Worlds That Never Were

"And then I told that n***er to get to the back of the bus where he belongs."

I hate Norman Rockwell. Well, to be more accurate, I hate how people react to his paintings. "Look!" they say, "Back then, before women's rights and civil rights, before divorce and abortion, life was perfect." As if Mr. Rockwell were some sort of historian, recording the world as it really was.

Look at the picture above and consider something: at that time, blacks drank from a separate fountain and women were chattel. Yes, truly a wonderful time to be alive.

Duncan Idaho* at Masculinisme, a site devoted to misogyny (don't blame me if you actually click on that) apparently does believe that Norman Rockwell's pictures depict reality, and he can apparently read the minds of all women. The fact that, being a man, he couldn't accurately tell me how one woman feels, is entirely beside the point.

Some feminists have the nerve to claim that feminism was for the benefit for men too. Nonsense. It wasn't even for the benefit of women. Jenny represents many young women these days; thirty, single, unable to find a husband, hates her job and with little chance of any change in these circumstances. She's utterly miserable. So are most other women. Before feminism they would have been happy at home, raising kids and getting dinner ready for when their husband comes home from a hard day at work. They would have been busy, sure, but they would have been happy. Like their husbands.

So, one woman represents all women. Really. Because I know happy single women and miserable married women. Jenny, if she even exists, represents Jenny. (Oh, and Jenny? If you can't be happy by yourself, you won't be happy with someone else. That was a hard lesson to learn.)

This world that Duncan Idaho (really, the appropriation of that name is killing me) references, one in which women did not work, never existed. The world he dreams of, in which women are barefoot and pregnant, and only left the kitchen to clean the bathrooms, never existed. At a time when writers were men, the Bronte sisters were teaching those men how to turn a phrase. At a time when scientist could be defined as "man who engages in scientific pursuits", Madame Curie was schooling the boys in radiation. At a time when only men engaged in the fine art of hacking other men to death with sharp objects, Joan of Arc was showing us all how it's done.

But let's get a little closer to home, and a little closer to Norman Rockwell's pictures: my grandmothers. Both of my grandmothers worked for their entire adult lives. My mother was born exactly 9 months and 2 weeks after Pearl Harbor- because she was conceived the day my grandparents got married, the day before Grandpa left for war. For the pregnancy and 3 months after, Grandma moped about her parents' house worrying about Grandpa. Finally, her father told her to go to the city (Chicago) and get a job because he was sick of watching her mope about.

Grandma got a job as a legal secretary** (like me) and she loved it. She loved going to work and meeting interesting people, she loved the responsibility of preparing court documents and she loved having her own money. She stayed with that firm until she retired at age 60.

My paternal grandmother (whom I never met), worked as a cleaning woman, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, because her husband was an abusive drunk who was rarely employed. She worked until she died at 53. She could have done that without being beaten and having half her money stolen to buy alcohol for her abuser, but divorce simply wasn't an option back then.

Beyond the fact that Mr. *Seriously, stop abusing that name* is referencing a world that never was, he also seems to think that the women's rights movement was foisted upon women who didn't want it. Stop and think about that for a moment. If women were truly happy as chattel, with no control over their bodies, no right to equal pay or credit in their name, why did the feminist movement happen at all?

Just because feminists were so neurotic and full of hate for children and men that they would prefer to have careers instead of a family, doesn't mean every other women would like that. But feminists made the choice on behalf of other women. And now other women are stuck with it.

Ignoring the strawman of the man-hating feminist, (feminists hate not all men, but you, sir, for very good reason) consider the animal rights movement. There are a small number of people in this country who believe it is highly unethical to use animals for food or clothing. Some even think that keeping animals as pets is the height of immorality. Yet I would guess that most people reading this wear leather and eat meat. The animal rights movement is something most people have no use for because they are happy eating meat and wearing leather, so it has not caught on. Unlike feminism, which caught on in a big way.

And seriously, change your fucking nom de blog. The great Duncan Idaho did nothing to you.

*How dare he defame the great Duncan Idaho so! Duncan Idaho was no misogynist. He was awesome.

**Srsly, does Mr. Fake Idaho think that men were nurses, teachers and secretaries prior to the feminist movement? Yeah, sure.