Good Riddance to Feminism!

[boston bean]

Last edited Sat May 5, 2012, 09:17 AM - Edit history (1)

Modern motherhood is complicated. Naturally we want to be caregivers and nurturers, but, socially, we also want to be professional powerhouses. And, the truth is we can have both — just not at the same time, as dedication to one often results in forgoing pieces of the other. Understandably, this is why working mothers generally experience feelings of guilt and inadequacy.

And, for that, we can blame feminism — a movement that, while liberating women to follow their dreams, devalued marriage and the familial and societal benefits of homemaking and encouraged self-indulgence. It appears millennial moms have taken note, choosing to pattern themselves after their grandmothers rather than their baby boomer moms. A 2007 Pew Research survey showed a rising number of new mothers, 48 percent, consider full-time motherhood to be the ideal situation, while only 21 percent of working mothers believe working full time is ideal. One could presume the rise of “attachment parenting” is partially backlash from the children of Steinem-ites left for daycare and afterschool programs.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/30/motherhood-vs-feminism/good-riddance-to-feminism

Reading some of these bloggers posts at the NYT "Room for Debate"... well......



ETA: The blog posts you see at the first link are in reference to:

The U.S. publication of “The Conflict: How Modern Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women” by the French feminist Elisabeth Badinter is getting a lot of attention in the press; indeed, it’s a book club feature on the Motherlode blog in The New York Times.

Is Badinter right? Has women’s obsession with being the perfect mother destroyed feminism? In particular, has this trend of “attachment parenting” been bad for working moms?

at this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/30/motherhood-vs-feminism

[hlthe2b]

1. Written by someone totally clueless of the entire movement...

Either too young, or too determinedly ignorant to have either experienced or studied the feminist movement. (or too right wing to offer an objective view).

Sounds like a slightly muffled Phyllis Schlafly.

[seabeyond]

2. i dont feel motherhood and feminism is battling. there have been points made recently

Last edited Sat May 5, 2012, 12:47 PM - Edit history (1)

where i can agree with, that shows how SAHM conflicts with feminism. but i also see the conflict with the working mom and motherhood. it is that simple. so what i do is recognize the pro and cons. recognize and own the pros and cons. and do the best we can with them.

ultimately, until the SAHF is as common as the SAHM, then this conflict will always be. while we continue to condition society to believe the genders are so opposite, so different, that there is a nurturing gender and a provider gender then this issue will continue. it is a manufactured division. it is that simple. in real life, and in studies i see men that are nurturing, women that are nurturing and both that do better in the provider environment.

i think another area.... keeping in mind this gender difference created, that to point out SAHP gives advantages to the kids, will absolutely create another divide that ALL humans will grab onto because of guilt or whatever. the moms (who unrealistically is given all responsibility to child health) has to reject that there are advantages for kids with SAHP. it is a given. it is understandable. especially when two parents HAVE to work. we have to get past this, too. there are advantages. i live them every day. BUT... and let me say this clearly, it does not mean working parents children are ultimately going to fair less. it does not mean parents are not working their ass off to make up the differences, or that in those differences a child does not gain something else. it does not mean that a child is going to be less successfull.

but, ... why it needs to be recognized, is there is a reason parents want to have a stay at home. from my prospective, if one can afford it, it makes life simpler for all. and some want to be able to choose it.

on the other hand... now i look and see the lack of jobs. i see the kids coming out of college and not finding jobs. i ask myself, do i take a position from someone that needs.

so..... i always see so many grays in this area. that i reduce it to, we all do the best we can

and i take it out of feminism and put it into personal choice.

[redqueen]

3. I find all of this simply silly.

There is no 'women's obsession with being the perfect mother'.

These generalizations are meaningless, because they don't hold true for any significant number of women. There are all kinds of women. Some work and have nannies help with child care. Some don't have kids. Some stay at home, some work while the other parent stays at home. Some do attachment parenting.

They might all, each and every kind, be feminists.

The insistence on pretending that feminism has some list of dictates that women must follow in order to be considered feminists is outrageous. We feminists are all struggling just to survive in the patriarchy. We all do the best we can.

That is not to say that there are not disagreements among feminists about some issues, some significant. But those differences do not define us, as much as so many would simply love for that to be the case.

[BlueIris]

4. I find this topic interesting, but that article is terrible.

Superficial, badly written, and those comments...

[eridani]

5. The first time I read crap like this was in 1973 n/t