Homemaking in New Zealand: thinking through the mutually constitutive relationship between domestic material objects, heterosexuality and home

Abstract

This article explores the homemaking practices of heterosexual couples who live in Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand. Specifically, it examines the role of domestic material objects in the mutual production of heterosexuality and home. The article draws on data collected from joint and individual semi-structured interviews and self-directed photography with 14 heterosexual couples living in monogamous co-residential relationships. It offers an analysis of the ways in which heterosexual couples use ordinary household objects to constitute, consolidate and sometimes undermine their gendered and sexed subjectivities and interpersonal relationships. A focus on domestic material objects offers an opportunity for challenging normative assumptions about the relationship between heterosexuality and domestic space.

Este artículo explora las prácticas de mantenimiento del hogar de parejas heterosexuales que viven en Hamilton, Aotearoa, Nueva Zelanda. Específicamente examina el rol de los objetos domésticos materiales en la producción mutua de heterosexualidad y hogar. El artículo se apoya en datos tomados de entrevistas semiestructuradas en forma conjunta e individual y fotografía autodirigida, con 14 parejas heterosexuales que conviven en relaciones monógamas. Ofrece un análisis de las formas en que las parejas heterosexuales utilizan los objetos ordinarios del hogar para constituir, consolidar y algunas veces socavar sus subjetividades y sus relaciones interpersonales generizadas y sexuadas. El enfoque sobre los objetos materiales domésticos ofrece una oportunidad para desafiar los supuestos normativos sobre las relaciones entre heterosexualidad y el espacio doméstico.

本文探讨居住在新西兰(常云缭绕之岛)哈密尔顿的异性配偶打造家园的行动，并特别检视在异性恋与家的相互生产关系中，居家物品所扮演的角色。本文运用对十四对一夫一妻同居关系的异性恋配偶所进行的半结构式共同与个人访谈数据以及他们的自拍照片，分析异性恋配偶如何运用平凡的居家物品，形塑，巩固抑或时而减损其性别化和性化主体性与人际关系的方式。聚焦居家物品，将可提供机会挑战异性恋与家户空间关系的规范性假设。

Keywords:

• homemaking
• heterosexuality
• domestic material objects
• gendered and sexed subjectivity
• heterosexual couples

Keywords:

• mantenimiento del hogar
• heterosexualidad
• objetos materiales domésticos
• subjetividad generizada y sexuada
• parejas heterosexuales

Keywords:

• 打造家园
• 异性恋
• 居家物品
• 性别化与性化的主体性
• 异性恋配偶

Acknowledgements

I extend my gratitude to the couples who participated in this research; my PhD supervisors for ongoing support and guidance and the editors of Gender, Place and Culture and anonymous reviewers for constructive feedback.

Notes

 1. Hamilton is located in the North Island of New Zealand and has an estimated population of 130,000. It is suburban in character and surrounded by land used mainly for dairy farm production.

 2. The term ‘Pākehā’ refers to white New Zealanders of European descent. Pākehā forms the dominant ethnic group in New Zealand. The term ‘Māori’ is commonly used to refer to the indigenous peoples in New Zealand (Spoonley 1993). My use of the terms Pākehā and Māori does not assume universality or homogeneity. I use them in a way that recognises the fluidity of these subjectivities.

 3. The material in this article is derived from a wider study that uses the notion of ‘love’ to understand further the relationship between subjectivity and domestic space for heterosexual couples, and in particular, women in heterosexual relationships. The decision to focus primarily on women's experiences of heterosexual love and home was a conscious and considered one. See Morrison (2010, 2011) for more information on the reasons for focusing primarily on women's experiences.

 4. This is not to suggest that displaying couple photographs is a homemaking activity practiced solely by straight couples. See Gorman-Murray (2008b) for a discussion about the homemaking practices of Margaret, a 60-something lesbian living in a cohabiting same-sex relationship, who displays photographs of her and her partner around their house.

 5. This seems to be consistent with much of the literature on domestic photography and gender (see, e.g, Rose 2004).

 6. Of the 14 couples who participated, five are married.

 7. In New Zealand, a ‘flat’ refers to a form of housing associated with collective living. In a flat, members of a shared household, typically between two and eight people, share a house or an apartment and usually divide up living costs. Members of a flat are referred to as ‘flatmates’ (similar to roommates or housemates). This type of living arrangement is called ‘flatting’. Many young New Zealanders, particularly university students, flat because it reduces living costs and offers high levels of sociability.

 8. Although research shows that female partners continue to do much of the housework in opposite-sex households including cleaning bedrooms (see, e.g, McDowell 2009).

 9. See Longhurst (2001) for a detailed discussion of the Cartesian dualism that renders some people as ‘tied to their bodies’ and the implications this has for geography.

10. Whereas heterosexuals tend to be associated with institutions such as marriage, home and family that construct their relations in ways that go beyond the ‘merely sexual’.