I think the key here with this “retro-progressive” thing, and especially with the “new domesticity” concept, is that we are doing these things by choice. We have experienced the modern options and personally relate better with the older versions, and we are lucky enough to choose which suits us better. Our foremothers didn’t get to choose whether to machine-wash or hand-crank their clothes, or hang each piece separately to dry– they had to do both because there were no other options, and also, they had to do both because it was their job. Homemade apple pie? Well, there wasn’t always store-bought to fall back on, and also, you know, the lady makes the apple pie.

Our disposable income makes us able to afford organic this and that, but I think it’s our personal ethics which define us as retro-progressive– yes, I’m a modern working lady without a whole lot of free time… and still I choose to bake my whole-wheat cookies from scratch. It’s the ability to choose that makes it different this time around.

I still wonder why we’re quick to label our actions. Would calling ourselves “retro-progressive” justify the choices we make? If anything, it’d become another buzzword to be made golden by media, whether it be independent press or the CNN gods themselves; more focus would be on the term, on interviewing people (”Hey there, do you consider yourself retro-progressive?” “I don’t consider myself progressive, or retro?”) about the term, and on shifting the spotlight away from the action to its representation. And that’s all well and good. Maybe even that wouldn’t happen, but it seems to me that anytime we coin a new term, we’re in danger of losing sight of that expression’s roots.

Leading by example doesn’t usually entail a set of strict laws. There are no Newton’s Rules of Progressive Domesticity, and because of that, I think people feel more comfortable to make individual choices without having to live up to a higher power (see also: factions in feminism). Would “retro-progressive” create new laws of greener lifestyles? Well, Tiny Choices wouldn’t use that title to limit the actions of what people can/can’t do, but someone else would. It’d become mythic and exaggerated, like any progressive movement. Which is a shame.

I just reread this, and it sounded so cynical, but I didn’t mean for it to be!

Umm, let me see… so if you are buying oodles and oodles of disposable products, you’re “normal”, and if you buy reusables or think in any way about the environmental implications of what you’re doing, you’re a “retro-progressive”? Sounds like a way to keep the consumers in line, to me. Keep consuming or we’ll make you feel guilty about having so much free time on your hands.

Somehow, most women throughout the world manage to cook their own food from scratch without being stay-at-home moms, oppressed victims of the patriarchy, or bourgeois ladies of leisure. Cooking is just a basic skill - something that everyone does. (or am I hopelessly abnormal?) If you have more time on your hands, you bake apple pie (or, in my case, pirozhki). If you have less time, you cook something quick and easy. You don’t need to feel guilty about either cooking or hand-crank-washing your laundry, for heaven’s sake. I hand-wash some of my laundry in the sink - and I’m a full-time student and a small business owner.

The corporate establishment wants to keep us in line - if you make your own apple pie, it means you’re not buying one of theirs (full of chemicals). If you dry your laundry on a drying rack it means that you don’t need a dryer. The goal of a corporation is to manufacture needs, then to fill them; this fails if you refuse to believe them about what you need.

So be proud of your homemade apple pies and your hand-cranked laundry. If it makes you feel any better, my father bakes wonderful bread from scratch and sews stuff on his sewing machine. “Domesticity” is not just a way to keep women oppressed - it’s also a set of really useful skills. Sometimes, you need those useful skills around the house - for example, if you want a nice fresh apple pie. (mind sharing your recipe?)

I agree with many of the comments. I am also a working woman who is in school full time as well. And canning doesn’t take that much time. To learn, sure, but once you’ve got the hang of it, and a good system, it’s easy. Same thing with baking bread. Sure if I had to go into the storage locker to take out a bread machine every time I wanted to bake bread, then maybe it would be more time consuming. Luckily I have a husband with experience in a pizza parlor - so when we want bread, I can measure out everything and get it going, then turn it over to him when it’s time to knead. Division of labor always makes things faster. :)

I guess I’ve decided that if I can’t have homemade cookies, I don’t want any cookies at all. The choice has a lot to do with it - I can see how when someone is overwhelmed with thankless tasks, then yes, soul-killing drudgery. But when I choose to take the time to prepare low-sugar organic jam for my household and friends, I am happy about that choice because I feel like I am providing something better than the preservative and sugar laden alternative for those I care about.

