stepping up with the stepfords

So, this article has been disseminated all over the interwebs and is causing all sorts of hoo-ha, consternation, and gnashing of teeth. Just read the comments attached to the original article to get a small taste.

I suppose you Adventurers know where I stand on all this. You all know I am a feminist. There is little that makes me more apoplectic than systematic oppression, societal control, or blatant disrespect of women. I make jokes about The Patriarchy all the time, but that's not because I don't think it exists. I think you you all also know that I am a woman who likes to spoil the people that she cares for. Since I am also the most heterosexual woman in North (and parts of South) America, it follows that in an intimate relationship the person on the end of my pampering is going to be a man. In other words, when my future contractor second ex-husband comes into my life, he can expect to have his laundry washed and folded, his aching manly muscles massaged, and his sexual needs taken care of. With pleasure. And that is because by the time he is in a position to become my contractor second husband, I will know that he is appreciative and respectful of such attentions, and does not sneer at them. (Those who don't get it will be shown the door, no matter how big a truck they own, yo.)

It has been a long, long time since I have felt any conflict between parts a and b above. It confused and worried me as a young woman, but once I realized that feminism meant making up my own rules for my own life, I was at peace with it. But I still was, and am, aware that society, that people as a rule, have no idea what to do with a woman like me or the article's author. To me, she's a chick who took the lemon of unemployment and made a delightful lemonade wherein her boyfriend feels like a king and she gets to throw herself into making him happy in a way that makes her happy. What's so regressive about that?

See ya in Stepford.

xoxo