Continued from the previous entry. I just got this entry in my guestbook from rumblelizard, and I thought it deserved some attention, because it was smart and pointed out some stuff that was crappy about my post. Here it is:
Howdy, I've run across your diary before and I like it, but I wanted to add a couple of thoughts about the feminism/career/consumerism thing. I read your link to "we Have Brains," and I think that trinity, while right in some ways, was pretty wrong in others. First, I think that it's very simplistic to say that women entered the professional workplace through some kind of capitalistic conspiracy by the patriarchy. For centuries, "respectable" women weren't *allowed* to work outside of the home (except in nursing, teaching or governess-ing. Is that a word? Anyway.) So one of the earliest goals of feminism was not only to gain equal pay for equal work (ha, that's a goal we're still striving for), but also to let women know that they can have any career they want. That their options were not limited to being a housewife or one of the other aforementioned careers (which, of course, were supposed to be given up the moment the woman found a husband.) Of course there's nothing wrong with being a housewife, but for many women who were expected to view that as their only, only choice in life, and who fought against it and won, might find it a bit hard to think of that choice as something a "real" feminist would want to do. Of course, this is not a really fair way to see things, because feminism was also about giving women choices in their lives. Choices in lifestyle, choices in careers, choices in clothing, all the choices men have traditionally had. Trinity asked, "What happened to people being happy with just being a cashier at the local grocery store?" Now, I don't know about Trinity, but I have actually worked as a cashier at a local grocery store, and it sucked. It's mind-numbingly, soul-killingly boring. It wasn't about the money being bad (although it was); it was more about how I did not feel mentally challenged or in any way fulfilled by the work. I didn't feel that I was learning anything. I didn't feel as though I was working towards anything. Plus which, there is nothing fun about being poor. Wanting to have enough money to have a comfortable home that's free of vermin and leaks, good food to eat and enough to pay for healthcare and retirement is not being a mad consumer - it's being a human. Jeez, this is getting long, I didn't mean to write a tirade in your g-book. Please feel free to email me or visit my g-book if you'd like to comment or discuss. Oh, and I liked "Cunt" too. Good book. All right, ciao!
Here's what I wrote to lizard's guestbook in reply:
Hey, thanks for the interesting guestbook post. You're right--I sort of stuck that quotation from trinity in there without much critique, and ignored the parts that didn't interest me. I agree taht nobody is happy working a crappy minimum wage job. I've worked my fair share, too, and there's nothing fun about it. I can also vouch that poverty is CRAP. In a way, trinity's question seems to be addressed (though I suspect unconsciously) to women of priviledge--most people don't sit around chewing their nails, wondering if they should stay home and play patty-cake or be a famous lawyer.
On the other hand, I'm priviledged enough that I've just recently come to terms with the idea that your job, fabulous or crappy as it might be, does not have to be the beginning and end of your identity, and to turn to your job as your main source of happiness might not be the best idea. So in that sense, I do think trinity is right--if you do happen to be the kind of weirdo who gets their rocks off by working at the grocery store and living in poverty, you certainly shouldn't let the world pressure you into corporate law.
I definitely didn't mean to denegrate the efforts of the women who won me the right to work--yay, them!--but I do think that it wasn't their efforts alone that made it possible. I'm no economic theorist, but as Greenspan is fond of saying, if productivity is up (more people working harder), then the economy is basically going to be okay--the economy let women in, at least partially, because it needed them. Kind of like those poor people we import from Mexico to scrub our toilets.
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Plus also: what about lesbian couples? Or single moms? Or childless women? I think part of the problem with my We Have Brains posts is that I try to answer about 3,628 questions at once, and end up kind of muddled. I'll try to do some zen meditation and practice being focused.
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