As I explained in my first post of the new year, feminists are ugly because they are miserly with love. But the year is almost over, and as the seasons change so do feminists. This is the time of year when a feminist’s thoughts turn from resentment of the toil and drudgery of everyday life, to resentment of the toil and drudgery of Christmas. Jessica Valenti at The Guardian speaks for ugly feminists everywhere with her heart felt Christmas missive No, I will NOT wrap all the presents. Why are women still responsible for the holiday joy?
…jingle bell time aside, it’s a goddamn clusterfuck.
We all know that women do the majority of domestic work like child care, housework and cooking. But the holidays bring on a whole new set of gendered expectations that make the season less about simply enjoying fun and family and more about enduring consumerism, chores and resentment so that everyone else can enjoy rockin’ around the Christmas tree. (I bet even Mrs Claus gets upset that Santa works one night a year but she’s dealing with hungry elves 24/7. That would be almost enough to make you want to over-indulge in eggnog and hurl yourself in front of a reindeer-pulled sleigh.)
Being the holiday point-person can be drudgery. Making lists, wrapping presents, finding sales to indulge a particularly demanding relative’s requests to Santa … baby, let’s just say the brisk winter weather starts to feel bitter cold outside.
Of course the worst part of all for Ms. Valenti is the need to cover her meticulously cultivated feminist sense of victim-hood with a cheerful demeanor:
And it’s not enough that women actually manage to finish all of these chores – we’re also expected to plaster Christmas grins on our faces the whole time, lest the masses think we’re not thrilled with all the wrapping-paper-inflicted paper cuts.
Christmas is a special hell for feminists, and I can only imagine Valenti’s paper cuts are nearly as hard to bear as being forced to stay home with the baby while men fight and die.
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