Author Rebecca Walker, daughter of Alice Walker (The Color Purple), has recently been quoted saying lots of awful things about her mother in an interview in The Daily Mail. In what she's since called a tabloid-ization of her comments, she chronicled her mother's many failings and concluded that the fault for her childhood's dysfunction lay with anti-family feminism:
Yes, feminism has undoubtedly given women opportunities. It's helped open the doors for us at schools, universities and in the workplace. But what about the problems it's caused for my contemporaries?
Specifically, the piece suggests, Boomers' high divorce rate, their stress on career over family and their narcissism has led Generation Xers to be neurotic, and to wait too long to have babies.
Salon ran a timely cover story by Phyllis Chesler about the very public Walker feud. Chesler said, basically, that yes, Alice Walker and plenty of other Baby Boomer feminist activists might not have been Mother of the Year, but that that was because many had "suffered the drudgery, the poverty, the utter absence of support or recognition that often accompanies mothering, and finally, paradoxically, they had also suffered the 'empty nest syndrome.' Most second-wave feminists therefore either condemned or feared motherhood."
This Walker situation is a case study of a trend that we've been seeing for a while: Generation Xers rebelling against their laissez-faire Boomer parents by being more hands-on parents, sometimes too hands-on.
Which means our kids will probably be too laid-back and their kids will be too overbearing and the cycle will continue until some magical generation is made up of perfect parents. That'll happen, right?
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. Wow - is she bitter. It is always amusing to hear some female pundit on television - usually a conservative one - screaming about how horrible feminism is. Yet there they sit on TV being given air time for their comment, when just a few short decades ago no one cared what they had to say, on TV or otherwise. They are direct beneficiaries of feminism, yet cannot admit it. As to this woman and 'waiting to long' to have babies, that is your choice. And you have that choice because of feminism too. Sounds like Ms. Walker - the daughter, not the mother - needs to grow up.
David S. at 6:20PM on Jun 12th 2008
2. I compliment the feminist movement for successfully acheiving social, legal and economic parity. Beyond that, they wear me out.
Captain Negative at 7:41PM on Jun 12th 2008
3. I read Rebecca Walker's article about her mother, and I really felt sorry for her. Alice Walker spent years crusading for the rights of women all over the world but seemingly forgot to raise her daughter along the way. As a 26 year old American woman, I am very thankful for the rights that I have that resulted from the fight that women fought in previous generations. Alice Walker, however, seems to represent the worst that radical feminism has to offer.
Amanda at 9:42PM on Jun 12th 2008
4. Her daughter is an ungrateful brat. She wouldn't havewhat she has today if it wasn't for her mother.
Her mother made sacrifices for all women , so many did. Women today would still be stuck in the home having one kid after another and doing housework. They didn't think women needed college educations and now they realize they do. Women are not 2nd class citizens and they were treated as such.
If men are afraid of their masculinity because thier wives make more then they do just need to find a suzie homemaker and not a woman who wants a career. What is so hard about that? Marriage is supposed to be a 50/50 deal. WHat you and the wife make goes into the same pot. Who cares who makes the most?? I have always made more than my husband and he has no problem with it. We still make every choice together.
Her daughter seems to be educated
and doing fairly well with her career and now instead of thanking her, she trashes her mother .
Any person whi is still whining about what their parents did at her age need to see a shrink.
JUDY at 11:39PM on Jun 12th 2008
5. As a daughter, I know. We love to bitch about how our parents really screwed us up. They never cared, they cared to much. They worked to hard, they didn't work hard enough. Nothing is ever good enough for our kids it seems. The only thing to do to stop the cycle, is to stop having kids that do nothing buy whine about how they were parented. Kids today have this entitlement complex - they all think they are entitled to everything, it's been hell trying to raise my kids with the idea that they create their own happiness and as much as I support them, I'm not here to pay their way.
I think these two need counseling.
TJ at 4:42PM on Jun 13th 2008
6. I have always been curious as to how modern “feminists” decided what women wanted in their lives? Did they take a survey to decide what issues to pursue? Did they ask millions of women if they wanted abortion on demand? Did they ask millions of women if they wanted no fault divorce? Did they ask millions of women if they preferred meaningful sexual relations with their husband or numerous “no strings attached” sexual liaisons? Did they ask millions of women if they desired an economic structure that forced them into the work place away from their families? Did they ask millions of women if they hated traditional chivalry? Did they ask these questions or base their goals on selfish ideological perspectives? I am a Generation X member. I am pro-life. I am an old school women’s advocate; i.e. Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, etc. Those women would be horrified at what has been advocated in the name of women’s equality!
A Return to Modesty' by Wendy Shalit
“Abortion: A Betrayal of Feminism" Presented by Karen Shablin of Feminists for Life
Domestic Tranquility: A Brief Against Feminism: by F. Carolyn Graglia
Pro-Life Feminism Yesterday and Today: Mary Krane Derr, Rachel MacNair, Linda Naranjo-Huebl:
Who Stole Feminism: How Women Have Betrayed Women: Christina Hoff-Sommers
Feminists for Life
www.feministsforlife.org
Independent Women’s Forum
www.iwf.org
Ladies against Feminism
www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com
janesophie1 at 2:08PM on Jun 16th 2008
7. janesophie1: ditto! and thank you!
Carol at 7:58PM on Jun 29th 2008
8. Feminism and marriage shouldn't be two competing factors.Obviously feminism keeps emerging for few decades now while marriage is loosing ground and this is explained by the high divorce rates.
Marriage counselors at 12:31PM on Aug 5th 2008