Malala Yousafzai's Response On Dirty Socks Schools Men To Do Housework

Often, must have come across women constantly bickering about their partners' scattered dirty socks, wet towel, and more. What will you do if you see your husband’s socks lying around? Would you pick it up and keep it in its place? Or would you expect your husband to take care of his things? For Malala Yousufzai it was to pick up the dirty socks and throw them in the dustbin- a perfect response to husband's dirty socks.

Yousafzai shared socks story in a tweet. She  found socks on the sofa and asked her husband, 'Whose socks were they'. Husband said that the socks were dirty and she can put them away. Malala Yousafzai threw the socks in the dustbin- What she did was hilarious yet sensible.

In our society, men are rarely asked to take care of themselves and their belonging on their own. When they are kids, mothers or sisters do their work and after growing up wives do it. Men are raised as Raja Betas who think that their only duty is to study and earn. Men are not raised as humans who have the skill of taking care of themselves but as the dominant gender that leaves domestic work to the suppressed gender.

Dear men! Isn’t taking care of yourself a basic necessity of life? How long can you depend on others to do the needful? How long can you suppress women as your caretakers? And how long will you consider housework as menial work?

The major problem is that people consider housework as a menial job and so women are forced to do it. Women are raised with the indoctrination that taking care of the men in their house is the primary duty. Earning or studying is only secondary if at all a woman dreams to pursue them.

Malala Yousafzai On Husband's Dirty Socks

Dear women! It is not right to assume that domestic work is your responsibility It is not a woman’s skill but a life skill that everyone must know. You are not entitled to be the woman behind the success of the man. You should be leading your own success in life. You should stop spoon-feeding men with basic lifestyles as if they are the only ones in the world, who can fulfil your financial and social needs.

It doesn't mean It is women's responsibility to teach men housework. Men should be brought up with the perception that doing housework is their duty. Parents should teach men to not expect other women in their life to take care of them. Moreover, women need to stop submitting themselves to the demands of men just because social norms expect them to. Women need to unlearn the internalisation that housework is a wife skill. They need to take a stand for themselves and stop agreeing to everything that society throws at them.

It is understandable not every women can walk in Malala Yousafzai foot step. She is speaking from the couch of privilege but the least women can do is deny housework as their duty towards family. They must allow men to help and do the housework. Sometime the fault also lies in women, obviously it comes from social conditioning. Women do not let men enter inside the kitchen because they consider this an insult, also the thinking that men has the ability to mess up house work. This needs to be reworked. Also, all women out there, if doing housework is an insult for men, then would it not be for women too?

So dear men and women, stop considering housework as a menial job. It is a basic necessity and if a person cannot do that, they really need to introspect and think if they qualify as an independent human. Independence is not about earning a living alone. It is also about cooking your food and cleaning your socks.

Views expressed are the author's own.

Suggested Reading: Philosophers’ Propose New Theory To Examine Why Men Avoid Housework