[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
[quote]Sloth wrote:
Let’s not pretend there isn’t a large contingent of Samuel Soccer dads increasingly capable and willing to do just what Sally Soccer mom does. [/quote]
Well, now that you mention it, I have been staying home and raising my son since a layoff in August.
[/quote]
There will be a lot of variation in how people choose to divide the work.
We often think of the he 50’s housewife model, but if you look at our more agrarian past, a lot of men and women were working together on the farm or running the store - it was more of a family effort. If Skyszyks was a farmer back then, he’d likely have his son along side him in the fields for most of the day from a very early age, and very likely his wife and daughters too. Raising your kid, not exactly a feminine domain.
These days, division of labor is often based on who has the best health benefits, or most flexible work schedule, earning potential, etc… Also, people decide childcare based on the presence of extended family, if there are grandparents around who are willing to help or if the nuclear family is more isolated, living away from relatives.
Most people would probably ideally have a lot of flexibility in their work schedule so they could share in influencing their kids, be around to impart their ethics. Of course, that isn’t always the reality. People have to commute to the office, then often spend long days there. I’m not a Luddite, pining for Little House on the Prairie, just pointing out that these shifts have effected both men and women.
As far as division of labor, you can’t get too retrograde about what is “masculine” or “feminine”. Not many of us are living on a farm or ranch where their are a bunch of physically demanding tasks like cattle to brand, and woodpiles to chop. So, you might find more men scrubbing the shower, or cooking or whatever…tasks that might have been “women’s work” in the 50’s. Most of you probably do more of these tasks than your fathers?
Back to the article, I did appreciate Paglia’s pointing out that as a society we are often trying to squelch the masculine, medicating boyness/ failing a lot of active boys in elementary school. I know this has been talked about in other threads, and I’ve mentioned before how I saw this first hand as a young school psychologist in the early 90’s - the explosion of ADHD.
I also appreciated her talking about this idea that some of the more masculine attitudes and traits are negative, or are somehow not based in biology, but are rather a product of socialization that we can “fix”. All nurture. Disregard for biology. Also, that we are failing young girls by telling them that they can “have it all”. Nobody gets to have it all. There are always choices. So many young women are now waiting to have children until their fertility has diminished. We can look at the increase in Autism among children born to older parents. There are always unintended consequences.
In fact, if you aren’t making yourself as unattractive as possible, you probably have a low IQ.