To whom this may concern,
I'm going to kick things off by being completely honest: 720AM is not usually a show that I choose to put on. If I'm listening to the radio, I tend to be more of a 93.7 kind of girl, looking for a little bit of Taylor Swift and Beyonce to fuel my mornings. However, that said, my parents are definitely into their 720AM, and so it is often playing in our kitchen during the day.
On the morning of the 27th of August, I was driving my dad's car and he had previously been listening to 720AM, so I left it on for the short drive home. This was the day when the segment about the Manchester University Study on women becoming increasingly overweight now that we don't spend our days cleaning was aired, and, in all honesty, I was not too impressed with the discussion that followed, which I found sexist and unnecessary.
You know what? Perhaps the study is right. However, as an Arts student (who is absolutely rubbish at statistics/ mathematics/ numbers in general), I can still look at that study and get out what it was saying: people have put on weight because we do not exercise as much anymore, because cleaning in the home is increasingly done by machines such as dishwashers or hired cleaners. I really don't understand why the discussion then centred around the place of women as cleaners in the home.
These are not the kind of conversations we need to be having about women and their place in our society.
They're about how women often don't feel safe walking home at night or when they're with men who they don't know. They're about intersectional feminism - recognising experiences of trans women, queer women, women of colour and differently abled women. We need to talk about discrimination at universities, we need to talk about the underlying misogyny that is harboured by some of our leading males. The conversations that we need to be having about women are about women being powerful.
Conversations about women doing the housework are redundant: they're not needed, they're not relevant, and they're really not funny.
I called up the radio show and told you about how, when I was recently living by myself and cleaning for myself, I put on weight. There goes your argument. What I wished that I also could have told you is that it shouldn't be up to women doing the housework. As adults, the load of housework at home is shared, depending on who is home when, and so on. I'm disappointed that when I called up, the first thing that I was asked on air was whether or not I am a cleaner. I'm disappointed that the woman who called in straight after me was asked the same thing. Funnily enough, none of the men were asked these questions. Regardless, working as a cleaner is a noble profession. It's working for a small amount of money, completing hard, laborious tasks that are time consuming and that other people don't want to do. There is nothing wrong with working as a cleaner.
I ask you what you wanted to gain from starting this discussion: do you think women should always stay at home as housewives? Do you think that women shouldn't work outside of the home? No? Then why bother introducing the study anyway, especially in this way?
A caller who rang in made an inappropriate remark about women looking like cows (or something), and I thank you for immediately apologising for what he said. However, with that in mind, please look at the content of your program and realise that discussions about women doing the housework invite an audience such as him.
As a woman, I have more to offer than clean carpets. I am on my way to graduating with a degree from a good university, I am dedicated, organised, and hard working. I can't make anything special, but I can cook well enough to save myself and I know how to tidy up a house enough to please my parents (not that I often do that - sorry mum and dad). However, these are not skills that are unique to women. They are skills that every person should have.
So please, I implore you: do not litter your radio show with rubbish like that study in the future. There was no need to talk about women as cleaners in any other context aside from how women still face continued oppression and expectations when it comes to the housework. There was absolutely no point to the discussion, and there was no way it was going to go anywhere productive.
Sincerely,
Laura
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