Freegans, Radical Homemaking, Etsy, Chicks with Chicks, Farmer-Chic, Food Rules — there is definitely a counter-culture forming partly out of necessity (economic downturn and unemployment) and out of politics. It's all about consuming less, homemade, and frugality.

There's been some resistance to this trend from feminists who say that making your own food and your own aprons out of doilies is very charming, but it is incredibly time-consuming and it places unreasonable burdens on women. You can't put in a 80 hour week on Wall Street and then come home to knead your own bread using your own starter.

In today's Salon, Madeline Holler writes about how she's a radical homemaking failure. She became a radical homemaker accidentally. Her husband gave up a high paying job to get a PhD and become a college professor. She really misses her stuff and didn't really like growing her own basil. 

Hayes has an answer for my reluctance: Radicalizing one's homemaking
is a process. First, you renounce (Satan's not the boss of me! Fuck
Crate and Barrel), then you reclaim (you learn how to can). Finally,
you rebuild, which means convincing others to radicalize, too. No one
gets there overnight. Or, in my case, ever. I'm sure I'm not the only
one.

Like a majority of Americans, I'll always
prefer direct deposit to getting paid in chicken eggs. I'm comfortable
with the smile-and-wave relationships I have with most of my neighbors.
While I share the Radical Homemakers' family, environmental and social
justice values, the way they propose bringing about change requires too
much of the kind of work I frankly don't want to do. I'm fine giving up
stuff. But I can't imagine spending afternoons rendering fat and
lacto-fermenting cucumbers. That would be too much like shoveling
rocks, even if it wasn't for Satan.

While I sympathize with Holler about seeing the drudgery in radical homemaking, I couldn't help getting a little bent out of joint. When we were writing our dissertations and raising Jonah, we lived on much less money than she did and we did it in Manhattan. She complains about renting homes near pit bulls, and I know all about pit bulls. She complains about driving a '97 car, which is what I drive. So, no whining for you, lady! 

I suppose there is a difference between taking on a anti-materialism lifestyle out of choice and politics, rather than having it imposed on you because of circumstances. Holler tried to disguise her poverty with an ideology, but it didn't work.