Elisa Mariño
2 min readNov 10, 2021

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Exactly.

But the agreement should be made freely. And if at some point stops working for whatever reason, you need to renegotiate.

At my house, we pay someone to do the ironing, the through cleaning weekly and divide the rest of the task. It works for us.

I know some people that loves to cook, so for them is not a task. I do even knew a couple of guys that claimed that they enjoyed ironing and while it sound strange to me, it is true that they did the ironing without complaining (including mine and clothes that I wouldn't have bothered to iron myself).

So no shame or demean in doing house chores, but also not fair to impose the burden on someone that has not agreed freely to that.

Also, if for whatever reason you think that domestic task are demeaning, then if you think that those are "women's duties" the implication is that you are OK demeaning women. So much wrong in that mindset. No wonder why those marriages/partnerships fail. No respect in those relationships. Without social enforcement (due to denial of rights to women) women won't stay in those.

Most people have conditioned choices, not free choices. We study what we can based on our families wealth (you do need money to go to college, for example), we pick the best job among the ones we are offered (qualify to apply to) and our economic need condition what we find more desiderable. So if we do need money for medical bills, we might favour higher wages, while if we have our needs covered we might favour more free time. But our choices are conditioned by what is legal (you can't work as a doctor without a title, for example), possible for us and the expectations of people around us (like taking care of elder fathers). Sure, you can choose to go against expectations and not take care of your aging parents which would force you to pick a worse job but with "flexible" time so you can do the caring. But people is going to consider you cruel and you might face legal repercussions like being charged of abandonment (in my country is a thing). So even today, being a stay at home wife/husband might not be a choice but the result of your circumstances. At the end of the day, families would do the best they can.

But not even "modern women" enjoy free choice. Neither men for that matter. We both have a little more freedom, but responsibilities condition our choices.

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Elisa Mariño
Elisa Mariño

Written by Elisa Mariño

Fiction is the art to tell lies to show truths. Politics is the art to use truths to tell lies.

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