Weighing Conspiracy Cartoons and the Feminist Burden
Tonight I have something to look forward to. My boss had baseball tickets he couldn't use, so we had an office trivia contest to see who could get them. Obviously right now he still underestimates my ability to quickly locate obscure information online.
In other news, I woke up with the David the Gnome theme song stuck in my head. Anyone remember that cartoon? I seem to remember David (the gnome) going on all sorts of adventures while wife (also gnome) stayed home and baked things.
It reminded me of a Anthropology class I took in college in which the professor told us that if someone asked him whether the Earth was flat or round, he'd have to say flat. We had to look up all sorts of flat Earth theory.
Yeah, a man with a PhD really believes that the Earth is flat.
But he also made us watch all sorts of cartoons and old movies and talk about why these are bad for our kids. He showed us Disney's Peter Pan. He pointed out which characters stand for the U.S. and which stand for Russia and how it was all just a plot to inspire confidence in the President.
I don't know if cartoons are really out to get us, but it's pretty interesting to watch these shows looking for some kind of hidden message. Of course, you could probably go crazy coming up with conspiracy theories.
Last night the boyfriend and I watched The Colbert Report. He had on Linda Hirshman, author of "Get To Work!" The book encourages that women, even if they want to stay home with their kids, shouldn't stay home and shouldn't want to stay home. They should want what's best for women and society, which is (apparently) the power that comes with going to work.
I can see her point. It's definitely harder for women in the work place because if you have a child it cuts into your career in a way that just won't happen for men. But, many women don't have the money to hire a full-time nanny. More than that, many women may not want to. I'm personally uncomfortable with the idea of my kid being raised by someone I don't even know. Kids pick up so much that we don't intend for them to, what would they learn from some nanny while their parents are (always) at work?
I don't want the David the Gnome, Peter Pan, flat Earth theory style of living. But I also don't want to pop out some kids and then head right back out the door. I'm not saying I'm staying home the whole time they're growing up, but I'm not going to hurt my kid because of some political pissing contest.
But, Internet, maybe the feminists and mothers out there can set me straight.
2 Comments:
AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGG!
I am so sick to death of other woman telling me WHAT I SHOULD WANT out of my life and that I am anti-feminist for staying at home with my children.
Breathe.
I just think that when you are a parent, you have to have a lot of self-lessness. You have to sacrifice for the best good of your kid.
What is sad? I guess that means daycare for some, because there are a lot of shit parents out there.
I just think that you should have one parent at home if at all possible. Dad's? Cool. Some are better suited. If you absolutely have to work, then a loving family member.
I am not doing this to be traditional and anti-working mothers. I just think it is better for kids to have a parent around as much as possible.
I think that feminism has a very fine line to walk. In a way, it always strikes me as funny when woman take this stance, because they are wanting to conform woman as much as the Dr. Laura's of the world. I thought feminism was about individual choice as much as possible. I can see the stance about a woman who really WANTS to work (Although I still disagree with small children at home). However, to tell a mom who WANTS to stay with her kid that she shouldn't???! GRRRR.
Unfortunately, our choices affect others. No one can live in a selfish vaccuum. When you create a life, you are obligated to think of someone else.
I think that THAT is what is for the greater good of society. What this woman should be pushing for is to have more pressure on places of employment to re-enter woman into the workforce after their children are in school so they don't feel so much pressure to leave their children to go to work.
Ok...Rant done. I have to go save my son from a wasp's nest.
thank you for the lovely rant!
This book does sound pretty ridiculous to me. I can see someone saying why women should go back to work, but to go even further by saying that's what they SHOULD want seems a little obscene.
I agree that feminism does have a fine line to walk, and I don't know that it always walks it well. But what do I know?
Just think, if you were working you couldn't have saved your son from that wasp's nest!
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