Sunday, October 04, 2009

Do as we say, not as we do!

Katherine Kersten wipes her hands dry after scrubbing out the pot she used to make her famous beans and franks hot dish with the bacon strips on the top, and before turning to the ironing board where a couple of her husband’s shirts and that frilly blouse she likes so much wait, she has a thought, “This is what all women really want.”

Kersten’s column today is about how women are not as happy as they used to be, back when men were men and women were women. She cites a study that claims to “prove” it.

Just like all the dusky children of God, who were happier on the plantation, singing at sunset without a care in the world!

Katie winds up with this:

Maybe we women got the whole happiness thing backwards. Years ago, we assured ourselves of a golden road ahead if we could throw off all that had tied us down and limited our options in the past. But perhaps there was something in those ties themselves -- those "prisons" of family, marriage and other fundamental obligations -- that had the power to bring us closer to our true goal.

This is Erich Fromm’s Escape from Freedom: the only happiness is in submission, to men, to (some) political leaders, to religion.

It is just bizarre that Katie would even think of invoking her sisterhood with women in general. To quote Tonto, when he and the Lone Ranger were surrounded by hostile Indians and things looked grim, and the Lone Ranger said, “We’re in for it now!” replied, “What we, white man?” Indeed, Katie, “What we, white woman?”

The thing that Spot wanted to comment on the most about the column, though, is the fact that so many conservative women commentators urge things on the hoi polloi that they don’t do themselves. From the octogenarian and antediluvian Phyllis Schlafly right down to Katie herself, they’ve all benefitted immensely by the gains that feminism has made, and they’re not exactly sticking to hearth and home themselves.

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