{"id":438,"date":"2003-11-12T00:46:16","date_gmt":"2003-11-12T08:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2003\/11\/12\/even-the-smartest-anti-feminists-are-sometimes-amazingly-clueless\/"},"modified":"2003-11-12T00:46:16","modified_gmt":"2003-11-12T08:46:16","slug":"even-the-smartest-anti-feminists-are-sometimes-amazingly-clueless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=438","title":{"rendered":"Even the smartest anti-feminists are sometimes amazingly clueless…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sara at Diotima<\/a> comments on this Womens Enews article<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Ms. Caiazza brings it back to the tired old argument that all we need is high-quality, universal child care; she “wonders if those women who are choosing between careers and children feel forced to do so by the weakness of the U.S. culture’s commitment to high-quality and affordable child care,” an argument that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense given that the women who are leaving the workforce for the home, women like those profiled in the NYT Magazine two weeks ago, are financially well off and presumably would be able to afford good child care. It does not seem to occur to Ms. Caiazza that staying home with the kids is a choice that women might actually want to make.<\/div>\n

A few comments.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. “Tired old argument” is a right-wing code phrase for “I have no logical response to this argument, so I’m just going to turn my nose up at it.” Anyhow, criticizing something you disagree with by calling it a “tired old argument” doesn\u2019t even rise to the level of being a tired old argument – it’s just a thoughtless clich\u00e9.\n
  2. Sara’s argument – that a few “financially well off” women profiled in the Times <\/i>don’t need access to high-quality child care, therefore the child care issue is moot – is groundless. As Sara must realize, the folks the Times <\/i>wrote about are not a representative sample. (“If people need money for child care, can’t they just get a grant from the Olin Foundation?,” one imagines Sara’s IWF chums asking.)\n
  3. Logically, it is perfectly possible that some women choose between career and home because they lack access to high-quality childcare (for instance, women who choose not to have children, or who delay having children until their incomes are higher).\n
  4. Sara’s final accusation – “It does not seem to occur to Ms. Caiazza that staying home with the kids is a choice that women might actually want to make” – isn’t supported by a quote from Ms. Caiazza. This isn’t surprising, because no such quote exists. Of course, making up doubtful claims about feminists is a typical anti-feminist tactic, but I’m disappointed to see it on Diotima.<\/ol>\n

    .<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Sara at Diotima comments on this Womens Enews article: Ms. Caiazza brings it back to the tired old argument that all we need is high-quality, universal child care; she “wonders if those women who are choosing between careers and children … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-feminists-and-their-pals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}