Jul 17, 2024

It mildly terrifies me that a lot of things we think are natural are just things that were invented by American advertising agencies in the 40s and 50s

The nuclear family, diamond engagement rings, owning a motor car, etc are all works of fiction that we have subsumed into being part of our culture, instead of it being astroturfed by a bunch of skilled marketers

Show thread   Jul 17, 2024
Even the idea of a woman being a homemaker while her husband goes out to work is, in itself, a fiction. That never happened. Women have been working for hundreds of years, but only in dirty jobs. The only women who could be homemakers were those whose husbands were wealthy and worked in the service economy… And therefore able to purchase microwaves and washing machines!
Show threadhavocJul 18, 2024

@yassie_j My wife's a home maker right now. I will tell her she's fiction.

Okay, I told her she's fiction; this was her reply:

"That's erasure of me and my choices as a woman; who would say that?"

Which I think is hilarious.

Show thread   Jul 18, 2024
@havoc I am trying so desperately to find out who asked
Show threadhavocJul 18, 2024

@yassie_j I mean you stated it:
"Even the idea of a woman being a homemaker while her husband goes out to work is, in itself, a fiction. "

So I wanted to tell my wife she was fictional because I thought it would be a gas. Her response was... cutting, to put it mildly.

Show threadcobwebJul 18, 2024
@havoc you missed the point spectacularly, go read Yas's post a couple more times my guy
Show threadhavocJul 18, 2024

@cobweb It's a poorly formed jumble of thoughts which includes (incidentally) the total erasure of women's choices.

I don't think I missed the point - I don't think it has valid one(s).

Show threadAmberJul 18, 2024
@havoc @cobweb "erasure of women's choices." the point was that for a lot of women pre women's suffrage this wasn't really a choice they could make themselves, and in particular it seems like in the United States at least we're reverting back to "We'll make the choices for you". I would also like to mention that in living with your wife in a house where one of you is the breadwinner is a luxury. The price of housing has gone up significantly, most married couples I know have both the wife and the husband working full time jobs. "Teaching" isn't just a job you slack on, that's still a significant amount of work. Another thing is that people with massive gaps in their resume are discriminated against, particularly if your wife has a 10+ year gap in her resume that's going to raise some questions to future employers. So... if you can't get a higher paying job because you don't have recent work history you're kinda pushed down to the bottom of the totem pole forced to make your way back up again.
Show threadAmber
@havoc @cobweb If that's something your wife likes to do that's great. It's heavily sexist propaganda that was pushed on a lot of people via advertisement of what life "should be". My mother does not tell my sister "you do not need to worry about school dear, just find a rich man to marry", my sister actually is encouraged to pursue what she is interested in (she wants to be a veterinarian). Look, I'm sure there are plenty of women (and men) who are in the homesteading life and who enjoy living a life of household chores, who are self sustaining. That's not a bad thing, but what is a bad thing is that predominately sexist stereotype of being a "home mom" taking care of the kids. It is everywhere in pop culture as well, look at something like the Jetsons (which, despite the fact they have a robot maid the mother is always at home curious). This is about not teaching young women that their only aspirations in life is to provide for a husband. It is about being as independent as a man with as many opportunities as a man regardless of if that's something they want, they should have the freedom to decide that for themselves. That's all this post was about. I don't know how you got so far off point.
Jul 18, 2024 at 4:39pmWeb