Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Cult of Domesticity

     While reading Phyllis Schlafly's speech against the ERA, I could not help but cringe and roll my eyes at every other sentence. I honestly could not believe what I was reading. In her saying, "Why should we trade in our special privileges and honored status for the alleged advantage of working in an office or assembly line," I think it is complete bs. Personally, in her rhetoric I came to question why she thought so low of women. In her speech, she truly does not believe that women can aspire to anything other than household duties. I do not understand how she could say that women "already have it good," but maybe that is my 3rd wave feminism talking. Women were shackled to the kitchen where they had to cook, clean, and be parents to her children. How could women feel content with themselves knowing that their husbands could control every aspect of their lives? If they ever needed money, they would have to constantly ask their husbands. My problem with this stems from my own upbringing. My mother for a couple of years was a stay-at-home mother with my 2 sisters and brother and me. She soon grew tired of it and began working. Since I can remember, my mother has always drilled into my head that I should make my own money and not have to depend on my future husband. She prides herself in knowing that she rarely asks my dad for money. To me, this is empowering.
     Growing up, I have witnessed Gloria Steinem's "internalized aggression" where women begin to see themselves as "second-class citizens." As a result, they do not amount to anything because they either do not have the courage or believe that there is no hope. Steinem argued that women are not actually biologically inferior given that women live longer than men. Women do not actually hold economic power given that only "5 percent of all the people in the country who receive $10,000 a year or more, earned or otherwise, are women." In reading her speech, I am perplexed as to how people, women especially, could be against the ERA. To me, it seems like common sense, but then again it shows my more progressive generation.
     While I walked into OC's discussion half way through, I wish I could have been there for the whole talk. I showed up when OC was showing the class the propaganda used against the ERA. To me, they all seemed ridiculous. I liked the fact that we ended on reading through women's statements as to why they voted for Trump. After the election, I could not fathom how any woman could dismiss his misogynistic garbage. In reading their comments, I noticed how they focused on economics, or in the case of one woman, she was "swayed by her 8-year-old son." Personally, I related very little with their arguments and in reading them, I could not help but lumping them together with Phyllis Schlafly and being utterly disappointed.

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