I'm a Successful Playwright... but Feminism has Turned me into a Failure

Daily Mail ^ | 10th February 2009 | Zoe Lewis

[nickcarraway]

As a successful playwright this woman should have the world at her feet. So why, at 36, does she feel bitterly unfulfilled?

Though I never thought I would be saying this, being a free woman isn't all it's cracked up to be. Is that the rustle of taffeta I hear as the suffragettes turn in their grave? Very possibly.

My mother - a film-maker - was a hippy who kept a pile of dusty books by Germaine Greer and Erica Jong by her bedside. (Like every good feminist, she didn't see why she should do all the cleaning.) She imbued me with the great values of choice, equality and sexual liberation.

As a result, I fought with my older brother and won, and at university I beat the rugby lads at drinking games. I was not to be messed with. Inner truth: Zoe Lewis has come to yearn for marriage and motherhood

Inner truth: Zoe Lewis has come to yearn for marriage and motherhood

But, at nearly 37, those same values leave me feeling cold. Now, I want love and children, but they are nowhere to be seen.

When I was growing up, I was led to believe by my mother and other women of her generation that women could 'have it all', and, more to the point, that we wanted it all. To that end, I have spent 20 years ruthlessly pursuing my dream of being a successful playwright. I have sacrificed all my womanly duties and laid it all at the altar of a career. And was it worth it? The answer has to be a resounding no.

[truthguy]

Radical Feminism has ruined the lives of many women of my generation (boomers). It is still ruining the lives of Gen-X, Gen-Y, and every other generation of women. It has done tremendous harm to the United States and every other Western Country. The wretched and despicable people behind this (both women and men) never really wanted equal rights for women. They wanted to destroy the societies they lived in. They have succeeded to a large extent. They were/are leftists almost completely. A pox on them all.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

....somewhere deep inside lurks a women I cannot control, and she is in the kitchen with a baby on her hip and a ball of dough in her hand, staring me down. She is saying to me: 'This is happiness. You can't deny it, this is what it's all about.' It's an instinct that makes me a woman; an instinct that I can't ignore,.......

..

[SuziQ]

"It's about understanding what is important in life, and from what I see and feel deep down, loving relationships and children bring more happiness than work ever can."

That's just heresy to the feminist movement.

[Cowgirl]

Dear Zoe. Where should I start with such a screwed up mind. It isn’t because you are stronger than men, deary. Maybe you could read a Miss Manners book or something from a charm school. It also sounds like you are a user who wants a man to fulfull more of your own dreams. What do you have to give?

[Mr. Silverback]

Sadly, she also looks much older than her age. Meanwhile, my 42 year old wife has been asked several times by strangers if this baby (our fourth) is her first pregnancy.

[Mr. Silverback]

I don’t get why people on this thread are reading an article where the woman says feminism is a sham that screwed up her life and react to it as if she is saying “Feminism is great, and I don’t need a man!”

[DieHard the Hunter]

> Nothing personal, but, uh, I understand why. You still look like your hippy mother. Get feminine, guy!

What kind of guy wants to shack up with a feminist hootch that can out-drink a rugby team? Particularly one who looks like someone found shipwrecked on a beach?

[dsc]

“I don’t get why people on this thread are reading an article where the woman says feminism is a sham that screwed up her life and react to it as if she is saying “Feminism is great, and I don’t need a man!””

I know. I was torn between, “I told you so,” and Nelson’s “Ha, ha,” and finger point.

[TheMole]

I give this woman credit for candidly admitting that she screwed up. That’s a lot more than most of her peer group ever manage.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> It’s one thing to give up your career and have children before it’s too late with the right man, but it’s another issue altogether if you haven’t yet found that man. Because, as my generation have discovered to their cost, men don’t appear to like strong women very much.

She still doesn’t get it.

I married a very strong woman with red hair. My Dad married one, too. My Grand-dad found and married an extremely strong and fiery woman, also with red heir. And my brother married a powerful German girl with blonde hair an blue eyes and a steely temperment.

Nope, nothing wrong with strong women at all: it is genetically necessary for strong men to have strong women to marry so that they can produce strong offspring. That’s why we do.

Only a strong man should marry a strong woman: a weakling man will be hen-pecked. That is Nature’s way of keeping the Gene Pool neat and tidy.

Frilly women are nice to look at, but if they aren’t strong then only weakling males ought to marry them.

So the author’s problem isn’t that.

IMO at 37 she should easily be able to find a man, so it isn’t her age. So what is it?

1) She looks like a lesbian. She should fix that as a matter of urgent priority.
2) She seems to think she’s entitled to a strong man. As we are in short supply, she may have to settle for hen-pecking a weakling. She might have fun, but he’ll be miserable!

But can’t she have it all? No: that was the first Feminist lie. Sometimes, you can’t even have enough of what you need.

[Tax-chick]

Humph. I’m 42, too, and I’m going to have to color my hair as soon as this baby (our 9th) is born, or people will think he’s Anoreth’s!

[Tax-chick]

To be fair, everything except her nose could be fixed without surgery.

[Tribune7]

This is something I always consider before bashing feminists: Larry Flynt & Hugh Hefner vote the same way as Gloria Steinem.

I think the lifestyles advocated by Hef & Larry have screwed up as many if nor more people than the ones pushed by the feminists.

[jjm2111]

From the article: ...the strong alpha woman who never questions her entitlement to the same jobs, fun and sexual gratification as men.

Men really aren't "entitled" to these things either. When God is left out of the mix, no one is happy.

[Tax-chick]

The article suggests she has something of an attitude problem, starting with her describing herself as a “successful playwright” when it looks like she’s had one successful play and a lot of years on the dole.

I’ve never noticed that men don’t like strong, intelligent, educated women. I have noticed that men don’t like obnoxious women who can’t discuss anything but themselves. Just sayin’ ...

[MissNomer]

As a mother myself, I love this picture.

[Mr. Silverback]

Well, I’m sure I’ve said this already, but...congratulations!

My wife has some gray hair, too, but I guess people just don’t notice because her face is so young-looking. And I am worried that people will think my lovely daughter is the new baby’s mom. She’s only 12 but she’s very already as tall as her mom and can easily be mistaken for a teenager.

[Tax-chick]

I’m sure I’ve congratulated you, too ... yours is due pretty soon, isn’t it?

Anoreth will be 18 before the baby is born, so at least she’s a legitimate age to have a child.

[Mr. Silverback]

Well said.

[Betis70]

>>the woman says feminism is a sham that screwed up her life and react to it as if she is saying “Feminism is great, and I don’t need a man!”

I dunno, she might be saying feminism is a sham, but she still clings to it in the article:

“I am extremely capable, I really don’t need a man. Seriously - it scares me how much I don’t need a man. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want one. I am lonely, and terrified of being alone.”