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04/04/2005: Downsizing Women....?
Was I "Downsized" to my MOM role? Not necessarily....but this IS an Interesting piece: How to Put Your Wife Out of Business by Micheal Lewis (LA Times) -- and a couple of quotes - out of order...but the entire article is a "scream":"There was a brief time, from about 1985 to 1991, when high-powered males demonstrated their status by marrying equally high-powered females with high-paying jobs. That time has passed. The surest way for a man to exhibit his social status — the finest bourgeois bling — is to find the most highly paid woman you can, working in the most high-profile job, and shut her down. Bonus points if her job is typically viewed as a "man's" job."
"There are many good reasons for putting your wife out of business. One is you want someone to pay careful attention to your children, and you don't feel like doing it yourself. Another is the sheer amount of time it frees up for her to pay attention to you. But the best reason is the pleasure you will receive from proving to the outside world that you can do it.
My personal household favs for those "seductive comments" to make us happy Moms to "do for them" are:
"But you're soooo much better at "IT" than I am." *WHINE* ["IT" being the ubiquitous reference to *anything* they don't FEEL like doing or learning for themselves.]
OR
"But you've got the MOM TOUCH." [Really??]
As if either of these statements is supposed to make it "alright" that they are requesting my time and my effort and my five-minutes for a task they just as easily do themselves. *SIGH*
Which is why we did Responsibility Month at my house...to break this fantasy illusion about their competence and/or need to have MOM do everything to keep their world from falling to pieces. And Just you all WAIT till its finally my opportunity to Run the World...then shall we see about this notion of being "Out of Business"....
And, as an aside: It could become the ultimate Reverse Bling Status Symbol for males to stay home to Nurture and Breastfeed their infant children while their Powerful Status Wives Run the World.
Karen on 04.04.05 @ 06:03 AM CST
