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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think the washing machine has liberated women more than the pill?

209 replies

bettybosseye · 06/03/2011 19:08

I'm serious, think about it, there are alternatives to the pill but only one to hours spent every day hand scrubbing and wringing piles of washing.
The pill is held up as something that gave women control and this is undoubtedly true but the humble washing machine has emancipated us from hours of drudgery every day and like i say it is unrivaled. The washing machine rules!

OP posts:
Unwind · 06/03/2011 20:54

IF (and it is a big IF) the woman has the power to decide whether or not she has sex - the rhythm method has been used for centuries, at least, and is effective.

Reproductive choices are complicated - I've heard of people who live in shacks wishing "a child a year" as a marriage blessing. If children are expected to contribute to the family by working from an early age, having more might make life easier rather than harder.

I don't think the washing machine brought much in the way of liberation, rather it isolated us in our houses. If standards of cleanliness had remained in the 18th century it would be a different story.

southeastastra · 06/03/2011 20:55

men didn't exacly have fun working in pit either did they though

Longtalljosie · 06/03/2011 20:57

Betty, as it happens I agree with your premise but there's not a law everyone else has to agree with you.

You have been spectacularly rude and patronising to posters with opposing views. Not cool.

Is this how you treat people whose point of view differs from yours in real life Hmm

femalevictormeldrew · 06/03/2011 20:57

This has just made me think. My mother had not washing mashine (I am 32 so this is not a billion years ago). She washed everything by hand, including cloth nappies. And there were five of us kids. She didn't get a washing machine until the youngest was about 8. I am going out to the kitchen now to kiss my washing machine.

Longtalljosie · 06/03/2011 20:57

Missing "?". Should press preview!

Original poster
bettybosseye · 06/03/2011 20:58

Spermy i was a bit patronising, i'll give you that. Smile

OP posts:
Original poster
bettybosseye · 06/03/2011 21:02

longtalljosie not people who disagree with me, for there are many but those who completely misunderstand do frustrate me.
And i can live with being "spectacularly rude", it's been rather fun.

OP posts:
Normantebbit · 06/03/2011 21:08

The rhythm method is effective? Are you fucking joking?

Normantebbit · 06/03/2011 21:11

And in the Philippines where there is no free contraception, I don't think people have more children to ' help out.' it is a disgrace that country will not give women control over their fertility. It is slavery.

Unwind · 06/03/2011 21:13

up to 99% effective, according to the NHS

which is less effective than the pill, but still pretty reliable

alistron1 · 06/03/2011 21:16

I'm just wondering if having a penis precludes approx 50% of the population from using a washing machine.

Why oh fuckily why is the washing still wimins work? It's bad enough that 'we' have more of it (and actually bettybosseye if you read Anne Oakleys Sociology of Housework I think you'll find she validates my point - labour saving devices haven't freed women, just forund more labour for them) but why are women still responsible for it.

This thread is depressing me.

Normantebbit · 06/03/2011 21:19

Not as depressing as believing the rhythm method is '99 per cent effective'

I think most poor Filipino women would ROFL if there was any room...

Original poster
bettybosseye · 06/03/2011 21:20

alistron1 Anne Oakley can bite ma bum. There isn't a chance in hell that the washing machine has made more work for anyone.

OP posts:
Unwind · 06/03/2011 21:22

Normantebbit you should tell the NHS that you are a bit of an expert, and they need to change the information they give about natural family planning

SpermyShenanigans · 06/03/2011 21:24

The rhythm method is very effective, I'll have you know, if you are Catholic and the Priest / Church recommends it.

It ensures that you have many many children and so what if you die after having your ninth? My Mum has several "cousins" from her childhood in Dublin who aren't actually relatives but neighbours and family friends because the woman had died and the husband had fucked off.

A whole alternative network of neighbours existed for large families who had mothers die and guess what? The fathers ALWAYS fucked off. It was never expected that they would take care of the families they had forced their wives to produce in the first place! Rape within marriage was an automatic right until very recently.

My own mother had a "sister" the same age for ten years. Where was her father given the Catholic sanctity of marriage? He left her with the neighbours. And that was normal!

So you can see why I consider reproductive freedom to be more important than any labour-saving device.

alistron1 · 06/03/2011 21:25

Have you read the sociology of housework? Or any Marilyn French?

As 'gadgets' have been invented 'wimmin' haven't been released from the shackles of domestic slavery, the burden is the same but the standards have shifted. And it's still seen as the primary function of 'wimmin' to be responsible for all this shit.

Why hasn't the invention of the washing machine liberated men? What a ridiculous thread title.

Biscuit (my first!!!)

Original poster
bettybosseye · 06/03/2011 21:28

Spermy sorry but your talking about situations where "contraception" was not allowed. I'm talking about the pill.

OP posts:
Original poster
bettybosseye · 06/03/2011 21:31

alistron1 because despite the rights and wrongs of it it's mainly women who do the laundry. so Biscuit to you too.

OP posts:
SpermyShenanigans · 06/03/2011 21:33

alistron makes a good point.

I love have read Marilyn French and Wifework.

The shite work expands to fill the time available.

Original poster
bettybosseye · 06/03/2011 21:36

Well thank god you had a washing machine and all those other time saving devises, without them you wouldn't have had the time to read all these books. Grin

OP posts:
SpermyShenanigans · 06/03/2011 21:45

Not really. I didn't have a washing machine of my own when my mother encouraged me to read Andrea Dworkin et al before I was even taking my GCSEs.

AnnieLobeseder · 06/03/2011 21:46

alistron - because like it or not, it was women who were enslaved in their own homes. Domestic gadgets allowed them some freedom, and with it, they have got themselves even more freedom, so that now, ideally, domestic tasks and the operating of the gadgets is equally the domain of men.

Original poster
bettybosseye · 06/03/2011 21:49

Presumably before you were taking your GCSEs you didn't have a family to launder for.

OP posts:
Original poster
bettybosseye · 06/03/2011 21:51

AnnieLobeseder thank you for being more articulate than me.

OP posts:
alistron1 · 06/03/2011 21:51

How many threads are there on here regarding women not getting any help with housework? I can answer that, there are quite a lot.

Yes, washing machines released women from physical drudgery but there is still a cultural meme that laundry is womens work. And that is rather depressing.

And as for freedom, freedom to do what exactly? We are still in a situation where women are under represented in board rooms/positions of power.

Maybe when more men learn how to use washing machines, and learn how to pop a condom on their dinkles, maybe then women will experience true liberation.