Category Archives: ranting

So maybe you’ve heard about this mommy war thing? If not, please allow the media to drag you into it.

white_flagSeveral weeks ago, on my first appearance on Raising America, I was asked about a topic I hadn’t prepped for: whether moms in fact are guilty of judging each other in the “mommy wars” and whether blogs are in large part responsible for this.

On the screen, a big title reading MOMMY WARS (which to me, read like MOOOMMMMY WAAAAARRRRRRS!!!) kind of set me off.

So instead, I answered the question I wanted to address.

“I really hope we can stop using the term Mommy Wars,” I said, “which is so inflammatory and loaded. The idea of  ‘judging’ a colleague or someone with the same job isn’t limited to parenting. Just walk into any office in America.”

(Or something like that, that was probably far less succinct. You know, live TV. With surprise questions. Hard.)

Also, I wasn’t given a second soundbyte for rebuttal. If I had, what I would have said is, “you know where these so-called wars exist most of all? In the mainstream media. Outrage is good for ratings.”

Fortunately, Isabel Kallman said that very thing on Twitter while I was sitting on live TV squirming. Because she rocks.

Screen Shot 2013-03-19 at 7.10.51 AM

And now, here we are again! Watching this tired topic all replayed again, as it tends to do, only this time in New York Magazine’s incendiary (surprise!) article on The Retro Wife. Also known as The Feminist Housewife in the meta data. (Uh…which is it? Answer: Which is better for page views?)

It opens with your classic inflammatory, suck-you-in, totally anecdotal, one person’s POV meant to tip the annoyance-to-outrage scale of passionate readers: Continue reading

{76 Comments}