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Gender And Society

I don’t agree with Madonna that a woman’s place is to be stylish, sexual and self involved. There is so much happening in a woman’s life but her multitasking skills allow her to be able to do all that. It is too unfortunate that literary sexism has been wrecking havoc women’s self esteem for some time now even in the recent times. Nowadays it has become the norm that people are openly dismissing the notions that gender inequality and brand complainants have become privileged whingers(Jane). It is still too unfortunate that women have to work twice as hard for them to get noticed. Even before they get noticed they will have been criticized so much and only the ones that have developed a hard skin will survive the turmoil. As far as I am concerned, there is no time for being sexual, self absorbed and all that because there is still so much to be done especially when the woman is a wife, a mother and is a career woman. There is so much that is expected of the woman and the woman and the fact that the society does not recognize all her efforts make it all hard for her. When the children turn out all rebellious and all, the first culprit is the woman forgetting the fact that woman has so much in her hands.

A woman is never on the safe side because whether she is working or not there is still something she will be blamed for. If she is a stay at home mum, she is said to be boring and sometimes she becomes the laughing stock of the society because they think she is dump and all that. The career woman on the other hand is said to neglect her children never mind she might be the only breadwinner in the family(Marian). Juggling all these duties while trying to stay sane is one of the hardest jobs in the whole world because at times there is no one to support her. The husband might also be working and by the time each one is going home, they are both tired to have time for each other. And as I said earlier, when things go wrong, the woman is the first to be blamed, it is like she is the only parent to their children.

The new’ momism’ tries to insinuate that no woman is safe from criticism. The ones that do not have children are either jeered or laughed at and at the same time one who has many children and sometimes from different fathers also becomes the laughing stock and the butt of bad jokes. The new momism has been romanticized but at the end of the day, the women are still labeled failures in one way or the other. Being self involved does not include driving in the middle of the night to pick or drop your teenager from the latest jig in town so that they don’t miss out on the same ( Susan and Meredith). It is not even about sleeping past 3 a.m. as you make your children Halloween costumes, it is about being who you are; it’s about bringing up children in the right ways according to what the mother believes is right. There is nothing like a super or a perfect mum if you ask me. The super mum as seen by the society might be the most horrible mother to her children and maybe they even hate her guts.

Bringing up children to be morally upright is all about family values and what the mother thinks is best for her children. American mums have been accused of smothering their sons so much that instead of the sons becoming strong and important people in the society, they end up as weaklings who are tied to their mother’s apron straps. These men cannot even fight for their country; they have been turned into dysfunctional maternal slaves who cannot even stand on their own two feet. The new ideas on mothering not only do they promulgate standards of perfection but they are also out of reach (Labaton, Vivien, and Dawn). They might seem right from the outside but at the end of the day they are so hard to achieve thus making women look like the worst failures when it comes to their children. The new momism is still good because it has allowed women to make choices on whether they want to stay at home without being forced and they can still work and raise their children without the help of their women. Therefore the new momism is not so bad after all. The other good thing about the new momism is that women do not have to be subservient to their men if they are not willing to. They can decide to be sexual and self absorbed if they want to, it is all about the choices that the women will make. The only decision that woman will make and one is a real woman and a decent worthy one is becoming a mother. The child rearing of such a woman will involve the characteristics of Donna Shalala and Mother Teresa all rounded up into one.

This new womanhood cum momism draws and repudiates the idea of momism. Why I think women do not have the time to be all sexual, stylish and self absorbed is the fact that motherhood has become an Olympic of some sorts(Marian). Parents are always competing with their neighbors to see who is better than the other. It is a case of everyone watching you as you watch yourself with other mothers while still watching ourselves as we watch ourselves, a tongue twister, huh? Its living like the Joneses which is never the best way to live one’s life, it becomes draining and frustrating at times because at one point you will not be able to keep up with them. Mothers have to be on the lookout for the other mothers so that they don’t end up in the child welfare offices for child neglect of some sort. Nowadays motherhood is considered a psychological police state and it can be an ugly case at times.

Well, in the midst of all this hustle and bustle of life there are still some women who have come out successfully and still managed to remain stylish and sexual at the same time. These women are the likes of Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton not to mention Condoleezza Rice. These women have managed to have an effect in the society and their families especially their children have grown up to be well behaved and without the bad publicity that is always associated with children of women in high offices. As we are talking, I bet Michelle Obama is the most celebrated woman in America and in the whole world; so far, no bad publicity has been associated with her children. And to say that she is stylish is an understatement; she still has time to look good for herself, her husband and the society at large.

Works Cited

Jane Sullivan. A Woman’s Place. The Age Entertainment. Web. http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/a-womans-place-20120113-1pyoa.html. Accessed on June 17, 2013. 2012. Internet Material.

Susan J D. and Meredith W.M. The New Momism. The Mommy Myth: The Idealizatio Of Motherhood And How It Has Undermined Women. Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group. 2004. Print.

Meyers, Marian. Mediated Women: Representations in Popular Culture. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 1999. Print

Labaton, Vivien, and Dawn L. Martin. The Fire This Time: Young Activists and the New Feminism. New York: Anchor Books, 2004. Print