Exploring Patriarchy Chapter 3 – Gender equality within the larger family was another story. There differences with food and a hierarchy that decided who got offered the best. She was last on the list – a woman in a family where men ranked first, as well as a woman new to the family.
Author Archives: Anitaelise
The Knight | Change the Woman to Change the Man
Exploring Patriarchy Chapter 2 – Microwave Madam, an avid reader of old romance novels, had found her knight. A knight-in-shining-armor who had never really had any practise because he’d been rescued all his life.
Poem: Change the Woman to Change the Man
I visit my friend and she’s at the table
feeding her son who is perfectly able
to eat on his own. He’s almost a teen!
I wonder why it is that she just can’t see.
Beacons of Light | A Tale of Two Families
Exploring Patriarchy Chapter 1 – Amid all those women who were digging their own ditches, she now saw the beacons of light. Family, friends and neighbours who had found small ways to happiness and made space for themselves in a comfortable manner, within the boundaries of the society they lived in. And they became her role models.
Poem: A Tale of Two Families
Nothing to do, nothing to do,
my poor dear wife has nothing to do.
I come home from work and the house is so clean
and she’s sitting and reading a magazine.
The food is all cooked and our ironing is done,
she looks like her day’s been a lot of fun.
Hope | Not Wonderwoman
Fire Fighting Mode Chapter 5 – Microwave Madam was at a turning point now. Where one hits rock bottom and discovers there’s only one way to go. And that’s upward.
Ownership | The Sins of Their Father’s Mother
Fire Fighting Mode Chapter 4 – Do women deserve a weekly off or do they need to pay for the sins of their husbands mother on that seventh day? The mother who never got any rest and thought that it was right to be an obedient daughter-in-law and a quiet unopinionated wife.
Reaching For Help | Five Years a Victim
Fire Fighting Mode Chapter 3 – The sins of the mother come down to her son, but how long should we blame her for what he’s become? One year of marriage – a journey together, a year during which we learn more about each other.
Gender Roles | The Bottom of the Barrel
Fire Fighting Mode Chapter 2 – She’s like the bottom of the pot where the spoon scrapes when there’s not enough inside to put on our plates. Like the bottom of the barrel that bears the pressure when it’s filled to the brim. With no ease or leisure.
When Chores Take Over | She’s got OCD
Fire Fighting Mode Chapter 1 – She’s got OCD – it keeps her safe, the world will end if the tendli is cut round, not straight.
This Busy
Becoming Microwave Madam Chapter 6 – 9 to 5 equals 7, on days that are busy they’re home after eleven. Both of them work and their schedule’s real tight,
it’s what they expected but this busy isn’t right.
Juggling Roles
Becoming Microwave Madam Chapter 5 – It would take her years to learn to be efficient at cooking, cleaning and organization, because doing this meant discarding old ideas and traditions. Fixations on they way things had to be done that come down from generation to generation in Indian families and are so much a part of customs and traditions that one needs to really be pushed against a wall to question them.
