Dr. Casey Lawrence
2 min readFeb 23, 2023

--

Hi. I'm definitely not a masculine woman. Being educated and having a high earning potential does not make someone masculine. I wear dresses and makeup; I like traditionally female shows and books; I listen to Taylor Swift and drink pumpkin spice; I have long hair. These are all stereotypically "feminine" qualities. They're not what make me a woman, but they are part of why I am perceived as feminine.

Moreover, my husband is the last thing from feminine. He's very comfortable in his masculinity. The fact that you see cooking or doing dishes as gendered roles in the home is a huge part of the problem. Why would enjoying cooking make my husband a feminine man? I've watched this man effortlessly carry a refrigerator. He has a beard and shaves his head. If you saw him on the street, I guarantee you wouldn't consider him a "feminine man."

Your post asked if women would marry kind, gentle, caring men if they didn't have a high earning potential. I told you that they do, regularly, seek out that sort of man. Now you seem to be moving the goalposts again by insisting that the sort of man who treats women with respect and pulls his weight in the household (ie, does domestic tasks), is a "feminine man." He's not. You just have a very limited view of masculinity.

The point isn't that we've "reversed" gender roles. It's that we don't believe in them. I do the laundry. He does the cooking. I clean the bathroom. He cleans the kitchen and the dishes. He does the grocery shopping. I do small home repairs and garden maintenance. These are all required for a household to run: they aren't "men's tasks" and "women's tasks," they're just tasks, and we split them up according to who prefers what or is more skilled. We both work. We both have an education (he's currently getting his PhD, I have just finished mine). Why should all the domestic tasks fall to me?

You seem very stuck in your views. You also keep using very rude language toward me ("eat my words," really?) when you don't agree with me or don't understand what I'm saying. Feminism isn't about "reversing gender roles," it's about refusing to participate in them whatsoever. They aren't real. There's nothing that makes women more "biologically suited" to cooking or cleaning or even childcare. The only thing I can do that my husband can't is breastfeed. If we decide to use formula or I choose to pump, there's no reason why he can't be the stay-at-home parent when we have children. The only reason that's frowned upon is because the patriarchy has deluded people into thinking women's "value" is in their ability to perform certain roles which are not biologically inscribed, but socially inscribed.

--

--

Dr. Casey Lawrence
Dr. Casey Lawrence

Written by Dr. Casey Lawrence

Canadian author of three LGBT YA novels. PhD from Trinity College Dublin. Check out my lists for stories by genre/type.

No responses yet