What happens when Kirsten Dunst sides with traditional gender roles, and talks openly about her opinion with Harper’s Bazaar UK? The internet explodes, of course. Dunst revealed her old fashioned views stating, “We all have to get our own jobs and make our own money, but, staying at home, nurturing, being a mother, cooking- it’s a valuable thing my mom created.”
Jezebel was all over this one arguing, “Kirsten Dunst is not paid to write gender theory so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that she’s kind of dumb about it.” Many other sites chimed in giving their views on her comments. Women are no longer forced or encouraged to be stay-at-home mothers, but are given the choice. If you want to stay home and spend extra time with your kids, good for you. That’s your choice. Who is anyone else to judge you? What works for you, isn’t going to necessarily work for another family. That’s what makes families so interesting and beautiful, none of them function the same. For me, I would go crazy being home all day, cooking and cleaning while my family is at school and work. There’s only so much chores that need to be done, and they can be done when you get home from work. I grew up with powerful, admirable women in my life. I know stay-at-home moms, and I know working moms, and I don’t think one is better than the other. I think they have just chosen different paths in life, and that’s alright. My mom to me, is a superhero. She worked 9-5, came home cooked dinner, cleaned up after my sister and I, and still had time to spend quality time with us. At 40, she decided to fulfill a different dream, so she went back to school. School, work, chores, and kids, she did it all, and we never felt like she didn’t have enough time for us. I don’t like the word “feminist,” I think it makes people crazy. Once you’re labeled a feminist, or accused of being one, people assume you’re going to attack them with your views. No, rather I believe in choices. Kirsten continues to tell Harper’s Bazaar UK that, “You need a man to be a man, and a woman to be a woman. That’s why relationships work.”
Again, choices. Relationships are all different, and that’s what makes them work. If your relationship requires your man to go to the gym everyday for you to consider him a manly man, and you to stay at home all day for you to view yourself as a woman, fine. If my relationship works with my man watching the Notebook with me while we drink beer, that’s our concern, because it’s what works for us. Don’t succumb to stereotypes, because what works for someone else, might not work for you. Do what makes you happy, be the person that makes you happiest, and be with who makes you happy. Pay no mind to what other people do or think.
