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Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
5 Household Items That Will Help You 'Get Off' Easy

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mariamariamaria
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
I think the Vatican was just trying to be clever. Right, guys? Right?
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fol_de_rol
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
I'm starting to think of the Vatican in the same way as I think of Elvin Tibideaux from The Cosby Show - means well, but always puts his foot in his mouth. And I would love to see the Church's version of Claire Huxtable give him what for.

I love my church, but MAN. Just shut up sometimes.

And I, too, vote for suffrage as the most liberating thing. Didn't get us all the way there but it sure as hell was a start.
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saintbernadette
03/10/09

@fol_de_rol: I just friended you for that comparison. Hilarious.
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mariamariamaria
03/10/09

@fol_de_rol: Oh man, I love the idea of a Catholic leadership version of Claire Huxtable. Please, Jesus?

As discussed in the Whirlpool/Maytag/Whatever post this past weekend, I believe that time-saving appliances such as the washing machine definitely contributed to women's liberation. Both to the woman who didn't have to spend days doing the week's laundry and her daughters who had more time for school, etc. But it certainly wasn't THE most liberating thing. I don't know that there was just one thing.
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stealthird
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
My Swiffer mop was my noble liberator. That an my iPod, which I fills my ears with empowering music as I attack the piles of dog hair in the corners of my kitchen, while defrosting frozen swedish meatball meat in the microwave.
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pear.shaped.Sara
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
Some other suggestions:

car (except in Saudi Arabia)

slow-cooker

pants
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Little Green Frog (Wise Latina)
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
Y'all, OK, I know you won't believe me there is some truth in this. Last year my kitchen pipes exploded and we had to have the whole kitchen and laundry redone. I was without them for 4 months.

What did I miss most? My washer and dryer. I could make PB&Js and order food and wash dishes by hand in my tub, but the clothes? I HATE going to the laundromat. I would have gladly bought new clothes every day.

So I guess, my takeaway is that for me, it the importance would be education, sanitary pads AND washers.
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MissRose
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
Does the catholic church ever have anything critical to say about men? Seriously, it always seems to be throwing women under the bus or trying to control a portion of the population (women) that literally has no voice in the hierarchy of the church? It's like a saying that my mom used to tell me whenever I was in trouble and trying to shift the focus to somebody else "I'm not talking about her, I don't care what they did, we're talking about you." I feel the same way whenever I see the dudes protesting in front of the PP in Orange (btw... we've seen them dressed up as the pope before), "this does not concern you."
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SarahMC
03/10/09

@MissRose: I know it's not happy with men who act like women (i.e. allow themselves to be "debased" by sexual penetration).
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MerryLilly
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
All our opinions come short. Let's ask our grandmas and great-grandmas what they really think about the washing machine, since they actually lived in a time before that.
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gerbilsoutofexile...is cheap and easy
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
I'll go out on a limb and say that anti-depressants should be up on the list. My husband may not have made it to his 40th birthday without my willingness to take them.

Now that I don't, well...he's not circling the drain yet, but the day's early.
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TheFormerJuneBronson
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
I would love to bag on the Vatican, since that's fun, but I suspect that though misguided, this may be in line with A&E choosing Gutenberg for Biography of the Millennium. In order to do all of the things we list here as liberating--working outside the home, having consequence-free sex, buying Manolos--we had to be liberated from the work that had traditionally been ours. Labor-saving devices for the home gave us the time and freedom to use our vibrators. Consider, honestly. First the washing machine, then the vacuum cleaner, then the dishwasher, and everything that came after. It's not an unreasonable place to put this mark.

Plus, consider all the women who used their automatic washing machines as vibrators. Dual duty!
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SarahMC
03/10/09

@TheFormerJuneBronson: The inventions didn't free us from the work. They just made the work easier. We're still doing it, for the most part. Liberating!
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TheFormerJuneBronson
03/10/09

@SarahMC: Well, this is the Vatican we're talking about. They've only been halfway there for the last thousand years or so.
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NefariousNewt
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
Where do they get that from? Great, so women no longer have to haul laundry to the river and pound it on rocks. Who's still doing the laundry? Women. Except in my house, where I do the laundry, because the washer and dryer are down in the basement and I'm pickier about how the clothes are washed. I'm trying to get our boys to do their own, but that's an uphill battle.
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AnnoyingFemaleLeadVoiceover
03/10/09

@NefariousNewt: Who's still doing the laundry? Women.

