Feminists? Any here?

[shootingstar]

I'm so frustrated by the number of posters in this thread who view feminists as somehow looking down on stay-at-home moms.

Of course there are many people who do look down on stay-at-home moms - just as there are many who look down on any other work traditionally done by women - nurse, secretary, elementary school teacher, fiber artist, etc. It's unsurprising that some early feminists still harbored some of the prejudices that had been drilled into everyone since their birth. "Consciousness raising" is a process that didn't and doesn't happen overnight.

But devaluation of housework wasn't invented by feminists, and it certainly has not been feminists who've perpetuated it. For the past 30 years, it's been largely those who describe themselves as "conservative" who revile women (exclusively women) who "have children they can't support."

A few months ago on TE here, this was the reaction on the use of "tomboy".
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...ghlight=tomboy

Really, that word is old-fashioned within today's context. But somehow there were a few posters who took abit of pride they were a tomboy in childhood.

Well, for those of us who weren't "playing" with the boys, climbing trees, ..then were we less exploratory, less adventuresome, less daring...?

I don't think so, hard to say that to a kid like myself, who was unwillingly doing English translation for my mother in stores, banks, etc. starting from age 8 and up and given other adult-like responsibilties at home to help mother, when other kids were playing more freely. And yes, father I will help you type up the immigration application forms for relatives he was helping sponsor from China to Canada. I was 16 yrs. old. (No wonder why feminism for me, is layered with issues related to immigrant matters, race relations, etc.)

My success as well for all my sibs, sits on the shoulders of a mother who looks like and is indeed, low-income, tired immigrant mother, stay at home mother who was a picture bride (didn't meet my father in person, in advance of marrying him after she got off the plane in Canada) and knows she was EXTREMELY lucky to have married a man who didn't physically abuse her, had hrs. and hrs. of respectful discussions with him (I associate any decent marriage partially with ability to have long, exploratory and respectful discussions.) and a husband in his retirement, shares cooking and household work with her. I know how rare the latter is in THEIR generation.

My comment earlier about knowing English language as a language of power, to even express injustice and achievement to a broader audience, is important because this whole discussion excludes attitudes and opinions of millions of non-English speaking women and men worldwide.