What do women want? According to one of our favorite female feminism-haters, Laura Grace Robins, it’s sort of a a tossup between the vote and designer purses. But that’s not what women really need — which is a husband. Oh, and milk. Can you remember to get milk?
At least that’s what I think she’s saying. See if you can figure it out from this quote from her post “Remove the Needs.” I have taken the liberty of bolding my favorite bits. Anyway, here’s Ms. Robins’ vision of the modern postfeminist woman:
She may have everything she wants, but not everything she needs. She wants independence, the vote, her own income, etc., but she wants all these things like she wants a designer purse. Underneath it all, it is just for show and what she really needs are the basics; like food, shelter, and a husband. She may have fancy clothes and independence, but it is the needs that nourish. She can deny the needs and focus on wants, but a life purely filled of wants is typically shallow and empty. Feminists have been the advertisers that make us buy into wants instead of our needs. If we know what our needs are then we can walk down the aisle of feminism and not be allured by the glossy packaging of independence and income. I’m not here for the “Starbuck Frappuccino”, but for a gallon of milk.
But what if the woman in question is lactose intolerant? IN YOUR FACE, LAURA GRACE!
Also, I’m wondering what exactly a “Starbuck Frappuccino” is. I would love to have a Frappuccino with Starbuck. Either one, actually.
Ms. Robins concludes:
Now most women live hollow lives filled with closets full of shoes and purses, while homes are empty of husbands and children.
I think that, like a lot of the people I write about on this blog, Laura Grace Robins has confused reality with Sex and the City.
The show ended nearly a decade ago! At least get a current TV show to confuse reality with!
Yeah, who needs those frivolous things like independence, the vote or their own income. Silly, shallow women.
Ugh.
So wait. Because I’m not hitching up with a man, ever, my life is utterly meaningless?
How restrictive and heteronormative.
Women are not allowed to have anything that exceeds their subsistence-level needs. Wanting more than that is being greedy.
(I’m still trying to figure out how a husband is a need in the same way food and water are needs. How many days can one live without a husband before one dies of spinsterhood?)
So, women who are not hetero, or who don’t want children, don’t exist. Neither do women who are poor, or who don’t actually like designer this or that and think it’s a huge waste of money.
The idea of a husband for the sake of a husband is skin-crawlingly repellent.
auggz – I bet she goes for the “of course LGBT people can marry, if a man marries a woman and vice versa!” shit that gets spouted.
Maybe they can fixate on Girls. All the conservative culture critics seem to enjoy obsessing over that one.
Husband and children over income and independence? Abraham Maslow would like a word with you, Laura.
I’m guessing that in Laura Grace Robin’s ideal world, a husband is a necessity because women don’t have the vote, independence or their own income. And therefore the only way women in her ideal world can have food and water is if they have a husband who provides it.
(Sorry about the gender binary crap inherent in this – blame Laura Grace).
I’ll take independent spinsterhood and cats over a forced marriage of necessity, any day.
By her “logic,” men don’t really need voting rights either. Or independence, or income. We should all be happy to be slaves, as long as they feed and shelter us and let us get married.
titanblue – I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole thing was a ploy for espouse additional gender essentialism bullshit. Yay, gender essentialism!
Do men need independence, the vote, their own income?
They can survive with just the basics: food, water, shelter.
So I guess men want self-determination the way they want Timberland boots and power tools (which they all want.) Silly shallow men.
I just love people who tell me what I want and need based on the fact that I belong to the category “woman.”
She’s full of shit, and those are some butt-ugly bags in that pic.
How cool is it that half the population, of some countries, are no longer entirely dependent on the other half of the population for survival? Independence is precious beyond measure to those who do not have it, and apparently of little value to those who do.
If the feminist conspiracy was behind the Great Handbag/Vote Racket we’d at least tempt people with nicer bags.
Does this self-determination make me look fat?
Not to mention ageist. So, older women who have been widowed and whose children have grown are living shallow lives in empty houses?
Well, a lot of them never had their own income, so I guess they’ve got that going for them.
bbeaty – well, they should be available for free babysitting when son or son-in-law requires his wife’s presence without the children around. That gives some justification to their continued existence post-husband, I guess.
Ermahgerd!! I went there.
When will I ever learn not to click on David’s links, sigh.
So my poor deprived husband derived no joy or love or contentment from taking his daughters to the markets and helping them choose our family’s fresh food for the week. Nor was he the least bit pleased when they proudly presented the cheese scones they regularly produced for weekend consumption – when he had pulled up the kindy chairs for them to stand on to reach the benches while he supervised, and successfully got them to believe that they controlled the process. So that they were happily and confidently cooking real food with little or no supervision by the time they were ten. And also were happy to play a part in communal family cooking.
And he got a paycheck as well!
I’m not entirely convinced he would have been sooooo much happier if he’d been excluded from these activities if I’d insisted that such activities were wholly mine. Not entirely.
Can we just start sharing links to attractive designer bags? I’m kind of in the market. I found one I liked, because it kind of reminds me of a bowling bag and I’m weird that way — but sadly, I can’t find an image of it online.
Please assuage the unhappiness in my life by sending me designer bags I can purchase, while I sob onto my kitties’ soft, soft fur.
You know, I have no issue with people who want to live like this. If it makes her happy to play house with her husband, and he likes it that way too, then have at it. It’s the part where they can’t be happy unless everyone else is living exactly the same way that’s the problem.
Yep! That is exactly the problem, Cassandra. That they condemn anyone who fails to validate their choices by making exactly the same choices.
Dafuq? The guy puts love into his job?
Someone better tell all the men who are indifferent to or actually dislike their jobs that they’re not allowed to be married, let alone have someone cook for them, because UR DOIN IT RONG.
“Hollow lives filled with closets full of shoes and purses”…..is that like a turducken?
I’m fond of Bodhi bags, and have this one in this color.
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/NWT-HUGE-BODHI-PURPLE-LEATHER-SHOULDER-BAG-W-DEDICATED-TABLET-COMPARTMENT-/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/Fc4AAOxyHQlSGAXr/$%28KGrHqV,!rMFH62G+hQdBSG!%28q4vLQ~~60_35.JPG
And this one in black. It’s my work bag, big enough for a couple of cameras and so on.
http://www.lastcall.com/Bodhi-Eastside-Crossbody-Bag-White/prod5560030/p.prod