Hope chests
I have been reading a fair amount of anti-feminism on the web on the last few days, and something that has cropped up on a number of occasions is the concept of a hope chest. The argument seems to be that Hope Chests are wonderful things encouraging maidens to prepare for their marriage and start producing things for a blissful life of domesticity verses Hope Chests as a symbol of women's oppression forcing them into a life where a home is their only ambition and expectation.
Hope Chests are traditionally associated with marriage, but thinking about the wrath and anger that they seem to produce (it is a box, a symbolic box I accept, but pretty much a box with things in) it seems a little out of proportion. I realised that I don't have a Hope Chest exactly, but I have a corner of the loft and a trunk in the shed with serve the same function: they are places where I am gathering objects for when I have a home of my own. I do not mean that I am saving for marriage; I have no plans in that way and cannot imagine that sort of thing happening for several years. I simply have areas where I keep the rugs I had in college, a couple of sets of sheets and bath towels people gave me at various times, some gorgeous table mats I bought in Canada, pictures and frames, and kitchen utensils, against the day when one day I'll have a house of my own and will need such things.
I have no particular desire to be married, but I would like to have a house of my own. I have a home and I am very happy there, but I would like a place where I can put my own things and this is why I save them. I do not actively collect, but I keep things in the hope that one day I will have a house or a flat to put them in.
This was supposed to be something brief but I seem to have been carried away...
Hope Chests are traditionally associated with marriage, but thinking about the wrath and anger that they seem to produce (it is a box, a symbolic box I accept, but pretty much a box with things in) it seems a little out of proportion. I realised that I don't have a Hope Chest exactly, but I have a corner of the loft and a trunk in the shed with serve the same function: they are places where I am gathering objects for when I have a home of my own. I do not mean that I am saving for marriage; I have no plans in that way and cannot imagine that sort of thing happening for several years. I simply have areas where I keep the rugs I had in college, a couple of sets of sheets and bath towels people gave me at various times, some gorgeous table mats I bought in Canada, pictures and frames, and kitchen utensils, against the day when one day I'll have a house of my own and will need such things.
I have no particular desire to be married, but I would like to have a house of my own. I have a home and I am very happy there, but I would like a place where I can put my own things and this is why I save them. I do not actively collect, but I keep things in the hope that one day I will have a house or a flat to put them in.
This was supposed to be something brief but I seem to have been carried away...