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A Strategy for Having Better Conversations About the Division of Labor
TikTok creator KC Davis, the author of Struggle Care, wants us to move beyond simply dividing up our list of chores
Imagine a world in which we put rest, not work, at the center of our lives.
What if instead of starting with our to-do lists, and building our lives around paid work and household tasks, we first asked: What do I need to feel fully myself? Is it time away from the house? Is it time alone in the house? Is it a mental break or a physical one? Is it the freedom to simply do what I want for a period of time without asking permission or having to explain myself?
KC Davis, the author of Struggle Care and a TikTok creator with 1.2 million followers, has built a following around transforming the way we think and talk about domestic labor. She argues that we’ve turned morally neutral tasks, like laundry and dishes, into a judgey competition in which we are perpetually the losers if we don’t perform them in a way that lives up to an arbitrary standard that may not work for everyone.
Willing to challenge any housekeeping orthodoxy (she keeps all clothes for her family of four in a single walk in closet, and stores nearly all of them in bins that require no folding, just…
