Feminists Take Aim at Ann Romney Again

RUSH: We have a couple of stories about women here, folks. And the first one was by Elizabeth Wurtzel. It's in the Atlantic: "1% Wives Are Helping Kill Feminism and Make the War on Women Possible." This is a story attacking the wives in the 1%. And the subhead of this story: "Being a mother isn't a real job -- and the men who run the world know it." That's what it says here. This is Elizabeth Wurtzel. She's a lawyer with Boies, Schiller & Flexner in New York and the author of Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America and More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction. Elizabeth Wurtzel: "1% Wives Are Helping Kill Feminism." She's basically saying it's rich women who are ruining feminism for the rest of us and that being a mother isn't a real job and the men of the world know it. There's that story, and then there's this one.

"People are more stressed-out than ever, finds new study; Women especially vulnerable to high-stress."

RUSH: Now, this story here, rich women are ruining feminism for the rest of us. I'll betcha if I read that story, I'll betcha it's an attack on Ann Romney. I'll lay you ten on one, either implied or direct, it's a direct attack on Ann Romney, and it's gonna backfire on 'em.

RUSH: New York Daily News: "A new study confirms what you many already suspect -- people are more stressed-out today than they were 25 years ago. 'The data suggest there's been an increase in stress over that time,' said psychologist and lead author Sheldon Cohen, director of Carnegie Mellon's Laboratory for the Study of Stress, Immunity and Disease. The analysis is published online in the June issue of Journal of Applied Social Psychology. In three separate studies done in 1983, 2006 and 2009, results find that women, people with lower incomes and those with less education[,] experience the highest levels of stress.

"Men were more susceptible to stress during difficult financial periods. But it's not all bad news: findings show that as you age, your stress decreases," and you know why? Because when you get older, you just don't care anymore! Your emotional reservoir runs dry, and you have no more capacity to listen to people complain and whine and moan. But when you're young and everybody's out there whining and complaining, everybody thinks that they're caretakers.

Everybody thinks they have to fix it. So somebody comes and whines to you and you say, "Oh, my gosh, what do I have to do? I gotta fix it! I gotta stop the whining." And you do this for most of your life. And then finally you say, "I don't care anymore. It's your problem. I've tried. You fix it. I'm outta here," and you don't worry about it anymore. If more people could do that when they were younger, there would be less stress out there.

So lower incomes make us stressed out. We had a previous story that lower incomes make us fat. So lower incomes make us stressed and fat. And the answer is the opposite of what we're doing now as a country. Nothing that the left -- Moochelle, Obama, the Democrats, the socialists -- are doing is producing any good results for anybody. If you want to know why there's added stress, it's the rise of liberalism. And of course they had to toss in here that women are especially vulnerable.

"Ann Romney Heckles Hecklers." This is from Jim Hoft, by the way, at Gateway Pundit. "During Mitt Romney’s campaign stop in Newark, Ohio[,] yesterday Ann Romney took a swipe at the Obama protesters screaming outside the rally. 'We got some distracters out there, but we can be just as loud about how much we love this country.' The crowd loved it. The Obama Campaign and [D]emocrats have been sending their lackeys to disrupt Romney events across the country," and this is why Romney is doing the same thing.

This is why the Romney campaign went and heckled and harassed Axelrod in Boston last week.

It's why the Romney bus circled the community college, Cuyahoga Community College, while Obama was inside giving that miserable 54-minute speech.

And here's the Elizabeth Wurtzel story. She, remember now, is a lawyer with Boies, Schiller & Flexner in New York. "1% Wives Are Helping Kill Feminism and Make the War on Women Possible -- Being a mother isn't a real job -- and the men who run the world know it." Those are the headlines. It's in the Atlantic, by the way. Here's how it starts: "When my mind gets stuck on everything that is wrong with feminism, it brings out the 19th century poet in me," she says, "Let me count the ways. Most of all, feminism is pretty much a nice girl who really, really wants so badly to be liked by everybody -- ladies who lunch, men who hate women, all the morons who demand choice and don't understand responsibility -- that it has become the easy lay of social movements."

He was screening calls. He heard the word "lay" and he stopped everything he was doing. Okay, let me run through this sentence again because it is a bit of a run-on sentence so I will apply my highly trained broadcast specialist talents to this and make this understandable. "Feminism..." It should properly state "feminists" are "pretty much ... nice girl[s] who really, really [want] so badly to be liked by everybody -- ladies who lunch, men who hate women, all the morons who demand choice and don't understand responsibility -- that it has become the easy lay of social movements.

