The Moral Superiority of Chicks with Chicks

Respect Chicks

If carnivores eat meat, what exactly do femivores eat?

Fortunately, it’s not what you think.  Forget any mental images of Don Juan meets Leatherface and let me translate from New York Timesese to English. Femivores are highly educated, feminist stay-at-home moms who embrace outdoorsy domesticity like growing organic vegetables and raising chickens.

Basically, they’re chicks with chicks.

But a rural housewife who builds her own chicken coop and cans vegetables from her garden wouldn’t capture the attention of the New York Times, and she certainly wouldn’t qualify as a femivore.  According to writer Peggy Orenstein, the femivore’s natural habitat is Berkeley.  And she isn’t a housewife out of necessity, but by choice.

One of the reasons femivores keep chickens is to distinguish themselves from other housewives.  They legitimize their desire to be homemakers by politicizing the act. Every freshly hatched egg is a political and environmental statement.

Femivorism is grounded in the very principles of self-sufficiency, autonomy and personal fulfillment that drove women into the work force in the first place. Given how conscious (not to say obsessive) everyone has become about the source of their food — who these days can’t wax poetic about compost? — it also confers instant legitimacy. Rather than embodying the limits of one movement, femivores expand those of another: feeding their families clean, flavorful food; reducing their carbon footprints; producing sustainably instead of consuming rampantly. What could be more vital, more gratifying, more morally defensible?

For these women, it isn’t enough to make choices that suit your family and reflect your values; you have to agonize over the eco-feminist implications (and have the backyard chicken coop to prove it.) This movement, if it can even be called that, isn’t about true self-sufficiency. It’s about “progressive” women going just a little bit regressive to create the illusion of self-reliance.

[Continued at NewsReal – please click here to read the whole thing.]

Published by Jenn Q. Public on March 28, 2010 at 6:17 pm

Filed Under Feminism, Liberal Absurdity, Women

Comments

4 Responses to “The Moral Superiority of Chicks with Chicks”

  1. DodiaFae on March 29th, 2010 1:23 pm

    Um… why should any woman have to justify being a stay-at-home mother? IMO, it’s the “feminist” movement that has made women feel they have to justify it.

    I’d love to be able to keep chickens. They’re great for keeping garden pests under control. The fresh eggs are delicious, and nothing beats a BBQ chicken leg that was still walking around yesterday.

    The reasons I don’t: Living in a suburb with a tiny yard makes it very unpractical. Also, unlike these “femivores”, I can’t afford to pay someone else to take care of them if I want to go away for a day or 10. Chickens are like dogs… you can’t leave them for an entire day and expect them to not have destroyed your yard when you get back. You can’t expect them to not have been snatched up by the neighborhood hawks, cats, or escaped large dog.

    I’m curious to know how many of these “femivores” do pay someone else to care for their farm animals… or even their children.

  2. Jenn Q. Public on March 29th, 2010 11:23 pm

    DodiaFae, isn’t it telling that they feel the need to justify their choice at all? These women are all for choice as long as you’re making the right choice for the right reasons.

  3. Gaby on March 30th, 2010 4:30 am

    LOL. I got such a laugh with that image of Don Juan meeting Leatherface. Sounds pretty much of mind reading or just coincidence? It’s such a great read.
    Backyard Chicken

  4. Gaby on March 30th, 2010 4:31 am

    Thanks for this info about femivorism. I was really hooked into finishing the paragraphs. Eco-feminist implication.hmm I bet you are right. I appreciate the write up.
    Chicken coop

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