by Jean Bush
Feminism, as we currently know it, actually began circa 1895 with three women, Lillian Gilbreth,
Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Christine Frederick.
Gilbreth, at the age of 6, saw her father abandon his family, forcing her mother to move them 18 times in only 14 years, as they struggled to stay one step ahead of the poverty that dogged Gilbreth through all of her formative years. She apparently never got over her hatred and anger at her lack of domestic security. It drove her to force a wedge between women and their natural desire for home and family, where they instilled therein the moral and social values which not only stabilize a nation, home by home, but that have also withstood the test of time.
Lillian Gilbreth's hatred of domestic bliss was precisely captured by historian Glenna Mathews, who wrote: her "loathing for the home limited her ability to envision how domesticity and justice for women could be compatible."
Gilbreth often said that if we could be flies on the walls of Victorian homes, "we would see how miserable everyone is." The feminists of modern times would repeat this sick fantasy endlessly, by declaring that the neatly manicured lawns and white picket fences, hid an epic horror of domestic abuse and chemical addictions. Gilbreth eventually married an attentive and loving man but shortly after, had a nervous breakdown, during which, as she recovered in a sanitarium, she wrote her well known work of fiction, "The Yellow Wallpaper," in which the insane heroine blames men in general, and her husband in particular, for her condition.
Lillian Gilbreth considered Victorian women's duties to home and hearth "primitive" and wives and mothers "domestic vampires" who lived in "prisons" that "impeded social progress." She also feverishly promoted Socialism, in which the State would eventually take over all domestic functions of the family, thus allowing, in her view, women the freedom to work outside the home. We will examine later in this series how the true freedom to be loved, cherished and secure by men, was traded for the corporate time clock drudgery of the marketplace, and the chaining of women to their purses by voracious consumerism.
(All quotes & general references taken from "Simple Social Graces," by Linda S. Lichter.)
It never occurred to you that a woman whose father abandoned the family might see no security in a male. What example did Gilbreth have? She saw how cherished her mother was. Men can and do walk away and have for centuries; the woman is left holding the bag. On top of it all, Gilbreth was left a widow with 11 living children under 20 years old. Victorian life, for the poor, could be terribly hard physically not everyone got to their days preparing for the quilting bee.
ReplyDeleteYou are wearing a dangerous set of rose colored glasses. Even the relatively few women who find a loving husband need to be fully prepared to earn a living if something happens, just as men need to know how to cook and do housework properly. Children should not have to suffer because mommy has no marketable skills or daddy can't do laundry properly due to worthless gender roles. Nobody should be a voracious consumerist but everybody should be practically prepared for life.
Poor women have always had to work and many times outside of the home even if married i.e. maids, nannies, wet nurses, sweat shops.... So the fantasy life you espouse for everyone never existed in some quarters.
There is no doubt that the modern family is an oxymoronic nullity, a delusion and a commercial cash cow/fraud on the media prone US artificial person. I apologize anonymously here for the exploitation and abandonment that "happened" on my watch. I am an imperfect man. you are correct in suggesting that a conspiracy bankrolled the campaign to alienate {divide} the sexes. Just like they divide us by race age and class. the tactic of mandatory authoritarian monarchical ORDER is a work in progress toward the goal of total slavery for man woman and child. God help us this is an evil movement. But thanks Jean for your insights. I bookmarked your blog and look forward to more. Thanks, Chippo
ReplyDelete"You are wearing a dangerous set of rose colored glasses. Even the relatively few women who find a loving husband need to be fully prepared to earn a living if something happens, just as men need to know how to cook and do housework properly. Children should not have to suffer because mommy has no marketable skills or daddy can't do laundry properly due to worthless gender roles. Nobody should be a voracious consumerist but everybody should be practically prepared for life."
ReplyDeleteAnd even after following all of your bullshit rules, the unit still ends up in divorce or disintegration. Great work.
In fact the more we follow your feminist ideal family, the more the situation is likely to fail.