Quote Originally Posted by spughy View Post
I think it's really sad you don't think there's anything sacred about childbirth.

But equating breastfeeding promotion and attachment parenting to facilitating patriarchal worldviews and male domination is SO second-wave feminism and that is done, baby, done. Catch up with the 90s, maybe. More modern feminists are more into SUPPORTING women to be women, whatever that means for them, but definitely including mothers in all their lactating, birthing glory. Claiming women are all happy to be slaving away at the same meaningless capital-generating jobs when they could be home nurturing life and love IS serving the patriarchy. I am essentially a housewife (I only do postpartum doula work part-time) - after having worked at a high-paying job for a huge multinational corporation and being offered the chance to go as high as I wanted. Guess where I'm happier and more fulfilled? If you truly WANT to work, that's fine - but society would be a whole lot more sustainable and happier if there were more supports for women (and men) who prefer to focus on domestic life.

I don't get where the subsistence farming comes into it. I live in a modern city in a modern country, and through hard work and restrained living my family subsists nicely on my husband's income from software development. We planned from the start to have one of us at home for the duration of our offspring's childhood. Biology dictated that it was me for the first year. Sometimes, the universe puts constraints on you. Women go through nine months of pregnancy in varying degrees of discomfort and then we give birth. Then we breastfeed. It's just the way it works.




Let's be honest: I'm really glad you are fulfilled by staying at home but the majority of women I know are bored to tears. Biology is not a limiting factor: since I earn actual money, I am capable of choosing whether to stay home or go to work. I choose not to risk my career and future livelihood---what happens when the man in this arrangement gets tired of supporting a dependent partner and leaves?---to the vagarities of anyone. I'm glad that you live in a happy little world, but I've seen too many of my friends left on their own. I taught my sons and daughters that independence means you can pay your own way and not count on someone else to do it for you.