Slippers
Please tell me, who in their right mind would pick these slippers up in a store say, two weeks before christmas and think to themselves, "Wow, what a great looking slipper, that color, that shape, this is something I've just got to give to my wife as a present". Unbelievably that someone would be my husband. What makes the whole thing even more distrubing is that I WEAR them.
I've only had these slippers for a few months and they are already ruined. I've had to mash down the back so that I could actually walk in these beauties and they are a little dirty because I've been nervy enough to wear them to the mailbox. I've promised myself that I would get rid of them, find a pair of chic moccasin-type slippers instead, but I haven't done it. On the days when I don't have to leave the house before 2pm, I end up staying in them all day.
What I have begun to wonder is what 1950s house wives would wear on their feet while they were at home, and that perhaps, the effort to look lovely no matter what they were doing, was really a way to demonstrate power and efficiency to their husbands, a way to say, see how effortlessly I can perform all these taks, notice how lovely I look while doing it?
But maybe for those women there was more to dressing up while doing the housework then just impressing a husband. When I happen to catch sight of my feet incased in these shapeless bulbs of fabric, my self esteem seems to take on the "look" of the slippers; dumpy, shabby and dirty. I could be shower fresh and wrinkle free, but those slippers make me feel like a slob. Perhaps dressing for the day, not matter what they were doing, was a way for women to feel on the ball. A way of vaulting themselves over the sandwiches that needed to be made, the dishes in the sink, a way for them to feel fabulous while hanging the laundry on the line.
posted by Amanda at 12:34 PM
5 Comments:
Hey!
This looks great!
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Love, Maria
Hi I think you are onto something with the self-esteem thing, that dressing neatly helps one feel better about oneself when doing anything. In that case we can assume that housewives dressed nicely according to the standards of their community (which would have been more formal or fancy than our standards in any given situation including business).
Norms of the day would have affected the esteem issue as well. My grandmother didn't put on lipstick when she went to the mailbox (literally, I remember watching her do it) in order to feel better about herself. She knew and communicated to the rest of us that she was doing the most important job in the world, raising children. The world she lived in supported her belief that she was working right where she was needed. She took care of herself BECAUSE what she was doing was important, she didn't dress nicely in order to add value to what she was doing. American culture today does not support the belief that raising children is an important job (Job, not role. The job of being a mother is different than the role of being a mother.)
All that said, that doesn't mean that my grandmother didn't feel dissillusionment and dissatisfaction with her choices particularly when her role as an active mother was finished. (And that role ends gradually over the course of a number of years.) Maybe that midlife dissatisfaction comes with realizing that we don't have an unlimited amount of time left and that we have put our own needs and desires on hold while we tended to the needs of our families. It's not easy to shift that emphasis. My family own members think that they want me to keep putting them first. It's hard to keep reminding them that we'll all be better off if I increase my own skills and passions and they increase their self-reliance. My grandmother's community did not support her in that thinking the way that mine does.
As I stay at home today (in my house) waiting for an appointment to arrive, I plan on spending the day cleaning. I am also unemployed, with a husband and children who are still in school. I rarely call myself a houswife, if someone asks what I do I simply state "I'm one of the lucky ones who doesnt have to work." I too am wearing my comfy slippers and sweats as I clean. My appointment is coming around noon and I look in the mirror (I look like the cleaning lady) and then I think to myself, oh well if Im lucky enough to stay at home, have someone come to pick up my fur coat for storage, who cares what I look like, and I continue my cleaning.
I got a pair just like them for christmas too only in a lovely shade of navy blue..........there jammed somewhere in the back of my closet hopefully to be forgotten until I do my next clean out ! Amy
I love your slippers, and wear them proud to the mail box.
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