Friday, October 3, 2008

Can we please be done with the Mommy Wars?

I guess I live kind of a sheltered existence -- I thought we were done with the "Mommy Wars". But apparently it's still on as evidenced by this recent letter to Salt Lake City Weekly:

Why do women who are OK with abortion, who are OK with letting others raise their children and who are OK in working 40-plus hours a week outside the home call themselves “progressive?” What is so progressive about that [“Palin-Powered Females,” Sept. 18, City Weekly]?

(snip)

I have been a rocker, I’ve been a businesswoman, I’ve been an intellectual. And nothing is better than being “just a stroller-pushing momma.” “Progressive women” seem to want normal women to feel like poop for doing what comes naturally. They want normal women to be pro-abortion, pro-working mom, pro-psycho wife and pro-exercise queen! Why? Why can’t I be incredibly happy being a housewife and mother? Why is it odd for me to be pro-Hillary and pro-Sarah? They are both women.

Progressive women! You may see that many women who feel like me will not make their opinions known. You may wonder why. Because they are doing what their hearts desire, and doing what comes natural to them: loving their husbands, loving their children, loving their lives! With all of that good ol’ lovin’, how can that not be progressive?
I think this individual has been listening to too much hate radio -- she's got a lot of weird ideas about what she calls "progressive women".

I might be writing back to City Weekly on this one.

2 comments:

Melissa said...

I don't think there is anything weird about being a progressive SAHM. And it's not over because both sides continue to berate one another. I know I get crap all the time from people telling me I'm "wasting my degree" or that I'm not "really a woman" or whatever because I'm a SAHM. Now I may not agree with some of her assertions because she seems to be lashing back at other people's choices, however I don't understand why we can't live and let live. I thought the whole idea was to have choice not to berate other people's choices.

SLC Mama said...

Agreed. I personally define progress as having options, so anyone who thinks that all women should be SAHMs and any woman who thinks all women should have careers is not progressive by the definition that they are limiting the choices of others by their own beliefs.