Posted on 11/12/2007 10:32:00 AM PST by ConservativeColumns
My mother is a feminist. A die-hard, take no prisoners, true-blue feminist. Armed with a hard-won PhD., she has made her life's work the counseling of the transgendered, the gay and the sexually confused. Honest work in which she is passionately invested. The only fly in the ointment is me, her conservative daughter.
I am as passionate a conservative as my mother is a feminist. It's hard to imagine two more diametrically opposing viewpoints. I view the current state of feminism as doing more harm than good. As undermining the traditional and family values that I consider the backbone of our country. On the other hand, my mother considers conservative values as outdated, invalid and having absolutely no intrinsic value.
I understand how mom came to be such an ardent feminist. Though I thoroughly disagree with her views, I respect and admire the courage and sacrifices she made in attaining them.
(Excerpt) Read more at northstarwriters.com ...
I wonder why it is never a big scandal when a liberal has a conservative kid, but it is a scandal every time when a conservative ends up with a liberal kid.
Feminism is the Sisterhood of the Perpetual Victim..............
Bet Holiday dinners are fun...
Ms. Morgan is probably thankful that her mom didn’t abort her!
Bet Holiday dinners are fun...
***
Well, it depends. If you can discuss issues rationally and without calling each other idiots, or worse, shooting each other, you can have political discourse without any problem.
In my family, I’m probably the most conservative of the bunch, but we pretty much decided not to talk politics or religion at family gatherings. Saves us all a lot of grief and bad feelings.
Holidays? There are five things that are VERBOTEN subjects at holidays:
1. Politics
2. Religion
3. Sports
4. Sex
5. Yourself
We may have to add;
6. Weather
Since Global Warming / Climate Change has become such a Hot Button issue amongst ourselves...........
Sad but true; me and a sister conflict like this..
I couldn't agree more. We can lay at the feet of feminism the high number of single parent families, the high number of women with children living in poverty or on welfare, abortion, women delaying starting families to build their careers, then delaying their families longer because they won't give up their careers. Thanks feminism.
Thanks for pushing the idea that men exist only as sperm donors and that nuclear families are old fashioned and outdated. It's unfortunate for the rest of the world that the likes of Germaine Greer and Betty Friedan, et al, weren't the victims of their own "enlightened progressive" policies such that their mothers aborted them so they wouldn't be an inconvenient impediment to their career development!
Only 10 days to Thanksgiving!
A nice article, but I have one caveat. Gloria Steinem and the rest of the wild, man-hating, NOW feminists never represented the views of the average woman. If you read the literature at the time, they represented the views of a bunch of male-despising, arch leftists who told women that if they had a family and children, they were traitors to their sex. Remember Steinem’s most famous (infamous?) phrase. “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”. That’s Steinem and the rest of the NOW harridans to a t.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
I didn’t realize it was ever scandalous!
But when it comes to "Feminism"... I quote Ferris Buller
" I (don't) condone fascism, or any ism for that matter. Isms in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an ism - he should believe in himself.
....all feminists are opportunists....nothing more.
I remember a time when there were few minorities and almost no women in law firms. I also remember that both groups almost never made partnership or shareholder status in most law firms. The feminist movement and affirmative action helped to right these wrongs. But then both programs went way overboard. Extremists took over and now we have more problems.
Except that it was unusual. This kind of stuff was the propaganda used to advance feminism.
sorry — i believe in capitalism, for that’s the ism that allows believing in myself to make an economic difference!
Latch-key kids have a different definition of wrongs. So do 60 million dead babies.
At my liberal mom-in-laws we talk about the pretty garden she grows and that’s about it.
Well Nancy, feel lucky that you were not aborted.
A few have done a turn-around after experiencing some grandchildren but most are the types who think that having a woman for President would be "the best thing for America."
I mention that were a Maggie Thatcher or Golda Meier running, I just might be tempted but it has more to do with actual qualifications, NOT gender that moves me.
These women (some of whom discuss such programs as "Oprah" and "The View" as though I would ever be caught watching them.) They are pro-choice, now that they have had all of the children they want.
The greatest news of all -- their daughters are NOT femminists, most have children (3 or more) and many are stay-at-home moms, as their moms were always working.
Lastly, I get along quite well with the conservative daughters, just not their moms!
