ABSTRACT
When Cosmopolitan magazine announced in its June 2000 issue that young twenty-something women had become the new “housewife wannabes”, the relationship between domesticity and female/feminist emancipation seemed to have been turned on its head (Dutton 164). While for the last century women had fought to expose the oppression and subjugation inherent in their domestic subject positions and bring about a consciousness-raising ‘click’ moment, now it appeared that they were eager to reembrace the title of housewife and rediscover the joys and crafts of a ‘new femininity’. Suddenly, domesticity became the buzzword of the new millennium and housewives, fi ctional and real, were emerging in all areas, determined to regain entry into their doll’s house that, not forty years ago, they seemed to have left for good. From Nigella Lawson whipping up tasty treats on TV (and simultaneously managing to look infi nitely glamorous) to Brenda Barnes famously giving up her job as president of Pepsi-Cola North America (and with this, her $2 million annual salary) to spend more time with her three children,1 there was no denying that domesticity was experiencing a comeback, a twenty-fi rst-century renaissance. Critics from all arenas were keen to comment on this cultural trend: while ‘new traditionalist’ politicians and journalists were welcoming this reaffi rmation of family values, feminist critics denounced this retro-boom as a ‘backlash’ that returns women to the subordinate roles of a bygone, prefeminist era. Indeed, domesticity has reappeared as a fi ercely debated concept in both popular culture and feminist criticism, proving that the meaning of ‘home’ is far from being domesticated and remains unresolved despite sustained attempts (from feminist, political and media quarters alike) to settle it.2
