Motherhood and the culture of misogyny in America are not often explored in tandem. The connection is women’s bodies.
When Amanda Montei became a parent, she struggled with the physicality of caring for children, but even more with the growing lack of autonomy she felt in her personal and professional life. The conditions of modern American parenthood—the lack of paid leave and affordable childcare, the isolation and alienation, the distribution of labor in her home, and the implicit demands of marriage—were not what she had expected.
After #MeToo, however, she began to see a connection between how women were feeling in motherhood and the larger culture of assault in which she had grown up. In American society, women are expected to prioritize their children, often by pushing their bodies to the limit and ignoring their own desires and needs. As she struggled to adjust to the new demands on her body, this stirred memories of being used, violated, and seen by men. She had the desperate urge to finally say no, though she didn’t know how, or to whom she might say it.
Written with the intellectual and emotional precision of writers like Roxane Gay and Leslie Jamison, and drawing on classic feminist thinkers such as bell hooks, Silvia Federici, and Adrienne Rich, as well as on popular culture from The Bachelor to Look Who’s Talking, Montei draws connections between caregiving, consent, reproductive control, and the sacrifices women are expected to make throughout their lives. Exploring the stories we tell about psychology, childbirth, sexuality, the family, the overwhelm mothers feel trying to be “good,” and the tender bonds that form between parent and child, Touched Out delivers a powerful critique of American rape culture and its continuation in the institution of motherhood, and considers what it really means to care in America.
I don't understand why you're supposed to get paid on leave. Do these people not save before having children?
My sister took 12 weeks off after having a child. She runs a small business, so she is not getting paid while on leave. Where is the crying for her? Who, exactly, is supposed to pay her when she goes on leave? Her customers???? The government????
Agreed. Like I get that sometimes things "happen", but women do at least 7-9 months notice that they "might" need to start planning ahead, save, and make plans.
And the other big issue is certainly "who" is supposed to pay for this? And how much is it going to add up as the rules end up being expanded and extended to not just help out women in bad situations, but unstable single mothers who are making bank on onlyfans, etc etc.
Paid leave is not need-based aid. You'd have to ask lefties about it, because I'm not a fan, but they seem to think that only people who are poor to get aid. In general. Except that they want women to get paid for not working no matter how needy they are.
A lot of this stuff is less about women though and more about how they get white people to pay for nonwhite babies. A lot of this "motherhood" crap becomes support for the invasion. Most aid is.
I think the person who wrote that article also wrote this "masterpiece":
https://archive.is/DFjqy
Archive doesn't include the whole excerpt, so I'll copy and paste it in a followup comment.
I don't understand why you're supposed to get paid on leave. Do these people not save before having children?
My sister took 12 weeks off after having a child. She runs a small business, so she is not getting paid while on leave. Where is the crying for her? Who, exactly, is supposed to pay her when she goes on leave? Her customers???? The government????
Agreed. Like I get that sometimes things "happen", but women do at least 7-9 months notice that they "might" need to start planning ahead, save, and make plans.
And the other big issue is certainly "who" is supposed to pay for this? And how much is it going to add up as the rules end up being expanded and extended to not just help out women in bad situations, but unstable single mothers who are making bank on onlyfans, etc etc.
Paid leave is not need-based aid. You'd have to ask lefties about it, because I'm not a fan, but they seem to think that only people who are poor to get aid. In general. Except that they want women to get paid for not working no matter how needy they are.
A lot of this stuff is less about women though and more about how they get white people to pay for nonwhite babies. A lot of this "motherhood" crap becomes support for the invasion. Most aid is.