Reflections on Housewifery

I’ve never really bought into the Maiden/Mother/Crone model of womanhood that’s so popular in neopagan spaces ~~and in fact I think it has some serious issues that need to be unpacked~~ but I have to admit, as I’m transitioning from my early-twenties to my mid-twenties, it’s like someone has flipped a switch in my brain and suddenly I care about stuff like my house being clean and smelling good and my loved ones having good food to eat.

Honestly, it’s probably just me healing from the trauma of growing up in a misogynist cult, because like… I had such disdain for housework when I was constantly being told that 1.) being a housewife and mother was my only option as a Mormon woman, and 2.) domestic work was inherently less valuable than “men’s work,” which was why women did it. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to appreciate the caretaking aspect of domestic labor. Keeping a house running is work, but it’s a role that is fundamental to the safety, comfort, and emotional stability of the people who live there. To be a homemaker is to be the creator and protector of a safe haven, a nurturer. And I’m realizing that it’s a very honorable and valuable thing in its own right.

Anyways, it’s finally setting in that I’m going to be my family’s matriarch someday, but that’s okay because I actually really enjoy doing housewife shit when I’m doing it in a queer, witchy, pagan way.

2 responses to “Reflections on Housewifery”

Anna Katherina | A Sprag Salfige

January 1, 2022 at 8:39 pm

I had a similar switch flip- although not in a similar way. Without regaling you with the entire ridiculous journey of mine, though, the final result is that I live my life quite happily as a “Full Time Childless, Multi-Disabled, Chronically Ill, Neuroatypical, MOGAI, Pagan, and Liberal Politicking Homemaker”. It’s not a bad, or dirty, word / profession. The entire world stems from the home whether we want to acknowledge it or not- regardless of who takes care of it, whether they have children, they work outside the home as well, etc. And while that doesn’t necessarily always need to be involved in our craft and religion in particular, its acknowledgement in general can go a long way in helping us understand the workings of Humanity, our own divinity (should that matter to a person), and more- which can in turn passively improve our craft; it is, at least, an important step in the maturation of the self, even when it has nothing to do with the craft IMO.

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1. Sam
  
  January 1, 2022 at 11:53 pm
  
  I totally agree! Homemaking feels like an important part of self-development for me, regardless of spirituality.
  
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Sam Wise