A critical response to one (or two, if you don’t follow the directions) of the essays read for class.
I agree whole-heartedly with much of what Hekker said in regards to the aforementioned satisfactions of housewifery and motherhood. It is a dying trend in American households that can play a very important role in the general well-being of a family unit. But to simply portray working women as shallow and selfish busy-bodies makes you wonder if she wasn’t brain-washed by men who opposed civil rights back in the day. (Side note: Hyphens-are-fun!) Hekker fails to acknowledge that the number of single mothers is greater today than it once was too. Not to mention, inflation is becoming a rather constant and detestable trend in our economy. Working women and mothers should be viewed as no less moral or important than housewives.
(Side note: To be honest, when I read the title on the syllabus for the second article, Paradise Lost (Domestic Division), I was hoping for a re-telling of Milton’s epic poem with Satan as a disgruntled housewife and God as the working-class husband with an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. Satan and God fight about various things common to domestic disputes, bad sex life, abuse of booze, less-than-awesome marriage, etc. etc, hilarity insues, God and Satan get divorce, Satan gets half of all of God’s stuff and the kids, you get the idea. (Image of expression at the thought: ^-^) I was rather disappointed when I found this not to be the case. (Image of expression at time of realization: T-T))
- (sigh…)
3:12 am - 1-20-2010
The recent trend amongst the guys in my dorm has been Poke’mon, so for my own amusement, I decided to add this picture to the post. If you don’t get it, you suck for not sharing in the humor that stems from a mutal experience found in the original Poke’mon games.
2:09 pm - 1-20-2010
I agree with you that Hekker makes some good points when she claims that the houswewife/mother is an important person in many families and that she demands respect. You are also right on when you mention that her bias and heavy use of sarcasm (while entertaining and passionate) has the potential to make like she may have been brain-washed. This is a moment when being really passionate about a subject can become a double-edged sword if the writer use an off-putting tone or make statements that might anger his/her audience.
On another note, how many people in her audience do you think would have gotten the reference to Milton’s Paradise Lost when they read her second article? What might the title have led them to expect. I certainly see why you hoped to read about an epic battle between the good husband and the evil wife. When I saw the title, I expected for her to say that the battle between housewifery and women in the workplace and reached the point that (as in Milton) the Eve-like housewife had fallen from grace and been kicked out of the Eden that was the traditional home.
As for the Pokemon cartoon, I got the joke. However, I’m from the generation obsessed with the original Super Mario Brothers games, so I would have thought of it as having my Nintendo freeze in the very last castle and having to start the game all over again.