In our culture, women tend to enjoy independence. They tend to live life in opposition to the domestic stereotype of the past.

This domestic life revolved around cooking and baking in the kitchen, cleaning, knitting and sewing. Today, that lifestyle for women is essentially viewed with a negative eye.

When I go on the internet, I surpass Facebook, YouTube and email and go straight to Pinterest.  I think this action may be true for many other women.

Pinterest is an online bulletin board that posts pictures of anything ranging from recipes and do it yourself crafts to cleaning tips.  It also has fashion, fitness, photography and more.

If a picture appears that catches your eye, you pin it to your own personalized board, create a caption and allow your followers to see what you are interested in.

It doesn’t stop there; you can click on the picture posted and it may take you to its original website, providing more information about that pin.

You can click the picture and find full recipes, step-by-step knitting instructions and where clothing items can be purchased.

This website’s popularity continues to grow and attract new ‘pinners’ each day. With recipes just a click away, I have begun to spend more time in the kitchen testing out different dinners. I have talked to friends who have expressed that they have begun to cook most of their meals because Pinterest has given them ideas of what to make and how.

Now with the holiday season surrounding us, more and more sheets of cookies and pans of cakes have emerged throughout halls, houses and kitchens because Pinterest has been influential.

Also, women are finding fun ways to clean and organize the bathroom and bedroom.  They are seeing pictures of fun scarves to make by hand or how to mend articles of clothing.

Craft stores are loving the fact that people are pinning more crafts and are coming into their stores to buy fabric, sewing kits, yarn, needles and all sorts of various home-made craft basics.

See what I am getting at?

Without publicly calling themselves a ‘become-a- domestic-woman’ website, Pinterest is beginning to re-create the role of women.

This is by no means a bad thing, and I am not saying that any woman using Pinterest is now a stereotypical domestic woman and should wear an apron and have a vacuum ready at all times.

Pinterest has made such negatively viewed lifestyles both fun and enjoyable.  It gets women cooking and baking for the fun of it and not in a ‘submitting-to-their-husband-or-spouse’ kind of way.

It gets women to want to organize and clean things in creative ways because they want to, not because they have to.

Pinterest has created opportunities to try do-it-yourself projects that women may have never been exposed to or considered trying because of possible negative connotations.

Pinterest is shaping lives and is not only limited to women, but men use it as well and can get just as much out of it.

My challenge to you: if you don’t use Pinterest, simply make an account.  Begin to use it by trying out recipes, at-home fitness programs and admiring photography and art.

If you use Pinterest, good job, continue to let it shape daily habits, open up doors to further exploration and allow it to make stereotypical domestic lifestyles become more enjoyable opportunities.

Williamson is a sophomore majoring in journalism and mass communications. Comments can be sent to hwilliamson15@ my.whitworth.edu.