Posted on 04/11/2005 8:39:32 AM PDT by formercalifornian
Is the refrigerator only an appliance, or does it speak much more to our values and cultural needs? Is it simply a holder of food, or does it say something about how we live and who we are?
After long years of viewing refrigerators as a block of cold, static kitchen furniture, many have begun to see an opportunity for change.
Some refrigeration reformers are questioning the very role of a refrigerator in the household, becoming more vocal about changing refrigeration issues and rights.
Jerusha Chauderey, charter member of Women Opposing Refrigeration Dependence, hopes the public will consider a full-scale re-evaluation of refrigeration, and proposes that new refrigerators be more accommodating to the warmth of food.
"Why must we always act as if cold is the only option? And doesn't celery have just as much right to be limp as crisp?" she asked, adding that she disapproves of the whole concept of crisper drawers, something she views as an invention of oppression.
Others, too, are rethinking assumptions of refrigeration.
Rick Burr, respected food critic and editor of Rethinking Cold magazine, questions the narrow function long ascribed to water and ice dispensers.
"Why," he asks, "should dispensers be restricted to water?" Burr believes a diversity of beverages should be allowed, and not just cold ones either: Hot chocolate, soup, cappuccino. And maybe even chili.
In Burr's mind, manufacturers should be held accountable for their restrictive attitudes.
"Too long manufacturers have limited, restricted and frozen the life out of food and beverages by silencing dissident voices of warmth," he observes.
WORD member Miranda Kuhlpoppe takes on the auto-defrost function.
"Consumers should stop being so phobic of frost," she says. "Some people eat frost, for crying out loud! It's wrong to say they can't enjoy any just because others don't like a two-inch rim of it on their freezer compartments. Frost is more natural than defrost."
Other activists object to door gaskets, arguing that doors should not be forced to close, especially not so tightly. Loose gaskets should be mandatory, they assert, to allow the freedom of air flow.
"Tightly sealed doors reflect an unyielding, tightness of outlook, " claims one warmth activist, who prefers to remain unnamed out of fear of reprisals from the less-tolerant.
"The suffocating constraint of tightly sealed doors must make way for a more open attitude. Tight gaskets are the by-product of constrictive thinking, and it's time creative visionaries took the initiative in the industry."
Another area of dispute is shelving. Previously, the debate raged between advocates of glass and metal grille shelves. But that debate has now advanced to contention over the ideal number of shelves.
Adjustable glass shelves were a good idea, reformers point out, but they cite the need for more.
"Instead of the usual three or four shelves, manufacturers should be required to add 44 or 45," Chauderey insists. "It is a kind of poverty of mind to offer consumers such a paltry amount of shelf space. And manufacturers should be required to hold an annual review to decide whether even more shelves are needed."
Jill Coldwell, founder of the radical Fight Refrigerator Excess and Exploitation, is most alarmed at the growing trend of milk holders in refrigerator doors.
"The issue of milk jugs in doors must be addressed," she says. "Refrigerator companies assume people want milk. This is a horrific and coercive assumption. Milk implies children. How dare manufacturers prescribe our family make-up?
"Not only that, many consumers believe milk to be harmful. And many are lactose intolerant. Assuming a need for milk is a subtle endorsement. Manufacturers are just setting themselves up for lawsuits by adding these features of 'convenience.'
"The same goes for dairy, meat and deli bins. If included at all, they should not be labeled. Egg containers also."
Burr agrees. "These authoritarian traditions - pre-labeled drawers, restrictive choices, segregation of cold and colder - must make way for more contemporary practices. Many refrigerator users, especially among the young, are challenging the staid attitudes toward hot and cold, and manufacturers must come to grips with the new tensions."
It is only a matter of time.
Why stop there? I could use 80 or 85 shelves in mine.
I think this article was published 10 days too late.
This is a joke, right?
Hmmm... looking at the names... this is a joke. "Coldwell" "Burr" (Brrr), etc.
Humor rating: "Trying too hard"
The bigger the burger the better the burger.
I've always been offended by the universal Whiteness of refrigerators. Yes, refrigerators of color have been offered over the years, but they always just seem to suffer from "weak markets" or "changing tastes." It makes my blood boil.
Not quite sure I get what you're refering to.
Ah, but that's why the stainless steel door refrigerators have been so big. What I don't like is the shape. I want one that is cylindrical with lazy susan shelves that can twirl the moldy cheese to the front.
"Many refrigerator users, especially among the young, are challenging the staid attitudes toward hot and cold, and manufacturers must come to grips with the new tensions."
Ah the tensions of refrigerator design. It's chilling to think about.
10 days ago was April 1st.
I have a problem with this sort of thing myself. If I turn my control up too high, the water gets all hard and stuff. Somebody should pass a law so that doesn't happen.
Ease of cleanability immediately comes to mind.
Actually I think this Modest Proposal does a pretty good job of illustrating the absurd industry that the diversity and activism fetish has become. The worship of default 'thinking outside the box' without considering that perhaps there was a good reason for a box.
No, it's not "The Onion", it's the Leeks or Scallions or perhaps the Shallot or Eschalot.
My fridge has a Chardonnay dispenser (and boy was it tough to cram him into the top shelf!) How small is he? He's so small,.....
But seriously folks,....refrigerators in Europe are much, much smaller than American fridges. How small are they?...They're so small,... Is this a great country or what?!!!
Remember when we used to call them "ice boxes" even when they weren't ice boxes?
"Ah, but that's why the stainless steel door refrigerators have been so big. What I don't like is the shape. I want one that is cylindrical with lazy susan shelves that can twirl the moldy cheese to the front."
Calling Susan lazy is horribly judgemental. She's indolent-by-choice Susan.
The worst thing that ever happened to refrigerators was when they made the top flat; the last time mine got cleaned off I found an old carton of eggs that had a "Use By" date printed in Roman numerals.
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