On Cooking

I had a conversation with a stranger yesterday. An unusual talk between two ladies sitting in a cafe with no one else around but us. From the simplest talk of weather, we ended up chatting about womanhood. Our chat left me uneasy afterwards, and it kept me up all night just thinking about it.

She said, no matter how intelligent a woman is, a woman must be able to cook. Because cooking is a woman's job and is a key measure of whether a woman is truly a 'woman'.

This bugs me. In my opinion, both males and females have the right to choose to do what they want to do, what they love, what they enjoy doing. Cooking can be done by both males and females. Women are not born to end up (only) being in the kitchen and serve. Every woman can decide whether she wants to cook or not. Because every human being is gifted the talent (and or interest) in different fields. Some women are good in cooking, some baking, some sewing, some singing, some car-racing, some designing, some writing, some leading a company, some are lucky enough to be good in almost everything. But what is most important: there needs to be no judgment, moreover this stigma of "a woman must..". I myself have made it comfortable between my husband and I that I cook occasionally. When I am tired, we all eat take-outs or let our helper cook. When I have the time or am not feeling overly tired, I cook for everyone.

Stop pressurizing women so much. Make life easier for all of us, males and females.