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My Family Anthropology

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My father was in charge of carving the turkey and cooking the mashed potatoes. They were his two favorite dishes and therefore he took charge of them. My youngest brother and eldest sister set the dining room with plates, forks, and cups. We all sat down and ate the meal and retold stories of crazy childhood memories. As we all were sitting in front of empty plates and seeing protruding stomachs, my mother began to take people's plates and took them to the sink. At first, no one helped her and then my eldest brother jumped up and offered to help her, which my mother refused. He helped her anyways and then the table was clear and stories were still being told. No one did the dishes that night, however the females helped package the leftover …show more content…

I watched the tasks that they participated in and then proceeded to ask them questions on their experience during the event. The first person I interviewed was my female sister Barb. When asked about the fairness of division of labor her response was
“In all reality it depends on the family and the dynamic, and in my situation we all tend to do a lot of cooking which can sometimes be kind of abnormal. Like I know in a lot of families it tends to just be women except for the turkey it’s like the man’s thing where as we kind of divide it up by like favorite dishes. Like dad does the turkey and the potatoes, mom does her sweet potatoes, and then she’ll let us jump in on our favorite dishes and stuff. But it think it should be divided up to the work point where it is most enjoyable for everyone and we should all be having fun.” In her response she examines the gender stereotypes there are in our society without me instigating a response or asking for there to be a comparison. Her ideas that are similar to ones that Henslin (2007) acknowledges of the idea that men are supposed to be manly and females feminine. She shares the concept that it should be divided up based on desire, and …show more content…

Schneider's(2011) theoretical background is that earnings play a negotiating role of who does the housework and who does no. His findings were that many believe that people think whoever earns more money shouldn't have to do more housework. But what he discovers is that housework isn't a gender-neutral activity that is bargained over, but a set of actions imbued with culture meaning, action that serves as a resource for the construction of femininity as a threat to masculinity (Schneider, 2011). He discovered that men and women alike who are deviant to the norm, will seek to neutralize that deviance. Men will actually do less housework if they earn less than the woman and woman will do more housework if they earn more money. Overall he discovers through surveying individuals that women do gender through housework and men do not. I saw the same thing through my family. When I asked my female members how they would feel if they were asked to not help and not clean or cook the responses included, “Insulted, and I would never want that!” to “That would be just weird.” As if the notion of someone else taking over the task is a vulgar theory. Yet when I asked my male family members, the idea was pleasant to

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