De re feminina

Megan McArdle and Kerry Howley did a great diavlog about feminism and libertarianism, and it addresses a lot of points I think are extremely valid as feminism advances and whatnot. The vest part comes in the last fifteen minutes where McArdle and Howley honestly discuss America's rather baby obsessed culture and expectations for women. I can not begin to recount the number of times I've seen women like they describe, and it's a bit unsettling to try and churn out a "superchild" and to banish unhealthy foods, vibes, looks, etc. from your life during your pregnancy.

Which brings me to another point. Among the other topics addressed - child predator hysteria, pay disparagement, etc. - norms were the topic of the day. And the most interesting of those is the "clean house = good person" norm that a lot of people tend to have, but Howley & McArdle don't see the same anxiety existing in men in conforming to said norm. However, I think a lot of men do feel the same pressure to conform, but are socially more able to ignore it as it is expected for a bachelor to be "messy". I mean, it's a hallmark of singleness for a man to keep a messy place until he finds a "good woman" to take care of his house for him. I just don't think it's as simple as the norm having less pressure on men, though, because if your father was an absolute neat freak ( as mine is) who equates a tidy household with not only being an upstanding citizen but with also just being a "proud man" you are likely to feel embarassed in letting people see your place unclean. It's not quite as pronounced as it is in women, but it definitely still exists. Of course, like many norms, I just ignore it to the extreme agitation of neat freaks everywhere.

For some reason, this entire dialogue brought to mind a statement that bothered me, spoken by one of my classmates in my mind numbingly boring psychology class. It's not the first time I've heard this statement, as it seems it has existed forever and ever, but it gets no less annoying when it's repeated by people around you. This sentiment is, of course, simply that times are different and the world is somehow a much more dangerous place than it was at some distant time in the mirth of history. This is a natural analogue to the "in my day, children respected their parents" meme and other such foolishness spouted by social conservatives or other naturally terrified people. It never seems to occur to these people that these sentiments have been expressed throughout history and have always failed to bring about the demise of civilization as we know it. They never look at the mainstream media and see that since news now = entertainment, it is necessary to constantly manufacture fear (and it used to come from the pulpit, in the time when mass media didn't exist and literacy was not as common as now) to keep people interested. I have a feeling that this fear plays into society's constant infantalizing of women, but I haven't developed it much beyond that.

Thoughts? Of course, when asking for thoughts, it would help if people knew this thing existed. It's nice having a private vent diary that doesn't cramp my hand.