"I am going to smack the next idiot who tells me that raising her children full time ... is her feminist choice. Who can possibly take feminism seriously when it allows everything, as long as women choose it? The whole point to begin with was that women were losing their minds pushing mops and strollers all day without a room or a salary of their own. Let's please be serious grown-ups: real feminists don't depend on men. Real feminists earn a living, have money and means of their own.

"If the movement had been serious about being serious then the idea could not have caught on that equal is how you feel." All right. I know this is complicated, 'cause it's convoluted. I'll read that sentence to you again. If the movement [feminism] had been serious about being serious then the idea could not have caught on that equal is how you feel." And that's where feminism is: Equal is how you feel, not what really is. "Men know better. They look at numbers, and here is how the statistics are running years after women first started screaming and yelling and burning bras:

"We still earn 81% of what men do, and an act to make things more fair was blocked in Congress by Republicans. For anyone who doesn't care to count, but understands traffic signals mixed with policy speculation, I think it's safe to say that the day is near when a teenage girl will be forced to get a vaginal probe before she is issued a learner's permit in the state of Virginia. And this is all because feminism has misread its mission of equality as something open to interpretation, as expressive and impressive, not absolute."

Are you following this? (interruption) Well, that's your problem, then. I mean, this is a serious feminist. She is livid, she is angry, she is outraged, she is stressed out, she's perpetually on edge. (interruption) Well, this comment, "For anyone who doesn't care to count, but understands traffic signals mixed with policy speculation," I don't even know what that means. I don't even care. She writes, "I think it's safe to say that the day is near when a teenage girl will be forced to get a vaginal probe before she is issued a learner's permit in the state of Virginia."

That's because of the sonogram legislation prior to an abortion. She's really ticked about that. And then she says, "Don't agree? Try this: smart is how you feel, pretty is how you feel, talented is how you feel -- we are all beautiful geniuses. Feminism should not be inclusive, and like most terms that are meaningful, it should mean something. It should mean equality." What she's ticked off about here is that any woman can claim she's a "feminist" simply by exercising a choice; that that alone makes her a feminist.

It doesn't matter what the choice is? You can choose to be a stay-at-home mom and call herself a feminist? No, she can't! A stay-at-home mom is the problem. A stay-at-home mom betrays feminism. There is no such thing. She wants feminism to have a rigid definition where not too many women qualify. That's what she wants, if I understand this. She's all upset. "Smart is how you feel"? No, it's not. Smart's measurable. "Pretty is how you feel"? No, it's not. Tell that to the people a bowling alley. "Talented is how you feel"? No. Tell that to people who are on off Broadway three or four streets.

No, we're not. We might lie to ourselves and tell us that we are, but we're not. "Feminism should not be inclusive," it ought to be rigid. Membership requirements ought to be very difficult (with Elizabeth Wurtzel in charge). "And there really is," back to her piece, "only one kind of equality -- it precedes all the emotional hullabaloo -- and it's economic. If you can't pay your own rent, you are not an adult. You are a dependent. But because feminism has always been about men -- our relationships with them, our differences from them -- as much or more than about money, it's had few consistent tenets."

So remember Catharine MacKinnon saying all sex is rape even in marriage? If it involves a man, you can't be a feminist. This woman's a throwback. She's going back to the late sixties, early seventies. She's a purest. This is what it was back then. You're not supposed to take your happiness from a relationship. You're not supposed to be linked to a man in any way. And if you're married and you're a woman and you're not paying your own rent, you're "kept." You are dependent. You are not independent. You are not a feminist.

If you're living with a husband or a man and he's paying the freight, you are nobody; you are not equal, you are dependent. And, as such, you are betraying feminism. Then later on in the piece, she says, "Failing as a feminist is a unique problem of the wealthy, but consequences impact women all the way down the line. ... To be a stay-at-home mom is a privilege, and most of the housewives I have ever met -- none of whom do anything around the house -- live in New York City and Los Angeles, far from Peoria. ... [T]hese women are the reason their husbands think all women are dumb, and I don't blame them."

I gotta take a break 'cause I'm a little long. But don't worry, we will circle back to this.

