Mind Boggling
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta
Petty squabbles are those arguments you have with someone and if during the argument, you get the chance to breathe, you become tongue tied because you cannot for the death of you understand what the hell it is you are quibbling about.
Marriage is normally between two people who share a house and a bed. Housework is a dual role occupation. There is the role of providing the finances to build a home and there is the role of building the home. These roles are equal roles. Equal in different ways. Traditionally, a woman’s role is to build the home while a man’s role is to provide the finances.
With the introduction of feminism and the emancipation of women, women (me included) have, for good reason, refused to be stereo-typed and prevented from pursuing their passions which have nothing to do with working in a house. What women seem to have forgotten in their pursuit of freedom is that the work you do outside the house is still housework. Few men know this.
During my early days in legal practice, my feminism was manifested in my refusal to be labeled a Miss so and so when addressing the Court. Before I was admitted to the bar and thus permitted to address the Court, I would visit the courts and find that whereas the men stated their names as Kimani, Otieno, Onguto etc., women always put a title in their names and stated their names as Miss So and so or Mrs. So and so. I vowed not to be known in my legal profession as somebody’s daughter or somebody’s wife. I stated my name simply as Njeri. In a while, everyone knew me as that girl who calls herself ‘Njeri’ in court and thought it amusing in their own ways. Eventually, other young lady lawyers started using their first names in court. Now that everyone knows me as me, I can use any of my names in whatever combination I please.
The main bone of contention between a housewife and her husband is that her husband does not appreciate the work she does merely because it does not generate money directly. She also resents the fact that when he goes out to work, he does not seem to realize that the activities he is engaging in out there affect what is going on at home. The work that is done outside the home is still housework. Women knew this for a long time before the feminism revolution began and then all hell broke loose.
Feminism was introduced in a haphazard way intended to cause a revolution. Propaganda about how all men are ‘dogs’ and cannot be trusted was churned out like a gospel. In all the euphoria, instead of women going to work outside the home and practicing what they were preaching to their husbands, they decided to teach their husbands a lesson and make them compensate for the many years of men going out to work, staying out late, sleeping with their secretaries and work mates, drinking themselves silly, diverting the income to uses that have nothing to do with the home and the like.
Two wrongs have never made a right. Unfortunately for women, the revolution that they thought would free them from men, took away a vital element in their lives, the men. When all is said and done, even the most ardent and extreme feminist critic of men will admit that a man possesses an object that women, even those who are not attracted to men, yearn for and will pay some big money to acquire a substitute for.
Feminism has left us in a whirlwind. Women are in trouble. They don’t want to do the housework at home and when they go out to do the housework at work, men take advantage of their naivety and abuse them. Some women imagine that they can have what the men had. Of course that is not possible because only maybe 2-3 men in the world are willing to stay at home and do the home housework while the women go to work outside the home. In fact, the men who do not mind doing the house housework themselves initiated a quiet revolution that sneaked up on women, took over ownership of the women’s housework role and put men at the forefront of house house work.
The best chefs in the world are …. Men! The people running cleaning and laundry companys are ………. Men! The people running home improvement companies are ……… Men! The best tailors and clothes designers are …….. Men! The best shoe designers are …….. Men! I mean women are also good at these things but lets give credit where it is due. The men have excelled and given the women a run for their money in something that women mistakenly thought the men did not appreciate. In effect, feminism did not free women from men, it entrenched the role of men in the work place and brought out the truth in the phrase, IT’S A MAN’S WORLD!
When women woke up to the men’s quiet revolution, it was too late for them to take back what was theirs and they had to settle for sharing it with the men. This only served to fuel the propaganda about how men are ‘dogs’ and the resentment women had for men intensified. Women surged on with their war against men oblivious to the fact that they were their own worst enemy and that they were fighting a losing battle. Now everybody is at work outside the home yet somebody has to do the work at home. Who might that be? Enter, Petty Squabbles.
Feminism’s first born child named, Petty Squabbles, went on the rampage and attacked everything about marriage. Marriages the world over started to crumble. The divorce rates rose to an all time high such that lawyers, the world over, started specializing in divorce law and joined in the war against marriage after they realized how lucrative a broken marriage can be.
In time, the corpses of marriages were strewn all over the battle field. During the war, Feminism gave birth to many more children, she ran out of names to give them and eventually settled on giving them all the same name regardless of their sex. The name is Vultures. Vultures grew up and ran out to play.
