"I clean up vomit and urine all day, and I STILL consider it an improvement over working in an office." -- UbermilfThis Lady is shooting her mouth off to get attention, and loathe as I am to accommodate her, I want to shoot mine off in response.
Take this statement of hers: "I am saying an educated, competent adult's place is in the office." Really? Then why do so many inept, idiotic whiny babies work in one? Tell me, my esteemed friends in the paid workforce, what causes you stress in your workplace? Trying to figure out which of the knowledgeable, receptive sages at the top of the corporate structure to bring your brilliant ideas to, so that they will reach fruition? Or pondering which of your multi-talented, dependable co-workers or underlings to trust with the implementation of your brilliant idea? Or maybe it is struggling with conflicting desires: do I attend the engrossing, vitally important meeting, or finish the exciting, life-enhancing project I'm working on? Decisions, decisions. Ah, yes. The office. A real brain trust, the pinnacle of human endeavors.
Also, since she has never been a stay at home mom, how has she made this determination? "One of the things I've done working on my book is to read a lot of the diaries online, and their description of their lives does not sound particularly interesting or fulfilling for a complicated person, for a complicated, educated person." Ah, reading blogs. Very scientific. I myself have determined that Kinko's and independent vendors working at Home Depot have shitty jobs, based on the "online diaries" I have read. Also, people at Berkely have an unnatural fascination with bowel movements. And teachers in Florida like to inadvertently flash their boobs at people. Let's move on.
She has four "rules" women should follow to achieve a "flourishing" life. Now, at the start I object to this; how can you define "flourishing" for an entire gender of people? Or for anyone? People have a wide variety of goals and ambitions. That's what makes life grand. Imagine the world if everyone wanted to be an artist? Or a scientist? Or a salesperson? What if no one operated altruistically? Or if no one managed assets and money? We need everyone to make the world go 'round. But, back to her "rules."
"Women should stop trying to 'find themselves' and choose college majors that lead to lucrative careers." I sense a materialistic streak here. "Work should be taken seriously, and women should bargain like the New York transit worker's union with their husband over who does the laundry, and stop caring so much about the house being messy." Doesn't everyone dream of sharing a life with a labor negotiator? I remember the night Dilf proposed to me... "Honey," he said, "You are the transit worker union rep I've always dreamed of..." Oh, rule three: "They should also consider marrying younger, poorer guys to STRENGTHEN THEIR HANDS (emphasis mine) "or men who are older and not as wrapped up in their careers." This isn't about love, people! It's about career advancement! Human emotion is IRRELEVANT! and lastly "Don't have more than one child." At last, someone who embraces the warm and friendly policies of Communist China.
While I disagree with her on many points, I disagree most strenuously with her following statement: "One of Hirshman's most sobering arguments is that women who leave the workplace are ensuring that the hard-won gains made by women will be undone. She asks why should business schools give advanced degrees to those who don't use them? ... 'I think that one could argue that these women are letting down the team,' Hirshman said." I see. Above and beyond the implications that women are not responsible for their own achievements, but somehow are affected by my decision to stay home to raise my children, what about men who get advanced degrees and decide not to use them?
What of the guy who gets a law degree and decides he'd rather build furniture for a living? Who should decide the value of an advanced degree but the person who earned it? I'd rather have a beautiful china cabinet than hear a legal argument. Maybe someone would rather build one than make it. Who put this bitch in charge of making life decisions for other people? And how dare she lay the success or failure of one person at another person's feet?
Interestingly, Ms. Hirshman has a child. I read an article in the August 2006 Elle Magazine about her, which unfortunately is unavailable online, where she briefly discusses her "motherhood."
"When asked who took care of the baby -- a source of eternal anxiety for professional women -- Hirshman says that she has a deal with her daughter, now 30, not to get into specifics", (Ubie note - I'll BET) "Pressed a little, she allows 'Well, we had a ... person.'"And I'll bet, given her attitude toward those who raise and care for children, she treated this "person" with the utmost respect.
I also enjoyed her description of the postpartum experience from the same article: "I was out for a couple of weeks. It wasn't all that much fun going through labor, but once labor's over you're fine." Stop laughing, ladies. It appears she really believes that.
