What will a locked-down Christmas look like for women already taking on extra household duties?
+ a hospitality minister, faux-meats on the menu at McDonald's, and a history of diet-sodas marketed to women
Nice Pear: a weekly(ish) feminist foodletter | Issue #013 | 15 November 2020
Hello!
I’m writing the first draft of this introduction in a paper notebook, perched on the steps of a temporarily-abandoned office block beside the canal. This is my first walk in over a week* and honestly, it’s just nice to be outside.
Its strange how quickly habits can change - a year ago I wouldn’t have thought of a mask and sanitiser as essentials, but now I can’t imagine leaving the house without them.
Talk of a vaccine has been giving me hope this week, but between that and the Biden/Harrin win I also have a lurching feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. It’s like the mess of this year (and the preceeding four, honestly) has conditioned me to expect bad news. I’m trying to shake the anxiety voices talling me that we’ve had quite enough positivity for now, thank you, but hopfulness feels somehow… hopeless right now.
*I actually wrote - and crossed out - ‘the first time I’ve been outside in over a week’, but actually I’m lucky enough to have some outside space of my own, and have been hopping on and off the balcony a few times each day while in quarantine.
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What will a locked-down Christmas look like for the distribution of domestic labour?
Even before Hallowe’en was over, bauble-laden trees were sneaking into my Instagram feed, and now that november is here, the festive season appears to be in full swing in social media and in the supermarket.
We lament every year that the cogs of capitalism seem to shill their festive wares earlier and earlier In the season but, as with so many things, it hits different in 2020.
I think we can all agree that this has been a No Good, Very Bad year. We may know that nothing will materially change at midnight on December 31st, but we’re still wishing for this dumpsterfire year to be over. For many, the early festive decorations are fulfilling our urge to usher in the close of 2020.
Equally, in a year that has brought so much pain and loneliness to so many, the festive food and
décor is a small symbol of joy and togetherness.
It’s no surprise though, that the festive period brings with it increased domestic and familial responsibilities, which overwhelmingly fall on women.
Choosing, purchasing, wrapping and exchanging gifts. Coordinating parties, family get-togethers, and school nativities. Hosting family from out of town, or organising travel out of town for your own family. Not to mention all the extra shopping and cooking, and cleaning and tidying, and (for working parents of school-aged children) an extra fortnight of childcare.
This year, there will be no big parties or extended family get-togethers. England is due to relax lockdown restrictions on 2nd December (with no current lockdown, but measures like the rule of six, meeting outdoors/mask-wearing indoors, and localised levels, in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), but there’s no escaping the fact that Christmas will be very different this year.
Even if we return to those measures that were in place before lockdown 2, many non-cohabiting families won’t be able to gather in one place, and the UK’s cold weather means an outdoor turkey dinner is pretty much out of the question.
So will that relieve some of the mental load that Christmas adds? I’m not so sure. Even before COVID-19, studies regularly showed that women (in heterosexual relationships and family units) took on the majority of household chores - not just the work of laundry and hoovering, but the mental load of managing the household.
Lockdowns have seen this trend intensify, as many families have moved to employment, caring and domestic duties all carried out from home, 24/7. Women are not only more likely to lose their jobs due to the economic fallout of COVID-19, but also to pick up the extra housework and childcare - regardless of whether or not they are still employed.
Equally, I think for a lot of young women - and particularly young mothers - much of the additional responsibility that Christmas can bring has been shared with their own mothers (and sisters, if they have them). Rightly or wrongly, much of the additional labour of Christmas day falls on the Matriarchal figure of extended families (my mother and aunts, for example, went to my grandmother’s home for Christmas, long after my cousins and I were in the picture, and now my (grown) siblings and I have looked to my mother to organise Christmas day celebrations in recent years, even though we all have partners and homes of our own).
Just as lockdowns have cut many young families off from childcare provided by grandparents, the pressure on young women to provide the perfect Christmas may have increased, as we are separated from our support systems.
We are all more stressed and in need of joy than ever, but in the absence of an extended family to share the load, will the burden fall solely on women and mothers to provide that in smaller family units?
