Reply #14: Yeah, In A Racist, Classist and Sexist Society ...

[mntleo2]

... it is hard to know which is worse when it is combined in so many ways. I remember talking enthusiastically about feminism in the early 70's to a dear friend (white) who was a "pioneer" because she had married a black man. She was pretty disdainful at the movement and began to talk about the feminism being about a bunch of bored white women who wanted badly to be included in the Movement. It seemed to her in that era, that women, especially well educated upper income white white women, had nothing else to "protest" about, that race was where it at. I realized that, as intelligent as this woman was, she was merely mouthing what her husband told her. I pointed out to her that she was speaking for black men, and that women of color really had it bad as they were in both places of racist AND sexist politics in society.

But I have contemplated (and lived) it for many years and I will have to say the early feminists were upper income well educated women who got their "equality" much easier than lower income women of all races, still women, especially women of color are trailing in the social justice issue. While black men have gained in credibility in many ways, still, women of all colors are behind them. In the beginning of the 2nd feminist movement (the 1rst being with women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony) these upper income women left lower class women of all races behind and did so conscientiously I believe. In their class-ist myopia, the traditional work of especially lower income women, simply did not count. These feminists would defend to the death that a MSW should be paid what another MSW was paid, a journeyman machinist should allow women who should then be paid the same, but the mill workers, the care takers, the women who worked "McJobs" were not considered.

Lowest of all and left behind are the women who had been doing the work of weaving community and raising children, caring for extended family members as well as neighbors. To this day they have been completely forgotten even though this work has been done traditionally by women since the beginning of time. That work is now considered "doing nothing" especially when poor women do it, thanks to Welfare Reform which codified into law that raising children and working in the community without a wage is now "doing nothing". It is now "better" to work a minimum wage job than for any woman to raise children, thanks to this ~ supported btw by many upper income educated women, Hillary Clinton being one of them. Oh and btw, Welfare Reform makes it a point NOT to even allow a low income woman for getting a GED much less training for a career, she should simply go out there and work those McJobs for the rest of her life and never hope to advance beyond that ~ and utter and permanent poverty for these women and their families is considered being "successful".

Years ago when I was talking to my mother about feminism, talking about women getting equal pay for equal work, about women getting out of the home and into the workplace, she shook her head sadly. This was a woman who had pretty much never worked for a wage, but even with her kids grown and as a traditional housewife, she still mowed the lawn, ironed my father's shorts, cooked, took care of sick relatives and neighbors, helped raise grandchildren, and was on duty 24 X 7. She stood by her husband as a partner and assisted him in his career by taking care of him and raising their children, leaving him free to pursue his education and advancement in the workplace. When he came home from his 8 hours of work, he sank in a chair, put up his feet and asked, "Where is dinner?" Yet for all her work and support, over 40 years of labor, she had little hope of reaping anything near what her husband reaped on her own.

Yet Mother was treated as if she were a millstone around the neck of a wage earner since she "did nothing". She was basically stuck in a miserable marriage and could never dream of living the lifestyle she did without my father, who was a practicing working alcoholic that saw no need to support her since she was "not working". So when I talked so enthusiastically about women getting equal pay, she told me, "If your generation insists on going out to work for a wage, do not think for a moment you will be paid what a man is paid. If you get your way, you industry will lower men's wages to yours and then you will both have to work for a wage ..."

Mother was right. Now poor women could never dream of getting support for raising the next generation and upper income women who stay at home still will do without almost 1/2 $1,000,000 of wage earning power because their contribution to society because the work they do is "doing nothing". This is because the work of women has never been valued, and is not valued to this day. You will hear people scream loudly that they should not be responsible to help raise other people's kids, "if you can't feed 'em don't breed 'em" ~ even though these kids will take care of society, fight in our wars, do the infrastructure work, and pay the social security, Medicare and taxes that support the previous generation including people who only worked for themselves and often excluding the women who raised them.

This attitude, this hatred of women's work IMO is the basis of the above attitudes because it is still considered "women's work" and therefore "doing nothing" no matter what color you are. As a matter of fact, lower income white women and women of color who have the NERVE to want to actually BE parents should simply shut up, grab that broom and start sweeping for little or nothing. Because women do not count, women's work that we have done across all cultures, through all time, is now "doing nothing" ~ thanks to the likes of Hillary Clinton and her ilk. And God forbid that they need support without a man!

So I am sorry but to me, when Hillary Clinton went all over America with Joe Lieberman a couple years ago crowing about how well Welfare Reform worked, she was a turncoat of the worse kind because as a woman she has little insight ~ nor does she want it ~ to the plight of all women, since she got hers and has the power. She has never gotten that women's rights is a mixed bag and unfortunately some women like her have contributed to making it worse for many women, not better. There are the Barbara Ehrenriechs in the world, but they do not buy in the the man's image of what legitimate "work" is about, because they went out there and tried it and realized what a sexist, racist, impossible and disgusting expectation it is to think paid work is somehow "better". Therefore, I will support Barak Obama for this reason as he seems to get it by living his life for true equality, he seems to know far better than Hillary that discrimination is a complicated thing and "success" is not about how much money you make or the power you wield, but what you contribute to the world ...

My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle