My brain hurts.....

[patgund]

I'm all for women and men having the same rights and responsibilities, and I agree that the responsibilities in raising a family should be divided equally. Personally, I don't tend to like women that are doorstops.

If a parent, male or female, choses to stay at home to devote her or his time to raising their family, it's *their* choice.

Unleashing the Wrath of Stay-at-Home Moms

"Everybody started hating Linda, apparently, when I published an article in the progressive magazine the American Prospect last December, saying that women who quit their jobs to stay home with their children were making a mistake. Worse, I said that the tasks of housekeeping and child rearing were not worthy of the full time and talents of intelligent and educated human beings. They do not require a great intellect, they are not honored and they do not involve risks and the rewards that risk brings. Oh, and by the way, where were the dads when all this household labor was being distributed? Maybe the thickest glass ceiling, I wrote, is at home."

I'll agree with the "not honoured" (anywhere near like they should) part. But the rest???

I like this rebuttal though

This is Why So Many People Hate Feminists

"As a "feminist" - whatever that word even means - one would think Hirshman would resist the temptation to infantilize grown women, but she claims she is just "asking women the hard questions." In reality, she is expressing an intolerant world view that women who don't work are losers, which makes her scarcely different than Caitlan Flanagan (aka the Ann Coulter of stay-at-home motherhood) who attacks and lectures women from the opposite end of the spectrum. And to be clear, like Flanagan, Hirshman isn't just expressing an opinon about what she thinks is best, she is saying that any woman who makes a choice different from what she espouses is unequivocally "wrong."

Comments

[tepintzin.livejournal.com]

Being a stay-at-home mom, if a family can afford it (I will derail lamentation about the economy right here), is a perfectly valid career choice, IMHO. What many women, myself included, recoil from is how for too long it was the only choice a woman had if she were not Catholic, Catholic women having the other options of nun and pious spinster.

I only know a very few stay at home moms, maybe two or three. One is celticdragonfly who really *does* turn it into an art; I've described her to americanstd as a bona fide domestic goddess. On the other, I know a woman who is a dutiful Christian wife, in denial of the fact that she hates and resents every second.

Caitlan Flanagan was on "The Colbert Report" a couple of months back. She's typical of anti-feminist neocons in that she spouts praise for "traditional" gender roles but doesn't adhere to them herself. She calls housewifery a "lost art" but doesn't know how to cook and her kids have a nanny. She berates women who work outside the home while going on speaking tours. Linda Hirshman may be just as wrong, but at least she's practicing what she preaches.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Oh, celticdragonfly is a damn good SAHM.

As for the neocon women who spout off about the "traditional gender roles", yeah, I noticed that as well. For all the pious blathering from the Beverly LaHayes, Caitlan Flanagans, Ann Coulters, or Laura Schlessingers do about women needing to return to their "traditional" gender roles, they seem to be awfully poor at such themselves.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Hey, I wanted to say thank you to both of you for the compliment. I've had this post up in a tab and I just go back to it now and then for the nice egoboo. I hope you're right - after all, you guys don't get to see me actually at work!

As far as gender roles - I really hope for a world where feminism means women get to make their own choices - not that they're required to follow others'.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

(chuckle) Seen you as a SAHM and a working mom, and you're pretty good in both roles. :-)

And agreed on the gender roles.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I always thought feminism was about increasing choices, not decreasing them.

And wottinell's the matter with a stay-at-home Dad???