Quotable: Femivores in the Henhouse

On the back page of its May issue, In These Times excerpts a conversation from the lively Women, Action & the Media listserv that I'm on that swung into a heated debate after Peggy Orenstein penned a piece in The New York Times Magazine about wealthy stay-at-home women who raise chickens in their backyards. Among those featured in the In These Times capsule of this fervent conversation are Katha Pollit, Andi Zeisler, Lauren Dunnington, Sarah Jaffe, Iris Carmen, Amie Newman, J. Goodrich, Jen Nadaeu ... and yours truly, who piped up with a perspective about all that's unfolding with urban farms and food in Detroit. I use variations of the word "transformative" twice in a three-sentence span.

Other features in the new issue of In These Times include stories on the return of death squads in Honduras; playwright and historian Nicole Anderson-Cobb trying to make sense of President Obama's first year; the slow food battle in Chicago; Alice Waters jumping on the "biosolids" bandwagon; the vigil of Britain's most visible activist; the enduring allure of Bruce Springsteen; Hollywood's "soft focus" on war; the next step for health reform advocates; and the Obama administration's limited response to the housing crisis. Solid stuff from a solid indie magazine.

Comments

[Monet]

I'm anxious to read more about this phenomenon in relation to femininsm. I've yet to be exposed to many women who have quit their jobs in order to raise animals. But I have found that more women AND men are attempting to live simpler lives by growing their own food, baking their own bread. While growing your own veggies or caring for a few hens doesn't solve many of the environmental issues we face, these actions reflect a changing national consciousness. Your comments on the urban farms in Detroit were of particular interest, and I hope to read more positive accounts of what is happening in that city.