While my inner Grinch rolls her eyes at the Christmas lights already twinkling in the windows I pass on my early evening walk, whines about having to organise gifts and cards for both sides of our extended family, and turns sharply away from the seasonal aisle already bursting with gift-sets and gingerbread-flavoured-everything, there is another part of me that still loves the festive season.
I always exclaim ‘I LOVE MULLED SH*T’ when offered a festive drink. I make a spreadsheet each year to find the best free-from mince pies (Sainsbury’s won last year, but we all know anything can happen in 2020). I clear a whole Sunday every December and shoo my husband out of the house so that I can listen to Fairytale of New York and wrap the gifts I’ve been hiding in the bottom of the wardrobe.
THAT side of me is reminding the Grinch that this year more than ever, we need to take any joy we can get, let people do what makes them happy - and all pitch in to wash up after Christmas dinner.
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Things to read this week
Is the UK going to get a Minister for Hospitality? With other entertainment-related sectors (culture, media and sport) having parliamentary representation, maybe it’s time for our restaurants, pubs and hotels to have one too?
In vegan news: There have been rumours for a while about whether companies are allowed to label plant-based faux-meat products as though they are the real thing (see for ex. vegan sausage vs. vegan… tube, I guess?). Anyway, much of this debate has made very little sense to me (particularly around things like ‘burger’ or ‘nugget’, which are a food-shape, not a cut of meat). And now, the EU has ruled that producers can use ‘meat-related descriptors’ for plant-based foods.
Also vegan news: McDonalds has announced a vegan faux-meat burger, in collaboration with Beyond Meat. As an old-fashioned ‘lentils & soy-milk’ vegan, faux-meats don’t really appeal to me (let alone funding a corporation as pervasive, exploititive, and entrenched in the animal-industrial complex as Maccys).
ON the other hand though - for both of these developments - mainstreaming plant-based alternatives can only be a good thing for our environment. By exposing the people who normally wouldn’t dream of making a vegan choice to plant-based foods with an easily recognisable name (yes, McDonald’s have called their vegan burger the McPlant), maybe plant-based alternatives will become more widely accepted 🌱
Fellow reformed-Diet-Coke-addicts may find this read about the beverage’s history of marketing to women (and that of lesser-known Tab) as fascinating as I did. On Coke Zero:
“Coca-Cola assumed men demand full and satisfying flavor, compared to the at times unfulfilling and unpleasant aftertastes women have long accepted from diet drinks” 🥤
In interesting, kinda-food-related-but-also-not reads: meet the company that has a monopoly on ice cream truck music 🍦
Things to eat this week
Reading back through this, most of the recipes I have to offer you this week are sweet. I have, quite honestly, been living on a diet of pom-bears and cake, with the occesional (very boring, and probably not recipe-worthy) salad thrown in.
It was Diwali yesterday for Hindus and many other people of Southeast Asian origin, so peruse VeganRicha’s collection of vegan Indian sweet recipes and, if you’re in Leeds, order from Anand Sweets in Harehills.
I veganised Nigella’s flourless clementine cake this week, documenting it on Instagram Reels.
The original recipe calls for 6 eggs so I was a little apprehensive about a vegan version, but I went ahead nonetheless, with four chia-eggs (per egg: blast 1 tbsp. chia seeds in a blender or smoothie-maker, add 2.5 tbsp. warm water, mix (or blend again) and allow to sit for at least five minutes) and two baking powder/oil eggs (per egg: mix 2 tbsp. warm water with 1 tbsp. neutral-flavoured oil, add 2 tsp. baking powder and whisk before immediately adding to the recipe), and the cake was an absolute success (I’ll let you decide whether the same can be said for my clumsy videography skills).
I forgot to include the link to the latest on EatsLeeds last week so if you, like me, are indulging in lockdown stress-baking, take a look at my breakdown of baking powder Vs. bicarb - the latest in a series I’m slowly compiling on free-from baking.
Where to find me this week
Nothing new published this week.
I sent out 4 pitches this week and got 3 rejections and no commissions (yet).
As always, you can find me @ZoePickburn on Twiter, Instagram, and other social media.
Thanks!
Zoe
Freelance writer & journo | Food blogger & newsletterer (she/her)
Say hello@zoepickburn.com with stories, commissions & foodie chit chat