By Volante Opinion Editor Heather Fluit
Many people have been wondering both aloud and on www.VolanteOnline.com how to submit ideas for the Opinion pages’ weekly features. There are a few ways. Members of the USD community can email Volante@usd.edu or, for the duration of the Fall 2009 semester only, Heather.Fluit@usd.edu. Also, we advertise in our print edition every week the option to submit OverHeards, In the Know & In the Dark and editorial ideas on Twitter. Our Twitter username is VolanteOpinion, so just reply @VolanteOpinion to send us your suggestion. I check that account regularly, especially to see if anyone has sent us new ideas or suggestions.
It is always hard to keep the Opinion pages diverse and fresh from week to week and I welcome any and all input from the USD and Vermillion community at large. I hope this blog post clears up some confusion and that it will generate some fresh ideas. Thanks everyone!
The domestication of a feminist
Tags: cooking, dinner, Italy, travel
By Volante Opinion Editor Heather Fluit
It took me 20 years to learn how to be a mediocre cook. Growing up, I subsisted on a steady diet of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Old Dutch Dill Pickle chips. Even when I played volleyball or basketball, my eating habits resembled more of a garbage disposal than a healthy, balanced human being.
At USD, I was spoon-fed (well, force-fed if you consider the required costs of on-campus meal plans) mass-produced food. I had zero motivation to drag my meager cooking utensils down to the oft-disgusting common kitchen to make a pot of overcooked spaghetti. I could have just walked to the Commons for that.
However, my very first apartment changed my appreciation of cooking — and, not to mention, made me less apt to think that if I cook, I am giving in to “The Man.” My first kitchen was about the size of a small closet and I shared it with three other people. In fact, I think it might actually have been a closet at one point in time. The doorway, which I’m convinced was designed with short people in mind, was even adorned with an unfortunate looking beaded curtain. It was an apartment in Florence, Italy, where I studied for a semester. I had a mildly functional gas burner, a small dented pot, a lukewarm refrigerator and leftover spices and olive oil from the former tenants.
I was mortified. I was convinced I would either starve from my lack of cooking ability, or rather, my lack of ability to order food in Italian. One of the two was going to do me in.
I started slowly, trying to work with the cards I’d been dealt. Spaghetti with tomato sauce was my first attempt at feeding myself. It was sufficient, though an embarrassing substitution for the authentic Italian cuisine down the street.
As the months wore on and I eventually returned home, I changed. I am not yet a “good” cook. No, not even close. Creative and resourceful, maybe. But, good? Not by a long shot.
What had changed was my perception of cooking, of caretaking. The ability to bring together family and friends around a table is not about the food, it’s merely the incentive. The power of cooking and a few plates of food was something that was lost on me until I learned that cooking isn’t about eating. It’s not about sustenance. It’s not about being domestic and subservient for the greater good of one’s family.
Cooking can lead to conversation starters, dinners, laughter and relationships. For many, it’s not about domesticity. It’s about learning to appreciate the draw of a home cooked meal.