The Angel in the House is the famous model of 19th century femininity that positioned a woman as angelically self-sacrificing and completely dedicated to the needs of her family members. The Angel always smiled, never complained, and lived for the sake of her husband and children. She could never allow herself to criticize the husband because her submission to him was supposed to be complete.
Today, many women believe that the greatest goal of feminism was to turn them from Angels in the House into Angels Outside the House. They enact exactly the same kind of self-sacrificing, never complaining, completely submissive femininity and believe that, by virtue of having a job and making money, they have achieved a qualitatively different state of being than their 19th – century sisters. And of course, they feel great resentment because combining the roles of a graceful domestic angel with no needs of her own and of a breadwinner is a pretty lousy gig.
Examples of this resentment abound. The most recent one I’ve seen is an article titled “Having It All Kinda Sucks.” The article’s author rants and raves about feminism that, as she believes, made her life completely sucky. She had a baby a month ago and has worked every day since delivery because money is needed to keep her husband’s business afloat. As she runs around, popping stitches, working and trying to take care of the baby, the worthless gigolo of the husband appears in the kitchen to inquire what the plan is for dinner. After which, the woman drops everything and, without any objection, rushes to fix him dinner.
Of course, if such a fellow surfaced in my general vicinity, he’d soon know that the plan for dinner is to rip out his liver and feed it to coyotes. But that’s because I understand that the goal of feminism is not to give jobs to Stepford wives but to recognize women as fully human, valuable and important. The ecstatic tales of “look how I sacrifice my every need to those of my family” are not about feminism, irrespective of whether the person sharing them receives a paycheck or not.
Clarissa's Blog 
Makes sense she would publish this in Huffington post, a billion dollar site that refuses to pay a single cent to its army of bloggers.
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Yeah, this woman is working herself to death because her family so desperately needs $$, yet she apparently has enough time on her hands to write lengthy articles that she gives away free for publication WITH NO COMPENSATION.
Seems a bit contradictory…
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I love how she claims that her husband does more than average husbands but there’s no evidence of this in the article.
The other day I was walking down the street to get my mail, feeling pretty pleased with myself. I have a 3.5-year-old, and I had a baby exactly one month ago. In that month, I have worked almost constantly and it has paid off: I have made enough money to pay all my family’s bills and keep my husband’s business afloat. I have produced quality work that I’m proud of. And not once have I mentioned to anyone that I just had a baby.
No, no, what the hell is this? The point of having a spouse is having someone who’ll give you some kind of breathing room so you don’t have to ice your crotch and go back to work one day after delivery. Hell the point of working like a maniac is to build a cushion of savings, not to fund your stupid spouse’s pointless and unprofitable business. If he had a fucking vasectomy he’d lying on the couch and ringing a bell to be waited on hand and foot.
Why is this idiot not doing laundry? Or emptying the diaper genie? Why isn’t he even taking care of dinner and keeping the other kid occupied so she can change out of her clothes? If he was supporting everyone and working crazy hours she’d be doing all of this and more, no question.
I knew two women like this. They had the kid(s), and they were supporting everyone and doing all of the housework. They’re both divorced from these men now. Immediately ensuing the divorce, those men found jobs in their field.
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This whole “I gave birth and nobody found out” reminded me of Gone With the Wind where Southern ladies concealed their pregnancies because it was not ladylike to let people know you were pregnant.
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Interesting RE gender in Russia:
Навстречу гендерному празднику
http://taki-net.livejournal.com/2310573.html
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Gosh, I had no idea that February 23 still had any meaning for people. It took me a while to figure out what holiday this was about.
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I was shocked by
\ предложила нарисовать любимого мужчину, любого, можно папу, дедушку, дядю, брата, друга, одноклассника. Очень многие принесли – причем с каким-то ожесточением и демонстративно – портреты мамаш, с утрированно длинными волосами, в развевающихся платьях, а то и подписанные МАЯ МАМА.
What happened there? Have they no (grand) fathers in their lives? Did kids’ mothers somehow tell them whom to draw?
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Looks like horrible news for women’s rights in Russia:
Минздрав РФ внес изменения в Порядок оказания медицинской помощи по профилю “акушерство и гинекология
http://russell-d-jones.livejournal.com/1409289.html
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