Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity From a Consumer Culture [Paperback]

 

 

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I had seen Radical Homemakers, by Shannon Hayes, on so many websites and blogs. So I decided to take it out from the library and see what all the fuss was about.

Now to be honest, I was a bit trepidatious about this book. The cover, you must admit, has a rather aggressive look. I was not sure what to expect but I was afraid that the book might be too militant or extreme for me.

I was indeed disappointed in this book, although not in the way I expected.

The subtitle is "Reclaiming Domesticity From a Consumer Culture." Ms. Haye's basic premise is that in order for us all to free ourselves from the unsatisfying, unsustainable rat race--working for corporations to make money so we can buy things from corporations--we all need to recenter our lives around the home and learn to do things for ourselves. In other words, we need to become producers instead of consumers. We need to relearn how to do satisfying and creative tasks such as sewing, cooking, food preserving, and gardening, and to place our family and friends first in our lives, before our jobs.

I found the first part of the book, in which the author gives an overview of the history of domestic life, gender roles, and the effects of the Industrial Revolution on home life to be interesting, although I am not sure how strictly accurate her portrayal of history was, especially her discussion of the egalitarian societies of ancient times. Still, I enjoyed reading this section, and I liked reading that before the Industrial Revolution, home was a place for men as well as women, that families lived and worked together all the time--because I too believe families should live and work together when possible.

The second part of the book, which is a composite of 20 interviews she did with "Radical Homemakers," fell flat for me. The same things were repeated over and over again--to be a Radical Homemaker you need to have family, friends, and community to fall back on, you need to be willing to learn new skills, you need to learn to do without some material things, etc. I truly found nothing revolutionary or radical about anything I read here. It was all very general things I had heard before, and there was so much repetition--she kept quoting the same few authors (Emerson, Thoreau, Thomas Berry) over and over again. I was hoping for some practical advice but it never appeared.

Something else that turned me off was the fact that many of the persons/families interviewed were living a homesteading life because their families already had farms, or they were able to quit their jobs and live that life because they were taking advantage of government programs or the generosity of their families. If it is needed to get help from outside sources to live a home centered, homesteading life, then how it is possible for us all to live this way? It doesn't make sense. And it's hypocritical of the author to suggest that we should remove ourselves from the "extractive economy" by taking handouts from people working in that same economy.

What really put me off about the book the most was when I got to the very end where Ms. Hayes gave details about the people she interviewed, including their incomes. Almost all of the families made from 40-50k per year, and one family made 60k per year...to me this is a lot of money, certainly more than we have ever made, so I don't understand what is so radical about these people when they earn good incomes. Is it that hard to say "I don't worry about our income, money isn't important to us" when your income is more than enough to take care of your family?

Many of her interviewees also were highly educated individuals. The author herself has a Ph.D, and lives with an income of 45k on her parents' farm. It really would have been nice if she had included some more people who were living at or below the poverty line, or who had managed to create a homestead (urban or rural) with little money, education or help from family. Then the book might be more useful and inspiring for the average person. But instead, the book had to me an elitist tone and I felt that the lifestyle Hayes was promoting is not actually possible for less privileged folks.

Overall, I have to say I was very disappointed in this book. Although I agree fully with Haye's core idea--that we should all make our home a more important part of our life, and step away from the treadmill of consumerism--I was disappointed that the book contained no real practical advice for average person, and I was scratching my head at a few of the inconsistencies present in her ideas.

One last point: The lifestyle the author was recommending, and which the people in the book lived, was really homesteading and self reliance, not homemaking in the sense we normally think of it. She did mention multiple times that the homes of her interviewees were chaotic and messy. So perhaps Radical Self Reliance would be a more accurate title, because the book doesn't actually talk about homemaking at all, really.

A well-documented and timely work. Used this book while working on my Master's Thesis on gender roles. Very readable, and very exciting to learn that Domesticity has become a 'movement.' Her thoughts on comsumptive and productive economies are also very useful in developing a framework from which to understand why reclaiming domestic skills is so important.

This book has a lot to offer in terms of laying out an alternative to the soul sucking rat race that most of us are engaging in. Shannon Hayes introduces us to people who are living home based lives. Yes, some of these people already had lots of money to set them up, some of them have unique advantages in terms of their livelihood that allow them to work from home, but others are quite familiar--just regular people who are finding a way to turn their homes into places of production rather than consumption.

Even if you can't imagine yourself completely pulling out of the 9-5 world this book offers inspiration for making small changes that might contribute to a more fulfilling and environmentally sustainable life. Even growing a tiny garden could make a huge difference, and you could take it a step further by canning some of your own food.

I was particularly impressed by the history of the home that Hayes presents. She is not advocating a return to 1950s style drudgery where women were tied to the home without any real work to do beyond scrubbing toilets and preparing a daily meal, often from pre-packaged foods. Hayes advocates for homemakers who are engaged in their homes and use them as a base for social and political change. Radical Homemakers are women and men who foster community, find creative ways to live economically, and act as educators for the wider world. They're not just working to create a home, they're working to save the planet and the people they share it with. These are goals that all of us can aspire to on some level and it doesn't necessarily mean quitting your day job, though the book makes such a thing seem strangely possible.

I definitely recommend this book, if only as a way to spark discussion and debate about the state of our lives, our planets, our families, our communities, and our relationship to the land we live on. I would recommend reading it alongside Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food; and the documentary Food, Inc. Together I think these texts provide solid arguments for increasing self production of food and making the home and the dinner table a center for change.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Not great
Interesting reading, but no useful information. I'm not keeping this book, it will be donated to the library.

Published 22 months ago by Connie Mohn

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