Posted on 10/06/2016 11:44:08 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Yesterday, Republican nominee for POTUS Donald Trump released a campaign video about his plan for paid maternity leave. In it, his daughter Ivanka, who has become Donald’s stand-in for “women,” explains the plan for him. Unsurprisingly, the very first thing out of her mouth is kind of a problem: “The most important job any woman can have is being a mother.”
Using “any woman” here is just a nicer way of saying “all women.” What that sentence really means is that Ivanka — and by extension, her father, whose platform the video was created to advertise — thinks that all women should have children, because it’s “the most important job for them.” Of course, this line of thinking isn’t exactly reflective of American women’s lived experience: More women today are either putting off having children or choosing to not have them at all. Saying that women’s most important job in life is motherhood suggests that women without children are lacking not just children, but a true calling in life.
By declaring motherhood the most “important” job, we’re also forcing women to organize priceless parts of their lives by value. First Lady Michelle Obama has famously said that raising her daughters is her proudest achievement during her time in the White House, and that makes sense: Creating two people out of thin air isn’t easy, and it’s right to feel extremely proud when you don’t, as she said, “mess up your kids.”
But the reality is that we rarely ask men to rank their jobs in life: Is being a father more important to Keith Richards than being in the Rolling Stones? I have no idea; I didn’t even know he had children until three months ago. The question itself is an impossible test for women who have children: Which do you value more, your kids or your job? The trick is that there’s no right answer, so no matter what your response is you’re wrong.
Of course, being a mother can definitely feel like a job sometimes. It is, in base terms, labor. There is extra laundry and cooking and cleaning up. The hours are longer than anything even my forefathers saw in the mines. But many of the people who tout motherhood as their most important job aren’t single mothers juggling a kid and an actual paying gig: They’re not people who worry about the cost of day care or health insurance. In short, they’re people like Ivanka Trump.
Still, if Ivanka wants to say that motherhood is a job, I’m happy to agree with her. Because if it is, then I assume Trump’s maternity plan comes with the bare minimum of benefits for its workforce: universal pre-K, affordable and high-quality child care, and health insurance. Throw in a salary and a retirement plan and I’ll change my business cards to “Mother” right away.
Bitter Barren Shrew Alert....
I always put “mother” as my occupation on forms.
Nothing like the perspective of a Bull Dyke.
“Creating two people out of thin air”
When I, along with my wife, created our four children, I didn’t feel like the air was thin.
It’s interesting how the NY Magazine says that Ivanka is Trump’s stand-in for “women” when liberal rags and other outlets use Rosie O’Donnell as a stand-in for all women, by implying that Trump’s comments about her were really about “all women.”
Yeah! We all know its actually cooking and cleaning!
Raising a child is as important a job for a parent as anything, but it is actually not a full-time job for most parents and it’s ok for them to have other major interests.
“Stop Telling Women Motherhood Is the Most Important Job”
Stop telling us it isn’t, you bunch of man-hating, rug-munching, ugly-ass lesbians!!!
But not being a mother does not make you less.
I have friends who chose not to have children...or have never married...Their choice...
Motherhood IS the most important thing you can do well. Period. Abandon that and it only takes a generation to expose your folly.
And here we are...
If there’s no right answer then shut your stupid mouth or use it to do something useful for a change.
So they immediately change the meaning of the first premise of Ivanka’s message, and then proceed to go downhill from there. And the media is starting to wonder why no one trusts them any more.
But it is. That is reality.
The entire goal of any civilization, at it's roots, is to provide for pregnant women and small children.
Without that there is no future.
What a horrible person.
I am assuming the author of this piece, if old enough, voted twice for Bill Clinton. Maybe she should ask him what “job” he thinks is most important for women.
Stop speaking the truth.
The Globalists hate it.
LOL
I write “Human” where it says race.
Nonsense. Making a statement is not forcing anyone to do anything. Feminists have a real problem with free speech and always have. And more than just speech - the author might get a clue from her own life. She is free to behave otherwise and has. And is now complaining about being "forced" when she wasn't. This is simply stupid.
For the survival of the species, for the survival of society, it probably ranks right up there at the top.
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