Democratic Adviser Hillary Rosen opened the angry-mommy floodgates this week by arguing that Ann Romney “never worked a day in her life”, so she should not opine on economic matters. She could have said that the Romneys have never dealt with financial hardship, so they cannot relate to Americans that are in dire financial straits, and that would have been a factual observation. But instead, she said what many liberals (to include liberal women) believe: that choosing to stay home and raise your children is an under-utilization of your skills and intelligence, and a cop-out to accepting real-world responsibility. This was just another slap at traditional American family life, delivered by a person very close to the White House. Ms. Rosen dug herself deeper when she “apologized” for coming off badly, but she kind of flubbed that, and I think she said exactly what she wanted to say. Now the Democrats are running for cover to distance themselves. But the message was delivered. And received.
Ann Romney never had to get a job and just stayed home with her kids = Bad!
Sarah Palin was governor of a state and ran as Vice President and did not stay at home with her kids = Bad! Very, very bad!
Hillary Clinton famously commented that “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life” = You go, girl!
Today’s feminism is not about supporting women in their almost limitless choices in this day and age, or about ensuring equal opportunities for women, or supporting women’s rights worldwide (cue the crickets on the liberal response to women’s rights worldwide). Today’s feminism is about women applying a different set of standards to other women, depending on which side of the aisle they sit on. And the bottom line to all of this unprincipled posing, posturing, and judging is abortion. It seems that the unfettered right to abortion is the modern woman’s Holy Grail, and it must not be threatened in any way. Are we seriously so “evolved” that this is the single most important issue in our lives? What does that say about us as women, if the most important issue in our lives is the ability to end one?
We do not have to agree with each others’ choices, but we must respect and support them. To be used by politicians to apply a double standard to different women makes Ms. Rosen and her ilk unprincipled whores, plain and simple. And I respect their decision to be whores - tools of men in power, but I certainly do not agree with their choice. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must get out of my bubble bath, stop eating my bon-bons, and get to library duty at my kids’ elementary school.
