Here’s something: the US Bureau of Labour Statistics says that in 2011 only 16% of US households skewed 1950s, with a breadwinner dad and stay-at-home mom (SAHM). In Canada in 2010*, 20% of families had one parent at home – 90% of those were moms. In other words, MOST OF US WORK. (Sorry for the all-caps; I couldn’t help myself.) To which I have to […]
The mommy wars vs the reality of working motherhood Continue Reading
I don’t talk about parenting issues too much on this blog. But an article in the Globe and Mail yesterday (“Why is it single people who get stuck working weekends?”), arguing that parents are “privileged” in the workplace, and moreover that maternity leave is an unfair form of privilege/discrimination, left me so enraged, I have to interrupt my normal proceedings to rant. Because parenting privilege
An open letter on so-called parenting privilege in the workplace Continue Reading
Someone once told to me that denial is the cornerstone of civilization. Being a “glass is actually three-quarters empty” kind of person, I’m inclined to agree. And when denial meets obesity meets well-meaning studies, that glass is woefully empty. Two obesity studies blaming mothers have come out in the last few weeks. Both make a strong link between what how we’re raised (by our mothers) and childhood obesity.
I have conflicted feelings about mommy blogging. It’s an activity which, like much of online living, presupposes some kind of inherent relevance to your personal life. But what about the child as art canvas? I’m not talking Sally Mann or Tierney Gearon style photographs of their children in day-to-day life. I’m talking about costuming and photographing your baby as an art project. Danish-Norwegian artist Nina
Baby dictator photos art project explores nature of evil and motherhood Continue Reading
Tired of hearing about gender bias (read: female chefs and sexism) in professional kitchens? That’s too bad, because the problem isn’t going away. Amidst the hubbub over the recent James Beard Awards, more than a few people noticed the nearly uniform lack of women on the winners’ list. Three out of 24, to be precise. In the four years of the awards, a whopping 16%
Amidst yesterday’s many saccharine mother shout-outs and articles, seeing “Why I hate Mother’s Day” pop up in my Twitter feed was a breath of fresh air. Hating on Mother’s Day? Of course I clicked. On a day that wallows in the sappiest of mother-cliche (If a child doesn’t pen an ode to mother’s food, does that mother truly exist?), a little perspective is in order.
Hating Mother’s Day is as damaging as sentimentalizing it Continue Reading
We may have replaced stewardesses with flight attendants and firemen with firefighters, but that’s ok because food is getting its man on these days. It’s the “manification” of food? Not to be confused with that “mancession” we’re slogging through. So cute, you just want to pat him on the head. This slow creep of gender-specific, nonsense words, makes it easy to ignore the underlying gender
Crimes against language: A guide to gendered food terms Continue Reading
(This is the second of two posts on “Mombot.” In my first post, I talked about the gender dynamics of kitchen-bots and found that there was surprisingly little to say about it, compared to other models of service robots that have been developed.) The New York Times headline that first grabbed my attention—“Just Like Mombot Used to Make“— got me thinking about how a kitchen-bot
The kitchen-bot revolution 2—And a robo-chef in every kitchen Continue Reading