Brutally honest confession and some devil’s advocate follows:

I am a working lass and school full-timer and in general, I don’t cook. On occasion I do, but many of my CSA vegetables are going to waste. Yes, some people in this country and others manage it, but I cannot.

I’m not sure that I agree that most women in the world who are not stay-at-home moms manage to cook. The world is becoming increasingly industrialized and McDonald’s and other quick options, which mask themselves as healthy and natural, are popping up everywhere. (Plus, a comparison of workdays, vacation and the like in various countries would need to be done to come up with such a comparison. And how many women are stay-at-home moms. Plus plenty of them don’t necessarily cook either) That is why obesity is becoming a global issue.

I also want to echo Kari’s notion that some people do not have access (physically or monetarily) to the items we are talking about. Speaking of food, in NYC there is an ongoing campaign to make healthier food options available to those who need it accompanied by outreach and education. The Food Bank just issued a report in which they introduce the term “food poverty” (which is new to the U.S> but has been used in global publications for years) rather than using hunger so that those who are over-weight but lack nutrients are included because immediately most would assume that someone who is overweight is not hungry.

Titles can be a consumerist notion, but it is how we grasp things. (Who decided the color blue is blue and all the hues that fall under it?) But if a title makes you feel good at night (admittedly retro-progressive is catchy) then go for it. In this day and age sound bytes are what grab our attention. Media wouldn’t use them is were weren’t scooping them up.

i like the cookie motto too. Don’t forget that the people in the cookie factory face tasks much more dreary and thankless than we do/mom does/hubbie does when we/they/he bake up a batch of delicious cookies. And while our families/dad and the kids/wifey might be exploiting the home cookie maker, though we might say thank you, stock holders and capitalists are making money off the factory worker who may not even have time to eat cookies when he/she gets home from non-union double-shifts.

“homemade cookies, air-dried clothes, and free-range children??

Is that a typo (meant to be “chicken”), or is there some new thing about kids being free range?

The more labor intensive tasks probably use much less electricity and natural gas, thus lowering your energy bills. If you do it ergonomically, you’re also getting exercise out of it, which most Americans are woefully in need of (physical activity).

If it’s not lowering your consumption or lowering your utility bills, you’re losing the battle and buying into drudgery that women have tried in past generations to free themselves of, in order to do other things like pursue financial freedom.

Home cooking, where you can control the amount of fat and salt and sugar, while using fresh ingredients, is always going to be healthier. Why are so many lower-income people obese? Because they can only afford the time and money for fast food.

this is a great topic! i am pretty wary of catchy labels for things i like to do. i mean, i like to bake pies and i’m pro-choice but i feel pretty silly calling myself a retro-progressive. i also hate when people talk about the good old days as if every one lived on a happy little farm and baked pies all day with no troubles in the world.
like kari and jenn, this concept is not that new to me because i was also a devotee of get crafty. i think a lot of it is just common sense, learning skills that are important and make you less reliant on mass-marketed crapola.
s a woman i love that i have more choices than my grandmother did but i also wish that we hadn’t lots so many skills that our grandmothers knew. i spent the weekend with my family in new hampshire and my uncle doug pointed out that a lot of “green” tips are things that my old yankee relatives have been doing for years because they make sense and save money. when my mom was growing up they took short showers and didn’t use a dryer because they had a well and needed to save water. my grandma doesn’t think of herself as an environmentalist but she probably conserves more than many people who consider themselves “progressives”.
the term “retro progressive’ sounds a little too “wink wink” clever for me to take it seriously because it makes real things like the diy movement or environmentalism and makes them sound silly and self-consciously bourgeois. and they aren’t. it’s like when the spice girls took the extra “r” out of girl power, and with it, all of the meaning behing the riot grrrrl movement.

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