On a late Sunday afternoon with the first chill of fall in the air, I was standing in my sun-drenched kitchen chopping vegetables for dinner, while my boyfriend was outside cutting the grass.
It made me feel like a 1950s housewife, and that made me blissfully happy.
I like cooking, cleaning and doing laundry.
I prefer my boyfriend to be the bug killer, lawn mower, light bulb changer of the house.
This makes me wonder why, as a modern and progressive Millennial woman, do I find so much happiness in traditional and frankly, outdated male-female roles?
I'm girly.
I like clothes, makeup, jewelry and hair products. I have a very extensive and highly-organized Pinterest.
I'm pretty good at decorating, and amazing at cooking and baking. I am nurturing (at least when it comes to my dog). In general, I'm a pretty girly person if we're going by what's considered traditionally feminine.
Hopefully you're not picturing Elle Woods (I generally wear all black and I have more than a couple tattoos), but as far as my personality goes, I definitely play the role of a female very well.
Maybe because of this, I need a boyfriend who is just as masculine as I am feminine.
I need a guy who knows how to fix my car, and could probably scare off an intruder in the middle of the night. A guy who's not afraid to get dirty doing yard work and can fix the faucet when it leaks.
I once dated and eventually got engaged to a guy who was just as into clothes and dressing well as I am. He also had a questionable amount of expensive name brand hair products in his bathroom.
His apartment looked like it came straight out of an IKEA catalog, and he was even more of a neat freak than I am.
When the dishwasher wasn't cleaning dishes properly, I advised him to rinse the dishes before loading them. Instead, he insisted on calling the apartment's maintenance people to come up and look at it.
Needless to say, we broke up.
Don’t get me wrong; I don’t want some super macho guy who spends all his time lifting weights and hunting.
But I need a guy who can balance out my femininity.
I'm not a 1950s housewife.
Although I like the traditional male and female roles in my relationships, I would never want to actually be an old-school housewife.
For one thing, kids are revolting to me.
The last thing I want in life is a bunch of kids and their friends taking over my house. Plus, if I didn't have a job, I'd die of boredom.
If I ever wanted to get divorced, I know my friends, family and society wouldn't judge me like they would if it was the 1950s. I don't feel the need to be dolled up with dinner hot and ready on the table when my man comes home from work.
I think we all have both masculine and feminine qualities, and some people have more of one than the other.
For example, I’m into a lot of girly stuff and can spend hours looking at makeup at Sephora, but I also know how to build a perfect campfire. I’m not afraid to get dirty outside.
Gender stereotypes have played a huge role in our lives lately and have gotten tons of media coverage, whether it's from Caitlyn Jenner, the focus on women's reproductive health or the countless other factors contributing to the issue.
I’m definitely all for women’s rights, but when it comes to my romantic relationships, I like to feel like the woman.
