Hurray! A fellow woman cartoonist, Emma from France depicts here one piece of women's invisible and essential work, Mental Load. Without it, there could be no functioning economics. All we'd have is a garbage pile! (Click below to see the whole cartoon at The Guardian's webpage).
Emma paints women's home geography, culturally drawn but personally frustrating when she is assumed (and often assumes herself because it's less trouble than fighting) to be the manager of her household's functioning, keeping its humans fed, clothed, clean, and reasonably functional. Worse, it's thankless hard work that gets quickly and easily undone and messed up every @#$ing day.
If she were a corporation, she'd be the Purchasing Dept., Inventory Manager, Shipping and Receiving, Budget and Planning Director, Traffic Controller, Laundry and Fashion Research and Development Dept., Chef, Maintenance and Janitorial Dept. AND she'd be respected for firing substandard staff.
It's the nature of life, if you're philosophical, but how did it get to be female life? He'd help, but you have to ask--and instruct him in the details that would take a book to write--a book no one wants to read. And then thank him when he does it, if he doesn't forget.
Emma makes our dilemmas visible. But we do notice that The Guardian's editors (were they male?) framed this as "The Gender Wars of Household Chores." Wars make terrible messes. Women avoid them whenever we can. So don't read the comments, as they'll only make you angry that so many men have TIME to write this shite.
Here's to partners who love to cook (and do it well) and always pick up after themselves and you, too, when you need it. Thank you so very much. (Are you happy now? Can we quit the war?)
www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/26/gender-wars-household-chores-comic#img-1
Thanks to Bronwyn Fryer for sharing this! Stay tuned for Emma's "Emotional Load." Hoo boy.
* The economic theory that women should always work for less, or better, for free.