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta
Petty squabbles are those arguments you have with someone and if during the argument, you get the chance to breathe, you become tongue tied because you cannot for the death of you understand what the hell it is you are quibbling about.
Marriage is normally between two people who share a house and a bed. Housework is a dual role occupation. There is the role of providing the finances to build a home and there is the role of building the home. These roles are equal roles. Equal in different ways. Traditionally, a woman’s role is to build the home while a man’s role is to provide the finances.
With the introduction of feminism and the emancipation of women, women (me included) have, for good reason, refused to be stereo-typed and prevented from pursuing their passions which have nothing to do with working in a house. What women seem to have forgotten in their pursuit of freedom is that the work you do outside the house is still housework. Few men know this.
During my early days in legal practice, my feminism was manifested in my refusal to be labeled a Miss so and so when addressing the Court. Before I was admitted to the bar and thus permitted to address the Court, I would visit the courts and find that whereas the men stated their names as Kimani, Otieno, Onguto etc., women always put a title in their names and stated their names as Miss So and so or Mrs. So and so. I vowed not to be known in my legal profession as somebody’s daughter or somebody’s wife. I stated my name simply as Njeri. In a while, everyone knew me as that girl who calls herself ‘Njeri’ in court and thought it amusing in their own ways. Eventually, other young lady lawyers started using their first names in court. Now that everyone knows me as me, I can use any of my names in whatever combination I please.
The main bone of contention between a housewife and her husband is that her husband does not appreciate the work she does merely because it does not generate money directly. She also resents the fact that when he goes out to work, he does not seem to realize that the activities he is engaging in out there affect what is going on at home. The work that is done outside the home is still housework. Women knew this for a long time before the feminism revolution began and then all hell broke loose.
Feminism was introduced in a haphazard way intended to cause a revolution. Propaganda about how all men are ‘dogs’ and cannot be trusted was churned out like a gospel. In all the euphoria, instead of women going to work outside the home and practicing what they were preaching to their husbands, they decided to teach their husbands a lesson and make them compensate for the many years of men going out to work, staying out late, sleeping with their secretaries and work mates, drinking themselves silly, diverting the income to uses that have nothing to do with the home and the like.
Two wrongs have never made a right. Unfortunately for women, the revolution that they thought would free them from men, took away a vital element in their lives, the men. When all is said and done, even the most ardent and extreme feminist critic of men will admit that a man possesses an object that women, even those who are not attracted to men, yearn for and will pay some big money to acquire a substitute for.
Feminism has left us in a whirlwind. Women are in trouble. They don’t want to do the housework at home and when they go out to do the housework at work, men take advantage of their naivety and abuse them. Some women imagine that they can have what the men had. Of course that is not possible because only maybe 2-3 men in the world are willing to stay at home and do the home housework while the women go to work outside the home. In fact, the men who do not mind doing the house housework themselves initiated a quiet revolution that sneaked up on women, took over ownership of the women’s housework role and put men at the forefront of house house work.
The best chefs in the world are …. Men! The people running cleaning and laundry companys are ………. Men! The people running home improvement companies are ……… Men! The best tailors and clothes designers are …….. Men! The best shoe designers are …….. Men! I mean women are also good at these things but lets give credit where it is due. The men have excelled and given the women a run for their money in something that women mistakenly thought the men did not appreciate. In effect, feminism did not free women from men, it entrenched the role of men in the work place and brought out the truth in the phrase, IT’S A MAN’S WORLD!
When women woke up to the men’s quiet revolution, it was too late for them to take back what was theirs and they had to settle for sharing it with the men. This only served to fuel the propaganda about how men are ‘dogs’ and the resentment women had for men intensified. Women surged on with their war against men oblivious to the fact that they were their own worst enemy and that they were fighting a losing battle. Now everybody is at work outside the home yet somebody has to do the work at home. Who might that be? Enter, Petty Squabbles.
Feminism’s first born child named, Petty Squabbles, went on the rampage and attacked everything about marriage. Marriages the world over started to crumble. The divorce rates rose to an all time high such that lawyers, the world over, started specializing in divorce law and joined in the war against marriage after they realized how lucrative a broken marriage can be.
In time, the corpses of marriages were strewn all over the battle field. During the war, Feminism gave birth to many more children, she ran out of names to give them and eventually settled on giving them all the same name regardless of their sex. The name is Vultures. Vultures grew up and ran out to play.
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