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Start using Mumsnet Premium"Keep calm and carry on" meant drudgery for women. We need to stop kidding ourselves and be more realistic
(11 Posts)I'm fed up of seeing "keep calm and carry on" nonsense. Particularly in respect of criticism people being concerned about Coronovirus.
Back in the first six decades of the 20th Century, domestic stuff was done by women for the most part without domestic aids like washing machines, hoovers, dishwashers, food processors etc. And, of course, reproductive rights and contraception. Or even bloody supermarkets. And cars. And paid employment.
They had to keep calm and carry on doing domestic work without any of these things that make our lives easier.
Easy to keep calm and carry on if you rely on other people's reduced expectations.
The original poster was produced during the Second World War to encourage the general population not to panic, while the soldiers were away fighting. It wasn't just aimed at women.
Yeah it was aimed at everyone. And they're two completely different situations. If carrying on means goinfmg around spreading coronavirus then we'd better not.
Way to spectacularly miss the pouint
This isnt WW2; today women are the ones bearing the brunt of Corona. Just as we bear the brunt of the sex pay gap, austerity and male pattern violence.
Keeping calm is good though (more likely to inhale virus while hyperventilating) 
On the plus side being a woman gives you a slight edge in the survival stakes 
Well, nitpicking about the origin of the phrase aside, I think it's going to be absolutely fascinating to see how much this crisis highlights the hitherto fairly invisible and unacknowledged contribution women as a class make to society.
I think this could actually be a great way to begin the conversation about that.
It's like when they talk wistfully about the care of the elderly is often left to the family in other cultures... Nearly always it's left to the WOMEN.
The issue isn't the origin (I'm in my 50s and understand its origin very well). My issue is that it is bandied about by people who have no real concept of how basics of domestic life - food on the table, clean home etc, were actually achieved. And there is criticism of people over their concern shown by using that phrase .
When it is clear that things like putting food on the table and caring for the sick will involve a certain amount of inconvenience to say the least.
Trumpeting keep calm and carry on is all very well as long as you don't have to queue for food.
This article is very timely.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/16/womens-coronavirus-domestic-burden
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