On Saturday we drove our daughter up to university where, for the next four years, she'll be studying for a degree in engineering… There she goes, a young woman who doesn't even consciously think it is her "right" to study a male-dominated course. She chose a subject and went for it.So, you must be happy, right?
Within just two generations, my family has gone from barely any educated females to this.Scratch ‘happy’ – you must be ecstatic?
Maybe this is why I am so grateful for the gains made by feminism – and also aware of its occasional drift into banality or hideous egocentricity.Ah. I knew it couldn’t last.
One tires of middle-class, professional women prating on and on about how hard it all is – from "inconsiderate" nannies to husbands who don't sympathise enough with juggler mums in stilettos trying to keep all those plates spinning. These are but the gripes of small things.OK, so, what should they be complaining about?
… such frustrations, though understandable, sound vain and flighty in these hard times, when various catastrophic national and international crises are gathering, affecting the life chances of millions of women and their children.Such as…?
Would you believe, new film releases?
Yes, really:
And that brings me to the newly released film I Don't Know How She Does It, starring Sarah Jessica Parker about the many trials and tribulations of Kate Reddy, an ambitious and successful businesswoman, and also a mum with a loving husband.AWFUL! OUTRAGE!
For feminists like myself the film irks not only because now Reddy seems selfish and greedy but because the highly dramatised domestic irritations of the privileged have been taken up by today's self-obsessed mumsy websites at a time when we have the global recession, wars, famines, undiminished male violence against women and evidence of increasing childhood trauma, even in rich countries.‘Mumsy’ websites? Could she possibly mean….?
Oh. She could!
Look at the immensely powerful Mumsnet website and some other copycat ones and there is barely any mention of (or fundraising for) the famines in East Africa where mothers push dry breasts into the limp mouths of babies as they die.Yazza vs Mumsnet – it’s like ‘Thunderdome’ only without the ugly mutants.
Not much about domestic violence either, or any serious take on the policies of the Coalition government which are leading to unprecedented numbers of female redundancies.*yawn* Change the record, Yazz…
Some political issue occasionally slips in. Not nearly enough. In truth the new film and online chattering lasses are disturbingly apolitical and indifferent to class inequality between women and real gender parity.Oh, how shocking! Maybe, unlike you, Yaz, they’ve just grown out of student politics?
It writes itself, doesn't it?
ReplyDeletewe drove our daughter up to university
Soccer mom
There she goes, a young woman who doesn't even consciously think it is her "right" to study a male-dominated course
I is so liberated.
there is barely any mention of (or fundraising for) the famines in East Africa where mothers push dry breasts into the limp mouths of babies as they die
Lolocaust. She should get her floppy brown spaniel's ears out and express for Africa.
No fundraising? How terrible.
ReplyDeleteWell Yasmin, you can always donate yourself, generously, and pop over to Africa and see how well your largesse is being received.
Just don't hurry back. And you don't even have to send a postcard, really you don't. We'll just assume you are getting along fine.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/yas ....that's where I stopped reading...why didn't you?
ReplyDelete...and does anyone actually say 'by jove' these days?!
Does Yas the spaz take tablets to enable her to continue talking such shite .. or is it an entirely natural phenomenon ?
ReplyDeleteMumsnet is crawling with self-obsessed women who are far too busy tapping away at keyboards pontificating about how other people should raise their children, lying about how they raise their own and slagging each other off to be bothered too much about mainstream politics....or even raising their own children.
ReplyDeleteA hideous place no self-respecting parent ever needs to go.
...it’s like ‘Thunderdome’ only without the ugly mutants
ReplyDeleteBut...
No, I'm not going to say it. By Jove, that took some willpower.
"... the policies of the Coalition government which are leading to unprecedented numbers of female redundancies."
ReplyDeleteWhat!
Where has this woman been for the past few years... other than driving the school bus, watching chick-flicks and idling away the hours perving over breast feeding moms?
When the downturn began it was the full-timers in traditional industries that were initially hit. The large retailers too shed many full-time roles replacing them with part-time positions. The majority affected being men. Women's employment held up particularly well at the time. Obviously, as the crisis has continued the burden is falling more heavily on women, simply because the men have already been pared down.
But like many feminists (and also part time faminist) Yasmin ignores or is unaware of the same problems affecting the other half of the species.
Ironically:
Word Verification = 'Balls' (yes by jove)
Yasi v Mumsnet, but which is worse? There's only one way to find out...
ReplyDelete"Yasi v Mumsnet, but which is worse? "
ReplyDeleteFiiIIIIIIGHT!
...someone had to say it.I hasten to add that I don't watch it but The Bestes Frau In The World enjoys "ze 'arry 'illz"...probably because she's 1.German 2.clinically insane 3. a FeMail reader.
...it’s like ‘Thunderdome’ only without the ugly mutants
ReplyDeleteTypo - I think you meant 'with only' not 'only without'.
(Clearly I don't have your willpower Leg-Iron)
"She rushed off as soon as we reached her hall of residence".
ReplyDeleteHardly surprising and very telling.
If I had Spaz for a mother I'd be an Olympic medalist - it'd just need her vile presence at the starting line and I'd be off in any direction as fast as my legs could carry me.
"She should get her floppy brown spaniel's ears out and express for Africa."
ReplyDelete*mindbleach*
"No, I'm not going to say it. By Jove, that took some willpower."
:D
Of course, Ringmer. Would you want to start your university career with everyone asking, "Aren't you that fucking awful Alibaba-Brown's daughter"
ReplyDeleteIf "daughter" has any sense, she'll do a Peter.
Shift working full-time single father here who suffered domestic violence at the hands of my ex... where is my victimhood group?
ReplyDeleteLet me bleat.....oh i have to parent three times as hard as a woman to be accepted as a primary carer.
I could go on but i have a life to lead, i'm a strong independent man...you go boy! i hear you shout.
I don't need a woman, my boy don't need a mother, we are doing it for our fellow man...lets shout brothers....i am man hear me roar...doing it for ourselves.
Dear me!!!! Get over yourself dear.
"... where is my victimhood group?"
ReplyDeleteYup, that one always annoys me as well. Consequences of the feminists grabbing the DV megaphone and refusing to let go.