Yes, that occurred to me while writing replies, that a woman saying she hates feminists is a touch like being Jewish and announcing you think Hitler had the right idea. Not to demean what Jews went through, but it's one of those shocker things, that might work in some circumstances to make someone wake up to what it's like to be a second-class citizen, your whole life.
I mean, geeez. Those women I've met who fuss about "feminists" in that disdainful tone... y'know, what I find oddest is that these are often the women who work as receptionists, and secretaries, and sometimes didn't even finish college because they got married and were pregnant -- even if they did work outside the home, it's hardly in a major career path. Almost like the stay-at-home moms (the ones I've met, at least) are okay with making a CHOICE to do so, just as the career women are pleased with their CHOICE -- and if ever displeased, at least it's a choice (as Okaasan points out above). It's the women who are trapped in neither, not a full stay-at-home nor a successful career woman, who seem most annoyed.
Maybe this is because on some level, they feel the pressure to do more in some way, but have never risen to it, for whatever reason. It would be easier to be stay-at-home, I suppose (although kids are definitely a full-time job, no doubt about that!), but economy and reality sometimes contrive to make it necessary to have both parents working. Maybe there's a speck of resentment on the anti-feminist women's part that they're trapped between the old and new, and don't fit in either... I'm probably not putting it well.
But then, I don't really have a great deal of respect, I'll be honest, for bright women who are willing to settle for being secretaries, receptionists, and any other eyecandy job. I know the difference between those who do such a job because they're good at it, or because it's all that's available, and the ones who do it because it's easy and they get admiring looks from male bosses. I always feel just a tiny bit annoyed with the latter; they make it a damn sight harder for men to take ME seriously on the job, when a girl is tittering away on the phone. I want to say, no, not all women are morons in the work place. Don't judge me by that little girl, thanks.
Eh, now it's my turn to be completely random, I'm afraid.
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Date: 4 Aug 2005 11:44 pm (UTC)I mean, geeez. Those women I've met who fuss about "feminists" in that disdainful tone... y'know, what I find oddest is that these are often the women who work as receptionists, and secretaries, and sometimes didn't even finish college because they got married and were pregnant -- even if they did work outside the home, it's hardly in a major career path. Almost like the stay-at-home moms (the ones I've met, at least) are okay with making a CHOICE to do so, just as the career women are pleased with their CHOICE -- and if ever displeased, at least it's a choice (as Okaasan points out above). It's the women who are trapped in neither, not a full stay-at-home nor a successful career woman, who seem most annoyed.
Maybe this is because on some level, they feel the pressure to do more in some way, but have never risen to it, for whatever reason. It would be easier to be stay-at-home, I suppose (although kids are definitely a full-time job, no doubt about that!), but economy and reality sometimes contrive to make it necessary to have both parents working. Maybe there's a speck of resentment on the anti-feminist women's part that they're trapped between the old and new, and don't fit in either... I'm probably not putting it well.
But then, I don't really have a great deal of respect, I'll be honest, for bright women who are willing to settle for being secretaries, receptionists, and any other eyecandy job. I know the difference between those who do such a job because they're good at it, or because it's all that's available, and the ones who do it because it's easy and they get admiring looks from male bosses. I always feel just a tiny bit annoyed with the latter; they make it a damn sight harder for men to take ME seriously on the job, when a girl is tittering away on the phone. I want to say, no, not all women are morons in the work place. Don't judge me by that little girl, thanks.
Eh, now it's my turn to be completely random, I'm afraid.