Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Feminist Movement...

has done me no favors the last few months.

The initial feminist movement (I believe it is normally referred to as the "first wave"), I have no problem with. The fight for political equality and voting rights, etc I'm all in favor of. There are even a few of the ideals that were fought during the second wave that I don't have any beef with. However, there are other portions of that wave (and basically the entirety of the third wave) that continue to show up and play havoc in society that really infuriate me.

For example, the emasculation of men. Excuse me for being old-fashioned, but I like a man who will offer to carry my heavy bags, open doors, and watch his language in front of me. I don't mind being considered "the weaker sex" because, in reality, any man with half a brain recognizes and values the work and abilities that the majority of women bring to their worlds. And those men who are lacking that half of the brain, well, I hate to say it but the feminist movement will never be able to eradicate certain attitudes--no matter how hard they scream and rant.

Then there's the denigration of the housewife and stay-at-home moms--because obviously a woman without a career is worthless. And then, of course, there is the whole abortion issues--which I won't even begin to rant about at this particular time (got to keep the blood pressure down!).

And although I have felt strongly about many of these issues and have seen the impact they have had on our society for years, it has been the last five months of being pregnant in which I have really begun to be irritated with the actual effects of these philosophies. When I sit at my computer at work, craving a nap, and go home barely able to do anything in the evenings because of how tired I am, and then be at home on the weekends and crash and find my to-do list growing longer by the day and my "done" list not increasing as quickly as I would prefer because I'm so exhausted from having worked all week, I'm tempted to find every feminist I can and give them all a good shaking, yelling at them the whole time, "You have helped cause this!"

We live in a society in which the cost of living makes it more and more difficult, every day, for women to stay home. And the rapidly rising costs of health care and the threats of government for jail-time for those who don't pay for health care, is complicating matters even more. And the thought of day care and someone else raising my Blueberry while I become a half-parent just so I can move up the corporate ladder and become a "success" simply turns my stomach.

And since when did "choice" get turned into "believe only in what I tell you to believe otherwise you're ignorant, racist, sexist, etc and are playing into the hands of the male population"?

Just my rant for the day.

Apparently I need a nap.

Six More Months of Shuffle and Change

The last post I wrote was July 2018. We were settling into routine, finding a groove, and trying to fit our family of five into a two-bedroo...