I was in grade school and middle school in the late 60’s/early 70’s. We girls were told that feminism would free us from the slavery of taking care of homes and children, put us on equal footing with men, and guarantee us fulfilling, high-paying jobs.
At that time, my mom was a stay-at home housekeeper. She took care of her family, was personally involved in our education, and shaped our morals and values. Yes, she also cooked, cleaned, combed snarly hair, wiped runny noses, and comforted crying kiddies.
Today, my sisters and I are all expected to do perform the same set of duties - while also holding down full-time jobs.
I want to thank my mom’s feminist peers who made all this possible.
I have noticed the majority opinion on FR is that family is more important than spouting your opinion, and politics tends to be verboten at a mixed Thanksgiving table.
On the other hand, if you go to DU, it’s filled with fire breathers swearing this year they are going to tear the heads off their conservative parents/siblings/friends.
I guess it’s what you value. On FR, family and friends, on lib sites, personal expression. Which is funny considering conservatism most highly values individual rights and socialism values collective society.
All that said, my lib sister is very restrained over politics when we meet. Although she couldn’t resist saying “Yuk!” when she heard me listening to Rush the other day.
I’ll wager SHE can talk rationally to her mother-in-law.
It’s her MIL who can’t respond without hysterics, name calling, etc.
You see all those flowers? George Bush KILLED THEM!...............
Mine was also. She died a while ago.
Enjoy your mother while you can. The basis of her feminism is a desire for justice, and let her know that this is an admirable desire.
Well, at least she is clear that she is counseling the mentally ill............
A close perusal of history would show that women were making inroads into what had been mostly all male purviews over the decades. Phylis Schafly got her law degree in the forties as did a number of currently wellknown female personalities. You have to remember that until the fifties very few men had professional careers. Most American men still slogged away in factories, mines, or farm fields.
The integration of women into the mainstream of American industry and careers was inevitable due to the ongoing educational progress of women. More women going to college or continuing their education meant more women becoming professionals. Again until the fifties only fifty percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
It was like when some people said that if Jackie Robinson hadn't made it in the majors in 1947 there'd be no Blacks in the majors today. Ignored was the fact that the many owners of baseball were waiting for the opportunity to get more Blacks into the game. Robinson was the tip of the avalanche. If he had failed, there were many ready to step in. He didn't fail, but it wouldn't have mattered.
The same with women. They didn't need a bunch of male-hating, nasty Marxist feminists to make their way. It would have happened without them. America was ready for the integration of women into the workforce. The harm arch-feminists have done to our country is far greater than whatever positive things they've claimed. And I claim they didn't do anything positive!
Well, as I said, we now have more problems and those are among them.
My experience is that the screamers tend to be liberals. The less you know about a subject, the more likely you are to scream. Most liberal know very little about the subjects that grip them. They can recite a few factoids but they can rarely quantify them. Conversations go like this:
“Bush is a liar”
“What lie did he tell?”
“He said Iraq had WMD’s”
“When did he say that?”
(crickets)
“Are you saying he didn’t say that?”
“Yes I’m saying he didn’t say that”
“Everyone knows he said it”
“Then everyone should be able to tell me when he said it”
End of conversation. Screaming ensues.
The next conversation, they establish the rules first
“First, everyone knows global warming is real so you can’t deny that”.
When you say “yes I can”, then they start screaming.
“majority opinion on FR is that family is more important than spouting your opinion,”
We (most Freepers) get our moral/political compass from God’s rules.
When others reject the rules we like to follow, we can dismiss it as “rejecting God and His rules,” rather than rejecting us.
As the author said, Libs take it personally because their rules are “THEIR” rules. If you reject their worldview, you are rejecting “them”.
Excellent article from somebody who has lived it.
I notice that even Morgan didn’t mention that her mother had the opportunity for having her child adopted. The feminist thing is: keep the kid or kill it. It did not help, of course, that the adoption services were so bureaucratized that they would give kids only to “perfect parents.” That sometimes translated into placing the child with those who could pay the most. On the other hand, the agencies DID try to find parents in stable situations. The irony being that adoptive familes provided better for the child than the ordinary child. But oreceisely because legal adoption WAS a viable alternative to abortion, abandonment, or single-mother families, the feminists demonized the practice. Divorcing your husband is liberating; divorcing your kid is abandonment.