Thank you. I've been doing some genealogy stuff lately that involves lots of phone time with my mom. One call we were both laughing about how angry my great-grandma (in her late 80s/early 90s) would still get talking about doing her brothers' laundry (school shirts had to be a pristine white). My mom said something along the lines of being glad she didn't endure that and then I reminded her of all of those long Saturday afternoons we (my sisters and I) spent doing laundry and hanging clothes out to dry because we had a washing machine and no dryer. The more things change...
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saintbernadette
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
I let the church talk me out of birth control pills 2 years ago, and I have to say I've never been happier with the state of my reproductive bits.

Of course, that's an option that works well for me because I'm married and have a stable life and can raise a child if I absolutely have to.

Also, other than Jezebel, the natural family planning information they give you contains some of the most awesomely TMI stuff I've ever seen.
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saintbernadette
03/10/09

@saintbernadette: I will also add that I am still not pregnant.
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emilyanne
03/10/09

@saintbernadette: I've actually never been on the pill. Not for Catholic reasons but because I just don't like it, it's a hang up of the fact that a doctor tried to make me go on it at 14 because of a heavy menstrual cycle and I just didn't want to. I accept that my dislike of the pill is almost entirely irrational and I think everyone should have access to it but I just never ever wanted to use it. Also my mother was an AIDs researcher so I refused to sleep with anyone without a condom anyway.
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saintbernadette
03/10/09

@emilyanne: I, too, agree that everyone should have access to it. I just wish more people would realize that there are other b.c. options that don't stand to make pharmaceutical companies millions of dollars.
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emilyanne
03/10/09

@saintbernadette: yeah me too. I do find it frustrating that people frequently assume that I never went on the pill because I was raised Catholic, to which my answer is always 'I might be Catholic but i'm the child of two doctors, medicine came first in our family (my church going father is as the forefront of stem cell research) which is why I prefer other methods of birth control."
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5ft of fury
03/10/09

@saintbernadette: Condoms for the win! Or IUDs! Yeah, there are many options. But sex education and birth control needs to be made available to women across the globe, who are most likely to have several children in areas with high infant mortality rates, and high rates of women dying in labor.
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lilbobbytables
03/10/09

@saintbernadette: I agree with your statement about the pill, but I do think that overall, b.c. methods, like the diaphragm, were a good move for lib. Granted, I have never lived when it was not available in some form or another - I am basing that statement on what I learned in The Bell Jar. If nothing else, that part of the book was very eye opening.
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emilyanne
03/10/09

@5ft of fury: absolutely. To all your points. One of the things that I really fall out with the church over (and the reason for my somewhat patchy record as a catholic) is birth control and their refusal to accept that it is incredibly important for just the reasons you've outlined.
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taranwanderer
03/10/09

@saintbernadette: I totally agree with you regarding the family planning stuff! I actually know more about my body and what's happening with my cycles and such than some of my friends on the pill. That said, I cannot go on hormonal birth control because I have a genetic blood clotting issue and instead use a diaphram and condoms (I'm not currently a candidate for a non-hormonal IUD).

I am very bitter that there is no male form of birth control, btw.

@5ft of fury: Yes, yes yes. What you said.

@emilyanne: I feel you. People assume I'm not on the pill because I'm catholic. Sorry, but I'm in that 5% or whatever who physically cannot go on it or risk my health. Thanks.
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saintbernadette
03/10/09

@taranwanderer: Me too! Really, Catholic church? You want me to stick my fingers up there to feel what kind of state my cervix is in? Okay. (wanders off to bathroom)
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linnyt is a walking cliché
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
I appreciate the sausage-fest that is the Vatican letting me know that the washing machine did the most the liberate women.
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aisuru113
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
If this was the yet to be invent automatic iron, there is a possiblity it would rank high up there. I don't mind laundry but I hate ironing with all my soul. The washign machine the greatest advancement, NO.
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Jello Mix
03/10/09

@aisuru113: I would kill for a cordless iron, personally. I know the logistics make it unrealistic at the moment, but damn do I want one.
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gobblegirl
03/10/09

@aisuru113: Steam iron. Seriously. We have a little standup model, and it makes everything so much easier. You just wave it around your shirt, and you're golden.
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gerbilsoutofexile...is cheap and easy
03/10/09

@aisuru113: The dry cleaners saved my marriage in that regard. My husband wears dress shirts everyday, which I will wash, dry, and hang up. But the arthritis in my hands is too bad to iron for any length of time. So off to the dry cleaners to be laundered and ironed they go!!

I vote dry cleaners as a great invention!
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AuntPenny
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
I would say take-out is more liberating than the washing machine.
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lilbobbytables
03/10/09

@AuntPenny: And delivery!

Oh man, I am hungry now.
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LadySoprano is a Fat-Fighting Superwoman
03/10/09

In reply to Vatican: Washing Machine Has Done More To Liberate Women Than Pill, Work
The Liberation of LadySoprano was The Pill, tampons and a plane ticket to London.
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