So...

...we all know that I am compulsively tidy. Not clean, mind you- you could write your name in the dust on some bookshelves- but things are put away where they belong (and everything has a place where it belongs, even if it is temporarily confused). I even have a low-level sense of guilt about this; I worry that my need for surfaces to be clear has resulted in some degree of angsty-ness for the girl, and unnecessary tension with the boy, that I should be reading Aristotle (it could alternatively be argued that I spend too much time reading, so I guess I'm a bit f-ed) or working at the food pantry. I know that when we have parties and I am obsessively putting everyone's coats on the coat rack, and taking B's glass away when he is still drinking out of it, or when I am spending ridiculous hours arranging books in just the right way, that these are probably not so very healthy. I know that many people consider this sort of thing to be trivial. Anti-feminist, even*.

However. Check this out.

I understand that, according to this study, order means more than having shoes all in one place. It means a general consistency and a fair amount of routine. I get that, and do not claim to have mastered either. I think domestic flexibility is extremely important (our kitchen sink is currently under repair and I have been doing dishes in the tub for the last week- an opportunity for problem solving! and empathy for people in situations different from our own! And I'm allergic to mornings, so there's some built in difficulty there.). And I know many, many families who would consider themselves messy who are all kinds of awesome. Also, of course, fine. But I get a little bit of shite for my need to rid my visible environment of clutter- I have been called rigid, neurotic, retro, bourgeois, and, memorably, a tool of the patriarchy (see * below). A stifler of my child's creativity, even. And these are my friends! So forgive me a little bit of glee in this study.

Discuss.


*I call bullshit on this. I couldn't be more unhappy that domesticity is not considered a worthy art, or a constructive use of time, but I am not interested defending my feminism because some people don't think one can be a thinking person and also bake a cake. Or who think the two are unrelated.