Choice and Class
A pretty good--but not perfect--editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle about choice, class, and the so-called "Mommy Wars":
The debate over whether mothers of young children should . . . opt out, (or) choose to stay home -- reveals its bias: It assumes that all mothers can make a choice that, in actuality, very few mothers are in a position to make.
For most mothers, working full time is not a choice to be weighed against having a family; it's a necessity in order to support a family.
....
It's easy to open a newspaper and get the impression that parenting is a challenge faced only by upper-middle-class people. . . . Should children enroll in science or soccer camp?
....
for low-income mothers, summer brings a different set of challenges: finding a new means of child care now that the days aren't filled with classroom instruction.
As the article points out, this kind of thing is a feminist problem--
The recent obsession with the Mommy Wars and its out-and-out refusal to consider these differences in an area where socioeconomic class makes a huge difference has been puzzling to many feminists. It's 2007. The idea that class matters in, well, matters of class, is not exactly the complex syllogism it once was.
Or perhaps it is. The Mommy Wars' blatant disregard of its impact on lower-income mothers has resulted in something worse than a reversion to second-wave feminism of the 1970s, which favored a simplistic focus on giving women a choice without considering economic and cultural differences.
....
In essence, it's an onslaught of negative third-wave feminism, which assumes everyone has the financial security to make a choice and tells low-income and poor mothers that this doesn't concern them
--but it's a false feminist problem. That is to say, the media portrayal of "women's issues" as exclusively belonging to (mostly) white, upper middle class women is not something that comes from feminists (and no, not even "third-wave" feminists, who are well aware, thankyouverymuch, that class and race matter). It's something that comes from sexism. The only women who "count" are women who have the money and hence the collective power to affect advertisers. Poor women? If we pay attention to them, they're "the poor"--issues specific to women either get ignored or get presented as the results of "poor choices" (interesting use of the word, no?) like having "too many" kids "too young"--which presumably means before landing that six-figure-earning husband. Women of color? Oh, racism no longer exists, didn't you know? Immigrant women? They shouldn't have "chosen" to cross the border illegally.
It's not a coincidence that the overblown hype about the "Mommy Wars" only serves to convince people that feminism is trivial (after all, what's more trivial than being a mommy?), self-involved, and at best a hobby of privileged women. But if you go around and read what self-declared feminists actually write about, you'll find a whole 'nother picture.
The Chronicle's right that the problem is the assumption that "everyone" has enough money to "choose" to do the right thing. An assumption that contains an unstated premise that even those of us who are comfortably middle- to upper-middle class often have bad luck or make "bad choices"--but since we "matter," our choices are cushioned by the ability to refinance, to borrow in emergencies, to take out student loans, to ask mom or dad to help us find a job or loan us a little bit to tide us over, to coast on our husband's or wife's health insurance, to pay for a babysitter, to join a gym, to see a doctor. Even knowing that things like student loans are available is a privilege of the middle class: think about how much of the stuff you know about money and getting by is stuff someone else told you about, or someone you know did before you.
The Chronicle concludes by saying that "The Mommy Wars can be won when we redefine victory." It's not the mommy wars that are the problem though: the real problem is a media-manufactured class privilege that relies on hidden classism, racism, and sexism. The "war" will be won when people start realizing that most people, mommies and parents especially, do their damn best. And that therefore any problem you can generalize about is not simply a matter of "good" or "bad" "choices."
Bitch_PhD passes in public as a soccer mom, and can't decide if that's funny or terrifying.
PAGE:
1 | 2 | 3
Comments
freshprncebelair
Ellicott City, MD
June 2004
SEP 03, 2007 05:42 PM
Clidna
Canada
January 2005
SEP 04, 2007 06:40 AM
Clidna
Canada
January 2005
SEP 04, 2007 06:42 AM
nice_pun_bro
Irvine, CA
January 2007
SEP 04, 2007 01:38 PM
teddy__kgb
Albuquerque, NM
February 2007
SEP 04, 2007 02:25 PM
nice_pun_bro
Irvine, CA
January 2007
SEP 04, 2007 05:48 PM
teddy__kgb
Albuquerque, NM
February 2007
SEP 04, 2007 06:57 PM
SockPuppet
I'm lost
July 2006
SEP 05, 2007 03:46 PM
SockPuppet
I'm lost
July 2006
SEP 05, 2007 03:54 PM
nice_pun_bro
Irvine, CA
January 2007
SEP 07, 2007 12:20 PM
PAGE:
1 | 2 | 3