq0hNkBCV900xs5gwDBVAkntpkmKSu/s320/Heart+Family.jpg

Little wifey..I remember feeling so much stress because all I wanted to do was go to sleep while he watched the tube I worked, without feelings of guilt on his side at all. It was hurtful. No, not all guys or people are like that but I think it's important to consider the situation you are in and realize it's two people working together in order to help one another. If you see the milk is low, go pick it up at the store. Don't assume the woman is going to take care of it.

Again, I am a single mom of an 8 year old and I have a friend whom used to make fun of me because I had my son helping out with dishes, laundry, vacuuming. I am teaching him that it is a part of life and it has to be done and EVERYONE is responsible for his/her part. Is this 100 percent all the time effective?..HELL NO , but I will keep trying so he makes his wife/partner very happy one day.

Oppression-FRYE

I carefully looked up the term Oppression in Wikipedia to give myself an actual definition before reading Frye's reading on Oppression. It breaks it down into several different meanings but the one definition I most could identify with is heavily burdened, mentally or physically by troubles,adverse conditions and anxiety. Whew, in reading this definition, it makes me feel like maybe I am an oppressed woman on this very Tuesday in 2009. With every effort it takes me to write this blog I wanted to take a different perspective. Speak from the heart perhaps to understand and compare myself and my surroundings to Frye's ideas of the word. For example she states it is often a requirement upon oppressed people that we smile and be cheerful. If we comply, we signal our docility and our acquiescence in our situation. Anything but the sunniest countenance exposes us to being perceived as mean,bitter,angry or dangerous. This is so true to our mere existence! Sometimes I feel we are caught by forces as she states. All these big issues that make us who we are or who we are not. Are we single,married,on welfare,have children,eat good, exercise daily. I wish we all could just be ourselves and not be labeled as such. These restrictions do make us immobile sometimes. Sometimes I do think that as a United States citizen we do have so many choices. We are lucky to have that but regardless of these choices do any of you feel trapped like you have been caught in this circle. I think sometimes it is luck if you happen to get out of your circle. That circle can also last for years until you break through to the other side..break on through to the other side..sorry had to sing that. How many of you think that in a sense we are oppressed in our life that has been presented to us and we have to figure out where to go from here. Sometimes we are at other people's whims versus our own. The only reason I was blessed to come to VCU was on a mere whim that the federal government would come through for me based on my circumstance. How much life do we actually have control over? Have your barriers ever penalized your motion in any direction?How did you break free from these barriers to move on. Was that challenge enough to take all of your energies away to where when you finally fought for what you wanted but you were too drained to actually start your new lifestyle. Oppression to say the least is exhausting.

Check out what true Oppression means to people in Arabia
http://www.oppression.org/info/

Can you imagine being born into these conditions?Wandering the streets,dodging bullets as hey pick food out of the garbage. Can you imagine if this was your luck of the draw. What if you could never escape from this? At least we as Americans can escape into something. I do feel lucky for that. I do. I read this article after blogging and now feel like our idea of Oppression in America is so minut compared to these men,woman and children. I feel maybe I want to take back my complaints about our barriers and really focus on way worse barriers than we endure. I am not going back to change my writings. I want to share with everyone how I just learned something. Sometimes we have nothing to complain about in retrospect.

Tired of Playing Monopoly?

We had a brief class discussion on the very subject of the different variations of classes in class recently. Dr. Holliday explained that many of us categorize ourselves into the so called "middle class". Langston breaks down for us the many stereotypes that each of the classes take on. I would have considered myself middle class before reading this article. I live in a female headed household so therefore I am considered the working class or poor. This confuses me because she states most poor people are dependant on welfare for their income so therefore I would not be considered most. I'd have to look into the qualities of what the working class posses. Most working class families are supported by unionized workers who possess marketable skills. My mother and I live together and work as a team. I am fortunate enough at this very moment to not work and support my son and I through child support and student loans to cover rent and expenses and my mother works at an assisted living residence to support herself . Due to the fact I don't work and I am a full time student and she works and maintains a salaried position that I would consider to be low income, we would probably consider ourselves working class. We live in a community where the mean household income is 92,844. Langston states middle class and upper class women can often hire other women to clean their houses,take care of their children,etc... I was walking in my apartment complex around the lake just yesterday when I overheard a woman strolling her child saying it only cost her 300 bucks to pay a cleaning crew to come clean her apartment. I stopped for a second and questioned..what am I doing here? I have always thrown myself into places that were more expensive than I could afford because I wanted to appear middle class perhaps? To project that I have privileges? I do feel fortunate to make ends meet but wonder how my mother and I find ourselves always being able to earn the salaries of the working class but living amongst the middle class.How many others are finding themselves perhaps labeled a different class and you are merely hanging on by a thread hoping you won't fall? Why do we do this?Safety?Security?Appearance?Were we taught this and were we able to keep this up for so long? With today's economy will it finally push us to our max? Please share if you too feel you may have labeled our self as middle class but might actually be poor or upper class. What have been your struggles to survive?What lengths did you take? I'd say I am playing on St. James place but set myself up on Illinois Avenue. What about you?