Add, “you’re a bigot”
If the accurate answer is "much...largely...mostly..", then I would think many of the resentful,angry, anti-male feminists could examine themselves on this and repent...without abandoning gender fairness and equality. In fact, genuine adherence to fairness etc. would incline one to favor 'Fathers' rights' in family law. Also, maybe to address domestic violence by women and men, and inquire about such factors as stress, demeaning/devaluing psychological abuse of one's spouse, and inducing feelings of desperation in one's spouse as strongly contributing to cases of physical violence.
When a wife/husband hits their spouse or children, obviously s/he should go to jail for an appropriate time, and also receive counseling. Any pattern of continued physical or psychological is probably grounds for divorce, with equal shared physical custody of the children if both parents are fit.
That's fair. If fairness is what feminists care about,they'd favor it. If they don't then they might be in the thrall of man-hating neurosis, of which they should be invited to repent.
By the way, regarding the name 'feminism'... If a movement were established called 'White-ism' and its members assured you they just favored racial fairness and equality, would you believe them? The term 'Feminism' similarly suggests by its exclusionary nature, that it's mostly about anti-male factionalism.
Exactly their intent, my dear. Traditional and family values must be completely destroyed in order for the left to substitute their secular socialist ideology. The two can't co-exist because the traditional always beats out the SS ideas.
On the other hand, my mother considers conservative values as outdated, invalid and having absolutely no intrinsic value.
In other words, like most leftists, she believes that her wisdom trumps the wisdom accumulated over the centuries of human existance. Simply Arrogant.
I’ve wanted to start an organization called M.A.N. Acronym for Men Against NOW..........Use their tactics against THEM and see how THEY’LL like it!.............
Oh, you have to know the “rules” -
you’re only a bigot or racist when you’re WINNING the argument.
My mom is a lifelong liberal, and after 36 years has still not come to grips with the fact that I chose a conservative, religious lifestyle and had 9 kids.
She hasn’t given up trying to “convert” my kids, but they just laugh at her.
And her mom might be the opposite.
I think it’s reassuring to know that we can still win the hearts and minds of those raised by hard core liberals and educated in the “lost to the left” schools. Never give up.
You could become a college graduate and a professional, but there was a time when a woman could almost never achieve a place in the hierarchy. I knew women and other minorities who were passed over for partnership or shareholder status with law firms because of discrimination. One woman lawyer I had the pleasure of working for — Harvard Law graduate, summa cum laude, won several high profile cases and brought in a lot new business (among the criteria for partnership) was passed over for partnership because she was a woman. Only when she threatened to sue did she finally make partnership. Today, the firm is now a professional corporation and she is the CEO.
And there were some companies which would not hire married or engaged women to work for them. The theory was that the companies would spend a lot of money on these new hires, then the women would get pregnant and quit. I knew a woman who had to work — her husband had become disab led and unable to work — so she was sole support of hubby and two children. As soon as potential employers found out she was married, they would not hire her. Didn’t matter if you were in the position of my friend or if you promised to stay with the company after marriage and children — the companies would not hire.
Perfect example of the failure of liberalism, especially feminism. Not only is the author's mom unable to communicate with her own daughter despite liberals' claims to special competence at "dialog," but the liberal college that indoctrinated her with this evil idealogy is now closing its doors:
http://chronicle.com/news/article/2483/antioch-college-will-close-its-main-campus
Antioch College, a 155-year-old liberal-arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, announced today that it would “suspend operations” in July 2008 because of a budget crisis spurred by declining enrollment, a small endowment, and an overwhelming dependence on tuition revenue. In a news release, the college said that it hoped to raise enough money to reopen by 2012, and that its four satellite campuses would remain open. As part of the plan, the college’s Board of Trustees declared a state of financial exigency, which will allow the entire 160-member faculty to be laid off. —Andrew Mytelka
I’ll bet the mother thinks she aborted the wrong fetus.
People who don't smoke
People who can't hold their alcohol( I may make it alcohol free holidays)
People who can't stop making other people feel badly about their lives & brag about their oh so perfect lives
People who never help with anything
People I truly really have nothing in common with & they are just usually asked because I feel sorry for them
People who tell me what to cook
lmaooooo I think its going to be a very small Thanksgiving & Christmas here. I hope it is at least!
Exactly! To be a pre-born baby in the womb of a feminist is one of the most dangerous/scariest places I can think of :(
You mean she hasn't given up on indoctrinating them.
You don't have your kids in public school, do you...
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
You obviously have done a good job.
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