Apathetic Unambitious Slobs

The narrative I think I would like to comment on is “Mother’s Choice” by Anna Quindlen. I thought it was really well written. One of the things I enjoyed most about this piece is the way she is able to contrast being a mom with being a business woman so well. The way she describes being a mom as being messy unorganized and chaotic was impressive and then putting that into contrast with a business woman who spends her nights alone eating take out Chinese from a cardboard box.

However, I feel like there a few points I disagree on with her perspective about being a mom and her feminist ideals as well. Maybe it’s because I’m a man but I didn’t particularly enjoy her statement of “lots of women realize work is great and work is money and work is ego enhancing. But, at a certain point, it’s simply work – no more, no less. They realize that when men are still developing strategies for their careers, along with clogged arteries.” I felt that was a little uncalled for… I get that she is a feminist and there is a big push for women to get out of the house and be more involved in business, but I think she fails to see two major points: first, women’s MAIN role is to be a mom. Guys can’t do it, and so if the women won’t, there’s a problem. Second, guys work plenty hard to provide for their families. I feel like this statement is just straight up derogatory. The image that she creates with statements like these are of fat, unambitious, apathetic slobs… not fair to guys at all. Definitely not a fan of these feminist types.