Monday, January 27, 2014

Feminist Misogyny

Just in case you ever imagined that feminists respected wives and mothers, along comes someone named Amy Glass to disabuse you of your illusions.

In an absurd post on a blog incorrectly dubbed a “thought catalogue” Glass lashes out contemptuously at women who choose to be wives and mothers.

Next to backpacking through the Himalayas making a home and bringing up children is, for Glass, doing nothing.

In her words:

Having kids and getting married are considered life milestones. We have baby showers and wedding parties as if it’s a huge accomplishment and cause for celebration to be able to get knocked up or find someone to walk down the aisle with. These aren’t accomplishments, they are actually super easy tasks, literally anyone can do them. They are the most common thing, ever, in the history of the world. They are, by definition, average. And here’s the thing, why on earth are we settling for average?

If women can do anything, why are we still content with applauding them for doing nothing?

Glass aspires to be exceptional. She feels that a husband and children can only prevent her from fulfilling her potential and becoming exceptional.

She writes:

You will never have the time, energy, freedom or mobility to be exceptional if you have a husband and kids.

As one pundit pointed, out Amy Glass should immediately stop worrying about doing something exceptional. On her best day her mind will never be more than mediocre.

For the women who have not drunk the feminist Kool-Aid, Glass has nothing but withering and mindless contempt:

I hear women talk about how “hard” it is to raise kids and manage a household all the time. I never hear men talk about this. It’s because women secretly like to talk about how hard managing a household is so they don’t have to explain their lack of real accomplishments. Men don’t care to “manage a household.” They aren’t conditioned to think stupid things like that are “important.”

We do need to be grateful to Amy Glass for one thing. She has shown us the true face of feminist misogyny. Don’t expect an army of feminists to take to rush out to defend wives and mothers.


13 comments:

Anonymous said...

"If women can do anything, why are we still content with applauding them for doing nothing?"

Saying that being a parent is "doing nothing" is a sure sign of someone who hasn't parented or comes from a woefully dysfunctional family.

I'm not getting how the moms of my folks' generation survived without all this whining. They had kids young, went back to work when those kids became teens, and virtually all did great. Some own businesses; others have high level management positions.

None are spinsters alone with cats, I'll tell you that. Which is where Glass' generation is headed.

I see immigrant women more like my parents' generation and would encourage men to look to these women for dating or marriage. American women have jumped the shark and it's best to let them take the Last Train to Catville before they abscond with half your money.

-- Days of Broken Arrows

Anonymous said...

Maybe Amy is right. Her mother didn't do anything special in creating a self-absorbed spoiled brat like her daughter. She should have been mountain-climbing instead than bringing up Amy.

PS. We should also demean 95% of all the professions since they're routines that aren't 'special'. I mean look at all those dumb bus drivers and short order cooks. What they do isn't as challenging as rocket science or as fun as hiking through the Himalayas, so they must be worthless idiots.

Feminism purported to stand up for the powerless. Now, it's a form of preening arrogance among rich elite women--often Jewish--who turn up their noses at people with lower IQs, less money, less privilege, and less leisure.

Ralph said...

Perhaps Amy does not plan on needing help in her old age, or living to be old, but if it happens that she does, it will be some other woman's child or children that will be taking care of her. Amy is selfish, and that is never remarkable or fullfilling, it is a character flaw that she insists on celebrating.


Kath said...

Amy is living an unfulfilled life and is doing her best to spread the misery.

Anonymous said...

"Just in case you thought feminists respected wives and mothers" Whoa, wait a minute buddy. If they don't respect wives and mothers they aren't really feminists are they?! Now, is there a problem with women in all walks of life looking at others who are intrinsically different from them, or who have had different experiences, who have made different choices? Yes. I get that... this woman has no respect for people who are different from her. It's a problem many of us have. We see an example of something, we make generalities, we act with judgment and fear. "Liberals this, conservatives that, Christians this, athiests the other... blah, blah, blah." Using this article to exemplify everyone who considers herself a feminist or what is typical among young American women today is frankly dishonest and unfair. But really, it's ironic. You're doing the same thing she is.

Anonymous said...
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Stuart Schneiderman said...

Obviously, not all feminists think as Glass thinks. Certainly, not all feminists act as she is acting. And yet, I suspect that feminists are out in force defending her... not noting that, while we are happy to defend her right to make her own decisions, she also expresses raw contempt for women who want to be wives and mothers.

That, after all, was my point.

And let's keep in mind, as I mentioned, Wendy Davis is being defended vigorously by feminists like Kirsten Powers, and, dare I say, Davis was not very into being a wife or a mother.

Anonymous said...

I give Amy credit for her clear mind and courageous self-expression. She's done us all a great favor:

She's shown the fullness of feminism taken to its logical end.

Not only is it misogynistic and self-loathing, it's also a great formula for extinction. But perhaps that's the point.

Tip

Anonymous said...

Tip said "it's also a great formula for extinction"

It's an interesting idea - the rise of "acceptability" of homosexuality might be claimed to the same thing, while of course that claim would be silly since Homosexuals aren't interested in converting heterosexuals.

Similarly I think Feminism does a great service when it says "Women are more than mothers", given a world of 7 billion people, there's no imminent danger.

It's a very bad world in places where women's only "choice" for status is motherhood. So I'm all for a large minority of women volunteering to go childless, while other women who really want to be mothers can have 3, 4 or 5 kids and if they blow it on the first couple, they can master their skills on the rest, right?

At least that seemed more sensible than China's "one child policy" guaranteeing spoiled siblingless children who think the world revolves around them.

But back to the Feminists, and their resentment against the world, it's certainly a shame, and certainly women prone to resentment will be attracted to feminism, but I don't see this as a necessary conclusion, any more than "penis envy" as a natural state of womanhood.

Dr. Mabuse said...

What a dumb concept she has of wedding and shower gifts! As if they're prizes for an "accomplishment". Honestly, don't people think things through to their roots anymore? People setting up a house together are given things to help set up a house; people having a baby are given things to help them take care of a baby. These tasks can be difficult and expensive, and gifts are meant to help ease the burden. When a marathon runner passes Mile 15 and someone tosses him a bottle of water, do we think it's to reward him for his "accomplishment"? No, it's because we realize he's got a long way to go and needs supplies if he's going to succeed.

K Herman said...

As far as weddings and baby showers, I wonder what her take is on birthdays. For a lot of people it is a celebration merely for still being alive and of less consequence than a wedding or baby shower.

K Herman said...

Dr. Mabuse: You and Amy are only considering the utilitarian aspect of wedding gifts and baby showers. I understand such gifts do have utilitarian value, as you note. But,whatever happened to expressing love, support, friendship, good wishes, etc. that such gifts entail?

Dr. Mabuse said...

I'm only considering the *origin* of the tradition of giving wedding and shower gifts. It was to help young people acquire some of the physical things they'd need to start a life together and bring up a baby. Of course, this wasn't the case for royal marriages or aristocratic births, for the majority of people, it was very practical.

This is why those gifts always tended to be of a particular nature; you don't give a case of beer to a new mother, or a subscription to Playboy to newlyweds. You give them something appropriate, which used to be something they need.

There's now some feeling that it's inappropriate to expect a lot of wedding gifts if the participants are on their 3rd or 4th marriage, or if they've been living together so long that they've already set up their household. A big chunk of the REASON for giving gifts in the first place is gone.