RUSH: The babe who wrote what I'm reading to you is Elizabeth Wurtzel. She's a lawyer and author of Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America. And she admits that she discovered that she was depressed when she was ten. And I think that she still is. I should also point out, Elizabeth Wurtzel -- I'm pretty sure about this -- is not a mother. Now, what have we been told about that? If you're not a mother, you're not qualified to talk about mothers or child rearing. Have we not heard that? And if you're not a soldier, you can't talk about the defense budget. But here she is, seems to be pretty depressed, to me, professionally depressed. I mean I think it's her job to be depressed and angry and write about it.

By the way, she's so depressed that she admits she only got into Yale Law School because of affirmative action. But again, folks, this is original feminism. This is the feminism of my late teens and early twenties. This is what it was like. This is what the pressures on young women were back then. Failing as a feminist is a unique problem of the wealthy. "To be a stay-at-home mom is a privilege, and most of the housewives I have ever met -- none of whom do anything around the house -- live in New York City and Los Angeles, far from Peoria." These women, these stay-at-home moms, these rich, wealthy, kept women, these dependent women, are the reason their husbands think that all women are dumb.

And she writes, "I don't blame these men." I don't blame these men for thinking all women are dumb. They sit around the house, don't do anything all day, go out to lunch with other ladies who lunch. I don't blame 'em, the men, for thinking that all women are dumb. "As it happens, fewer than 5 percent of the CEO's of Fortune 500 companies, 16 percent of corporate executives, and 17 percent of law partners are female. The men, the husbands of the 1 percent, are on trading floors or in office complexes with other men all day, and to the extent that they see anyone who isn't male it's pretty much just secretaries and assistants. And they go home to...whatever. What are they supposed to think? They pay gargantuan American Express bills and don't know why or what for. Then they give money to Mitt Romney. ... Being a rich mom -- even with five sons, bless her heart -- is not even sort of a job."

So she's doubling down on the Hilary Rosen comment that Ann Romney never worked a day in her life. "And all the cultish glorification of home and hearth still leaves us in a world where most of the people paid to chef and chauffeur in the commercial world are men. Which is to say, something becomes a job when you are paid for it -- and until then, it's just a part of life." So for whatever reason, Elizabeth Wurtzel is still depressed, still angry, still feeling betrayed, sold out, lost, and what have you. And she's not a mother. So we don't know what her had qualifications to opine on all this really are anyway.

RUSH: We really are having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, and we do it every day here at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.

I don't think Ms. Wurtzel is at any risk when it comes to marrying a 1%-er. I think she's pretty safe that regard. He-he. Back in a moment.

RUSH: This is Melissa on the Florida turnpike. Great to have you on the program. Hi.

CALLER: Yes, I am. I put myself, with the help of my parents, through college, working a blue-collar job. I got a white-collar job after, and left the workplace and chose to stay at home and raise my children to be young Christian conservatives.

RUSH: Women like you are making other men think all women are stupid. That's what she said.

CALLER: Well, with the exception of my great husband. He wants me to stay at home, and he knows it's my choice to stay at home. We talked about this before we were even married.

RUSH: That's good. So you weren't hoodwinked. You know what all this reminds me of? One of my all-time favorite sayings. The man who thinks he's smarter than his wife... this really ticks off the feminazis. They hate this. They hate it. The man who thinks he's smarter than his wife knows not how truly smart she is.

This Ms. Wurtzel, who’s depressed and addicted ... I’m supposed to care what she thinks about motherhood? Pfui.

If she had a Pink Baby, a pack of byos, a greyhound, and Netflix streaming on the Roku beeber, she wouldn’t be depressed and addicted - she’d be tiresomely chirpy, like me.

Ann Romney can stop by for a setaround any time. Seems like a nice woman.

Hey feminists, my Harvard educated, law firm partner daughter-in-law just quit her job last week to stay home with her kids. I have never seen her so happy and calm since she married my son. She felt her boys were getting what was left when the day was over. Know what? All of her friends said “You go girl !”

So being a mother isn't a real job, eh?

I won't bore the sane with a recital of how ignorant that pronouncement is. I'll just note that these poor women, the ones that hold this kind of view and favor the killing of babies, must be so devoid of humanity I don't believe any argument could be fashioned to get into their scarred minds and hearts. Suffice it to say, barnyard animals have better instinctual sense than these impoverished souls.

“Being a mother isn’t a real job”

I can tell you 100% from experince...motherhood is twice as hard as a “real job”. I did one for 20 years and I have done the other for 15 years. Working does not compare to the difficulty of doing 50 “jobs” all at the same time while getting paid in hugs and smiles. I had to stay home as my child was very sick when he was born. I could not send him to day care and we could not afford a private nurse. I will never regret having to stay home with my child. The way I look at it is: in 50 years who will remember you were an office clerk, a secretary, a nurse etc. but I can guarantee that everyone that matters will remember that I was a good Mom and my children will become good parents because of it. THAT...is priceless.

