Feminism and Child Rearing

Rather than regaling you with cute tales of what my children did this week (and there was plenty, in fact, SarahAnne and Gabe just got back from picking up coffee and donuts and SarahAnne decided to make snow angel in the dirt 1/2329979 of an inch of snow we had, very cute for a dirty little girl, that is) HOWEVER today I'm going to talk about a disturbing trend I'm seeing...anti feminism blogs.

I am kind of in shock at the sheer number of blogs I see these days talking about how feminists have ruined families and society, how the work force is skewed toward women who are taking mens' jobs, and feminism and gender roles. I won't link to any of these blogs to protect their ignorance identity, but I'm sure if you're so inclined you can find them.

From the time I was a little girl, my parents instilled in me (and my brother and sister) that we could do whatever we wanted if we put our minds to it. We were ALL raised to do household chores, from dishes to laundry to taking out the trash. There were no "girl" jobs, no specific "boy" jobs. Just chores to be done. Both of my parents worked; they both did things around the house equally. When my father would be laid off in the winter (he was a construction worker) he would do the majority of household chores, when my mom only worked part time, she would do the majority of the household chores. Imagine my surprise when I found out (via blogging!) that my family has been affected by feminism. Housework is a woman's job. Working outside of the home, even if for financial difficulty, is feminism taking men's jobs and, oh my heavens, a man doing laundry is screwing up gender roles
*gasp* *horror* *insert shock here*

What is feminism? For me, feminism means that as a woman, I have the choice to stay home or be in the workforce. I have the right to an equal salary and benefits if I choose to be in said workforce. It means that I have an equal say in what happens with my family and my country (What is this woman's suffrage you speak of? Women are to be allowed to vote?? The hell you say!) It means that I have the choice of what happens to my body; my reproductive rights are just that: MINE.

Now, my first reaction to all these "Oh the horrors of feminism" blog postings was to rant and rave and talk about what lunatics these women were...and my second, admittedly much more juvenile, reaction was to point and laugh, a la Nelson Muntz from the Simpsons and say "Oh you crazy anti feminist bloggers, if it weren't for the feminists you wouldn't have the privilege of sitting at home on your computer ranting about the horrors of feminism"


It's a catch-22 really, you can piss and moan all you'd like about the horrors of feminism and what it's doing to your families, workforce, etc but without those awful women fighting for your rights as women to be treated equally, you wouldn't be able to do the things you are doing. I wonder how many of the anti feminist bloggers would like to give up their reproductive rights, their right to vote, and the right to choose what is right for them as a woman (ie: working/staying home) That's what I thought...you can't have it both ways. In the meantime, I'll be over here haw hawing like Mr. Muntz, telling my son and daughter that no matter what, they are both free to choose what they'd like to do in life as well as teaching them both how to cook and do laundry...and cast ballots to ensure that feminism lives on so that THEIR children have the right to choose what's best for THEM, male or female. Haw Haw!