Frame: Are You a Sellout If You Cook For Your Man?

This story details feminist writer Shayla Pierce’s journey from refusing to cook for a man, to learning to cook for a man.

In short, Shayla comes across as a bit of an idiot. She contradicts herself over and over, and the piece gets to a point where I’m concerned that she might be bipolar. Here is a rundown:

1. Boyfriends that Shayla dated in the past have demanded that she cook, just because she was a woman. (Shayla, I’m sorry you dated some jerks, but that’s no reason to tell women that they shouldn’t cook.)

2. Shayla found a good guy that she wanted to cook for! (It’s like a modern Cinderella story, really.)

3. Shayla feels that cooking is a life skill and that as long as no one is being MADE to cook, everyone should cook. (Wait for it….)

4. HOWEVER, Shayla thinks that if a woman works at home and a man works in an office and is presumably the breadwinner, then of course the woman should cook. (I think that if Shayla makes this point again I will revoke her self-imposed “feminist” title.)

5. When asked if Shayla’s boyfriend likes her cooking, her response is: “He said it was good. But he has no choice to say anything else.” (Who else feels sorry for Shayla’s boyfriend? I’m picturing him strapped to a chair, being forced to read “Our Bodies, Ourselves.”)

The only point that I can get behind is made in this quote: “At the end of the day, I cooked because I wanted to. I didn’t cook because someone made me feel like it was what I was supposed to do because I was a woman.”

I wish that was all Shayla said.