Posted on 05/28/2008 11:51:28 PM PDT by Marie2
She's revered as a trail-blazing feminist and author Alice Walker touched the lives of a generation of women. A champion of women's rights, she has always argued that motherhood is a form of servitude. But one woman didn't buy in to Alice's beliefs - her daughter, Rebecca, 38.
Here the writer describes what it was like to grow up as the daughter of a cultural icon, and why she feels so blessed to be the sort of woman 64-year-old Alice despises - a mother.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I read the whole sad article.....Alice Walker is one miserable person, in the mold of a stand up comic.
That explains a lot about The Color Purple.
Alice Walker has always been one of the most hateful, bitter, vitriolic and downright mean people in the public eye.
Her bizarre “they’re censoring me!” rant when one of her books was removed from a California school district’s required reading list a few years back says all you need to know about this insufferable twit.
And this poor kid had to have her as a mother.
Well of course it is. So is fatherhood, husbandhood and wifehood. In fact, so is being a friend, a co-worker an employee and practically every other human relationship.
We should serve everyone we have a relationship with in a manner appropriate to the relationship. And that service should be joyful (although that is an ideal I often do not achieve). You can't just take from relationships or not have them. God didn't make us that way. You end up an ugly feminist or misogynist or whatever if you don't have a clue about this.
...”Well of course it is. So is fatherhood, husbandhood and wifehood. In fact, so is being a friend, a co-worker an employee and practically every other human relationship”...
Great point! I applaud Rebecca Walker for letting us have this insight into the realities of her life as the daughter of Alice Walker. Though my Mother was not a feminist, I did experience some of the other behaviors Rebecca suffered with Alice and the hurt never completely goes away. However, Rebecca’s normal maternal instinct and joy will heal her heart over time. She evidently does have a loving family on her Father’s side and that is a wonderful thing. God bless her. I pray that she will have that second child and will remember that we build our families two ways..through biology or adoption.
Rebecca Walker echoes a feeling I’ve had for a long time about many radical feminists. Most of them, like Alice Walker, are selfish jerks who are only interested in their own careers. Furthermore they’re contemptible hypocrites who espouse Marxism while living the capitalist highlife. A plague on all of them.
I have read Rebecca’s memoir and I came away thinking Alice Walker was a terrible, uncaring mother. Think of how many families and children were negatively impacted by these types of views.
The daughter is lucky that abortions were not easliy done back then. Her Mother would have terminated her for sure.
Hypocrisy is the operating word. Her mother for all her pretense is an egotistical tinpot dictator. Her so called views are nothing but cover for her bastard selfishness.
Everyone read the whole article, it’s awesome. You practically fall in love with the woman just hearing her story. It’s amazing how the radical types often breed kids who go the exact opposite direction after seeing the consequences.
Good thing Rebecca had a step mom to provide a positive role model.
I saw what you endured in the families around me when I was growing up. I became that traditional mother my children needed. They are grown now, and we are yet so very close. My decision to be that traditional mother was met with heavy and very verbal disapproval by family and friends in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The proofs are in my pudding: My children are grown and grown so fine and well and whole and happy. My grandchildren couldn't be better nor happier and thriving.
Because of my decision, my children grew up seeing all the GOOD opportunities around them; it never ocurred to partake of "opportunities" which would or might cause them harm.
From one sister to another: Thank you for being strong and independent. Yes, this strife with your mother hurts. It will continue to hurt; but it will dull in time and with time.
Your child will sing your praises, and his children will sing your praises.
Stay strong!
...Alia
I love you Mom.
I agree with you but I also wonder whether her lack of maternal behavior is a signal she was seriously conflicted or afraid of being conflicted. The maternal, nurturing part of women is, dare I say it?, instinctive. To reject that part of their makeup requires a lot of effort. I think she was so invested with her misogynistic attitudes that she was literally afraid to be a mother who might betray her own screeds. I’m sorry for the experiences of Rebecca but I am also sorry for Alice because I suspect in her heart of hearts she is really miserable but would never admit to it.
Reminds me of family friends in Germany. The couple, both of whom are only children, opted not to have children. They worked, played and got comfortably wealthy. Now, as they head into the twilight of their lives (they are in their sixties now) and their own parents have passed on and mortality knocks at the door, they regret that they had no children. The wife was never a feminist, per se. She did work professionally all her life, carrying on the family mortuary business and said she was too busy for children and, besides, Germany was notoriously family-unfriendly. Too many people have bought into the notion that children are an albatross around their necks.
bttt
“Alice Walker is one miserable person...”
Thanks geo.
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