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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.
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How come there are no comments by Kenny Freeze ??? ;-))
OH MAN that would make a zillion dollars.
And I think they should have a nut compartment, to keep your nuts fresh.
Dispense other beverages????? That's called a kegarator! And I have one, it holds a keg of beer and has a tap on top. Nothing like having ice-cold beer on draft ALL the time.
Oh. Duh. Got it.
Manufacturer association spokesman Ken Moore was recently quotes "we deplore........
Now THAT is a great idea. Maybe even with calorie information.
Oh. Sorry. I better take a little more diversity training. Permanently unemployed Susan.
Yeah, but the glass doors would soon get all smudgy like glass shelves and would look terrible. The glass shelves look wonderful on floor models, but give me back the old metal rack shelves and let the koolaid drip to the bottom where you can't see it. Glass shelves don't stay clean for more than 3 days in my fridge, and it would take even less time for glass doors to look horrible.
Susan has ADD, and should be given extra time to complete her tasks as she struggles with this crippling disability. How about some sympathy and understanding instead of your scorn, derision and outdated judgmental language of paternalistic oppression.
Yes, the glass doors would look terrible, but that just means we can initiate a class action lawsuit against the manufacturer. THINK, man!
Yeah, and another law to prevent rusty lettuce.
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I think they should make a combination refrigerator-oven with a trap door. Pull the lever and a chicken falls into the oven. Great for parties.