I’ve been an employee and a stay at home mother (ten kids, homeschooling ...), and the one think that is really more difficult about being a mother is that you’re never off-shift. You’ve got down-time ... I’m sitting here FReeping ... but the responsibility is always there. Two sons are watching “Dora” in the next room, and the baby is sleeping in her bouncer. Things could go from peaceful to catastrophic at any second!

I think we can safely say these are actually in truth anti-Feminists.

If a person has a five o’clock shadow and can bench press Justice Sotamayor, it’s a safe bet she/he’s probably not feminine.

Next time you take your child to the hospital..I want you to tell the nurses that what they do is meaningless.

This fight is ridiculous..we are not in a perfect world of mothers vs working women.

When will we stop letting the left set the dividing lines based on old commie propaganda? People just fall for it hook, line and sinker.

Working women are more republican now-a-days than mothers who watch ultra liberal shows like Oprah every day. Women are much more successful now and they get sick of paying taxes and working around government red tape.

Come on people...stop falling for the stereotypes..this is not the 60's. We and our families decide what we want to do...not nanny state Dems or Repubs...end of story.

Besides...Romney is nowhere near a typical mother...trying to make her a pivotal arguing point for mothers is a no starter. And besides, this a moldy old issue so worked over that it only makes sense to aging pols and talk show hosts.

and the one think that is really more difficult about being a mother is that you’re never off-shift

Amen!!!! It took me 7 years before I could use the bathroom all alone ... with the door closed! That never seemed to happen at work. My husbands sister (who has a “real job”) says she would rather die than suffer the indignities of being a mother. She tells me that she works so that she can pay other people to do it instead. I don’t know how people can get their priorities so messed up. I know that there are many working women who DON’T feel this way (I was one of them) but my husbands sister seems much more representative of the NOW crowd than anyone I have ever met. I despise being around her as she talks down to me. I can honestly say, I am proud NOT to be her equal.

Thank you - five months old tomorrow. She just woke up, but at least I got to read some news and exchange a few texts with my husband, who is at a swim meet with six other children.

He once said he was “responsible” for his subordinates, and I asked, “Do you take them to the bathroom? Feed them their meals? Do they call you if they wake up at night and can’t find their stuffed penguins?” Like I said, you can be called on at any time for any need. I wouldn’t do anything else, though.

This is the rearing investment angle of r/K Selection Theory in biology, and it applies to every other animal in nature.

r-selected psychologies in nature have a drive towards low-investment rearing. It usually manifests as single mothering the offspring, to a base level of fitness. Underlying that is an absence of care for how the child is reared. Think Mice, Rabbits, etc. And of course, Libs, as r-selected psychologies, have no concern for the quality rearing of children, supporting single mom’ing, gay parenting, and other sub-optimal parenting schemes. They genuinely can’t grasp why Conservatives care.

K-selected organisms will tend towards high investment parenting, consisting of two-parent rearing, for extended periods, expressly designed to foster as competitive an offspring as possible.

r/K genuinely explains every facet of political ideologies. Check my profile page, for a quick rundown of it.

I just think it is sad that even most conservative families don’t consider the possibility of having a mom at home. I have been home for 18 years and I don’t think anyone has ever asked me how our family does it...just pretend like we are some outlier. Even churches have stopped considering the idea of God’s provision for His people and just offer “Christian child care” so mom can head off to work from 8-6 and have a “safe/Christian environment to drop the kids off”.

That makes my heart sing! I, too, was a stay-at-home mom. I wasn't going to let anyone raise my kids but me. As they're now on their ownI, have all the time in the world to pursue my career and that's just what I'm doing.

I'm so glad to hear that her friends have that attitude, too.

I like Ann Romney also.

I raised two different families, so to speak with 17 years between my children.

I stayed at home totally with my son. It was what one did back then and I didn’t even think about working. I have to admit that it was easier than working. I was able to do a lot of fun things while he was in school. Maybe I could have been a better housekeeper but I was a good mother.

With my daughter it was another era. I started working part time when she was two and got a full time job when she was about 7 or 8 and in school. She stayed after school in a church day care but only for a couple of hours.

I also enjoyed working but staying home was more fun.

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