Unleashing the Wrath of Stay-at-Home Moms [feminist screed - on Father's Day]

The Washington Post ^ | June 18, 2006 | Linda R. Hirshman

[GAB-1955]

I read it and I realized:
(1) This woman is a blithering idiot with a political agenda.
(2) The Washington Post must have laid off its competent editors, because no one with any editing sense would have printed this article.

[taxcontrol]

Contrast that with the definition of narcism:

1) Excessive love or admiration of oneself. See Synonyms at conceit.
2) A psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem.
3) Erotic pleasure derived from contemplation or admiration of one's own body or self, especially as a fixation on or a regression to an infantile stage of development.
4) The attribute of the human psyche characterized by admiration of oneself but within normal limits.

Which of the two definitions seems most appropriate?

[randog]

This article is not worthy of being read. I just cannot force myself.

That's OK--I read it for you. Here's a synopsis:

Women aren't buying into the feminist bull**it anymore. Waaaaaaah!

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

" Oh, and by the way, where were the dads when all this household labor was being distributed?"

In previous generations, the vast majority were out working 72 hour weeks at mind-numbing, dirty and dangerous jobs in fields, factories, forests, or mines in order to enable their spouse to care for their children.

[CatoRenasci]

Well, she did refer to Socrates, whom we know through his pupil Plato. There's no doubt that Plato thought a large part of a philosopher's job was to tell other people how to live - exhibit A is Plato's Republicwhich just serendipitously happens to be run by philosophers, bans music, and is a thoroughly totalitarian document. As much as Plato is revered in some philosophical circles for the Dialogues, he is reviled by many as both an idealist and a proto-totalitarian. The line from Plato to Rousseau, Hegel and Marx and his epigoni has been drawn many times by serious thinkers.

For myself, I found her article purile and rather pathetic, defending her person rather than her ideas, and trying hive everyone who disagrees with her off as some sort of Christian fundamentalist. 'Tain't so, and she ought to know better, but then she's lived in the Boston ivory tower for decades, the left-intellectual cocktail part circuit from Boston to Washington with detours to Martha's Vineyard and the Hamptons.

[operation clinton cleanup]

I work 24/7/365, and I haven't had a day off since my oldest was born in Sept of 1990. Isn't that cool!

Yes it is! I wonder if the writer's Mother had a full time nanny and housekeeper.

[dawn53]

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.

"For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world."

William Ross Wallace

[CatoRenasci]

" Oh, and by the way, where were the dads when all this household labor was being distributed?"

There is another explanation for the phenomenon: left to themselves, (most) men simply won't do as much around the house because they don't consider it as important as (most) women do. Women spend more time cleaning and cooking because they (often) have a lower threshold of "I can't stand the mess" or "No, we can't have TV dinners or go out" than do (most) men.

[LauraleeBraswell]

IT is commendable

[Alouette]

[operation clinton cleanup]

Which of the two definitions seems most appropriate?

I'll go with #1 and #2 with #3 being highly likely, but not proven in the story.

[LauraleeBraswell]

I don't know why some people have to post that they will not read the article. I thought it was interesting and I read the whole thing. Do I agree? Of course not.

[Right Wing Assault]

it's a philosopher's job to tell people how they should lead their lives

The author CLEARLY confuses the term "liberal" with "philosopher".

[bvw]

I heard her on Mike Medved a week or so ago -- your description of her is spot on -- that is exactly how she came across.

[Right Wing Assault]

Well, I am going to play philosopher then, too. I demand that she take a cup of hemlock as another philosopher did. Then we won't have her to kick around anymore.

[mockingbyrd]

"But I'm a philosopher, and it's a philosopher's job to tell people how they should lead their lives."

Wrong. Philosophy is the study of wisdom and the pursuit of the beautiful according to the father of philosophy, Aristotle.

I didn't read whole crapfest, but I did see her on 60 minutes and she struck me as a bitter, abandoned woman, who resents those women who are able to raise and teach their children. She resents them because she is envious of them, they have what she lost. They are able to show a child a sunrise for the first time and that is something her bitter words cannot take away.

[operation clinton cleanup]

Exactly!

[operation clinton cleanup]

The author CLEARLY confuses the term "liberal" with "philosopher".

I think she meant to say Progressive, not Philosopher.

[LaineyDee]

Generally when people self-label their positions and personas it is because they are uncomfortable with their perceived notion of what others think of them

This gal reminds me of an old girlfriend who was entrenched with the feminazi movement. She chided me non-stop for putting my life on hold to raise my kids and engineer the household. She finally admitted she was jealous. These are sad people with sad, empty lives.

[operation clinton cleanup]

She put all her eggs in the feminist basket (so to speak) and now cant come to terms with her own mortality. Her superior intellect will not live on.