I plan to pay the $5 for the privilege to print it out to share …

It appears to us that a great many of you have read the title, skimmed the article, and reacted while missing the main point. In a nutshell, it’s a satirical homage to women, not a put down for the individual choices a woman might make in today’s world. Quite honestly, we are left wondering if this had been published with a woman’s name as author if it would have been better received.

The article was not about choice or freedom. It is about the division of labor. An independent workforce, and the family unit. Gender has little to do with it other than our historical roles.

150 years ago, we did not farm out our children to schools for education. We did not buy produce grown in South America. Bread and chickens did not have to be stuffed with preservatives to become virtually non-perishable and quite possibly inedible. Learning was a process tailored to the student, not the student to the school.

Traditionally and historically, these critical needs were met by a universal craftsman vs the specialist craftsmen. The specialist might be the printer, the blacksmith, the shopkeeper. The universal craftsmen managed a household by producing a domestic supply of food, clothing, and education to the youth. Traditionally and historically, this was the wife of the printer, the wife of the blacksmith, and the wife of the shopkeeper.

With the industrial revolution, this changed. The independent craftsmen all but disappeared in the workplace, but also in the home. Almost none of the food a modern family eats is self-produced. Having to sit on a grocer’s shelves or be trucked to consumers has led to changes in how food is produced and treated, which has led to a radical change in what we are actually eating, to point out just one of the issues Wayne mentioned in the article. The fact is any one of those points has already generated dozens of documentaries, societies, books and essays – it’s not something to turn into a series of essays on this comment stream.

We don’t condone putting today’s women on the spot for the issues of the modern world any more than Swift actually wanted the English to eat Irish babies.

Firstly, there is absolutely no way to correlate any of the three ‘results’ to the supposed cause.
–Capitalism emerged nearly a century before the Woman’s movement became publicly active. Men, in fact, are responsible for the majority of economic abuses of the twentieth century, considering that for centuries women were very deliberately excluded from any exercise of power or control in economic or political spheres. Although it would seem ludicrous to try and ‘blame’ capitalism on a particular group of people, if you wanted to make that assumption women would logically have to be one of the least likely targets. Women working today are participating in a structured economy which dictates a subjected to a sytem of inequalities, though they had very little contributions to its construction.

—-The food supply? Its hard for me to accept that you are actually serious about this one. The technological revolutions which have produced current agricultural practices can hardly be blamed on women. I don’t see why its productive to play the blame game here, but if you were looking for a culprit, big food corporations and technological innovations were primarily driven by men. Once again there is no correlation with women.

—The coming doom of underpopulation. Ah, this is news to me. Check out the link. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/07/population-index-overpopulated
Although I don’t think we are necessarily in a crisis of overpopulation, I don’t think you need to have any worries about the human species propagating itself.

You seem to hate the idea of women having any sort of choice…you simply state that women are best suited for the home life. I am not going to argue whether they are or are not, but don’t you think women should be allowed to decide for themselves where they are most productive?
Can you agree with the idea that men and women are of equal worth and should be treated with dignity?
If you support gender equality, you support feminism.
And although you seemed to think feminism is anathema, [ and I’ll admit there is a wide spectrum of feminist thought], I
I enjoy the idea of being able to freely exercise my right to vote; own a business/property and land, chose to have a child or not, chose to get married or not, work in any career field of my choice, become further educated, run for political office if I see fit; hell even be able wear whatever I feel is suitable for whatever occasion I’m engaged in. I can even sign legally binding contracts without the co-sign of a husband or male family member. These are the civil liberties that feminists fought for, that I as a woman may enjoy to date.
And these expanded public roles have allowed women to fight to bring awareness to domestic violence, rape/sexual assault and child molestation. Women have brought attention to educational and healthcare issues, and sought legislative and judicial recourse to put an end to human trafficking and the sex slave trade.

To sum it all up —– I think you better start making your own sandwiches.

I think its great if women decide they want to stay at home, but I also have no problem with women who pursue interests or employement outside of the home. The vocation to motherhood can still be the main focus of a mother’s life whether she stays at home or not. There is nothing wrong with wearing heels, unless you don’t want to wear them and you’re doing it anyways. There is nothing wrong with limiting your family size if you feel called to, better to have children that you can love and care for then to simply keep producing them just to produce them. And honestly, there are many options for eating healthy (including husbands who can contribute to cooking just as easily as their wives) and even if you are eating less than healthy foods, there are worse things that could happen to you.

This one-size-fits-all mentality regardless of personality, gifts or happiness of the people involved is just another example of someones perfectionism being used to guilt trip others into living an unauthentic life. I am happy being a stay-at-home mom, but another mom may not be. Better to have a happy involved working mother of 3, than a depressed bored emotionally distant mom of 13. These are life descisions that belong to each person, there is no “perfect” way, there is no one-size-fits-all.

Also, I must wonder then if you are insinuating some great evil in my household. I, an autistic male who broke his back a few years ago, is not able to work the kind of labor I have and work to find employment to the best of my adjusted ability. My wife, a grade school teacher is the proverbial bread winner, aside from my mediocre disability. As I am the one at home, I am the stay at home parent for my soon to be 2 sons. I do not keep an immaculate home, but it is full of love and strives to serve the Lord.

I agree that our food sources are tainted. I cannot blame women for them solely. Take into account that the majority of the corporations and scientists behind these foods for the last 30 years have been males. It hasn’t been until this recession we are in that the ration of males vs females in the workplace has shifted. I see the argument that women could be the primary consumer on a retail end. However corporations always make their decisions based on the bottom line, not gender roles.

Also, to quote your last line “this is not a placement of blame,” sir you contradict yourself when you say “A great many ills of our current world can be placed squarely on the shoulders of women.” That is like a child saying “I hate you mommy” then saying “but I didn’t mean it” when they realize they hurt her feelings.

Eve was created from Adam’s rib, as to walk beside Adam, not beneath or behind. That said women have just as much place in the work place.

@Paul

I do not know your affiliation with the author of this post. I would like to know your thoughts on this matter as a part of determining if your book is right for my purchase.

I actually have this deep history with Chesterton and the month of October. I can’t smell leaves or drink pumpkin ale, or smell pumpkin guts without thinking about him. It’s odd.

http://piercework.typepad.com/just_jen_chesterton_and_t/2009/10/gkc-15-minutes-at-a-time-the-defendant-pt-6.html

Cheers!