'Opt-Out' Enemy to Spitzer's Wife: Told You So!

Madeline Holler — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:02:00 GMT

Linda Hirshman, enemy of the "opt-out revolution" and smart feminist who's got that special way of making lots of women (especially mothers) feel like total shit about themselves, has reached out to shamed (and now former) N.Y. Governor Eliot Spitzer's wife with this sentiment: too bad, told you so, would have happened sooner or later.

She writes in a short piece on Slate that Silda Wall Spitzer should not have, lo those many years ago, quit her job in mergers and acquisitions to raise her daughters and support her husband's budding career in politics. Silda Spitzer rode her husband's powerful coattails, Hirshman says, and now that he's powerless, she is too. Silly Silda should have seen this coming!

How? Well, because sooooo many powerful men face their downfall with prostitutes, Hirshman argues, getting the full mile out of her thesis with vague evidence, all of it anecdotal (Clinton! Gary Hart! See, Silda, see!).

And now Silda has nothing. No social cache. No trust in her man. No power by proxy. And, especially, no power of her own. Nothing.

Silda, honey, it's gone.

Hirshman often argues that her criticisms center mainly on the elite -- from birth, from education, from levels of power. But she has said before that women should only have one child and never leave their jobs, and elite or not, we all hear it. She's talking about us. Like most critics of stay-at-home parents or those who "opt-out," she ignores the complications of family life between equal partners with unequal take-home-pay who have kids. There's never talk of institutional change -- part-time work, longer vacations, longer maternity, affordable and/or on-site childcare!, good schools, 40-hour work week, etc. Only personal change will do for Hirshman.

What's most damaging is that she puts a tremendous amount of importance in time -- time away from a career. She assumes that something real is lost when women or men make the difficult choice to "opt-out" for a bit when the kids are young. Because even a short break means all is lost.
Anyone who has ever "opted out" knows nothing is lost. The real problem is that even a short break means it's hard to get anyone to take you seriously. Including Linda Hirshman. She reinforces it for those who don't know any better (for example, uh, American corporations and Hirshman's professional area, academia.)

I have little sympathy for Silda Spitzer, because she doesn't need my sympathy, or anything else from me. Our worlds are quite different. But this week and certainly for the next few, the details of her life and the actions of her husband will be overlayed onto my life. This will be used to teach women lessons and issue warnings. The Spitzer crisis will illicit a stern talking-to from every expert out there about all aspects of my little family (and yours).

Today's nagging comes is brought to us by Linda Hirshman. As I did with yesterday's warning from Dr. Laura Schlessinger, I'll be ignoring Hirshman's too.

Photo: Good Morning America

Linda Hirshman Pisses Me Off Yet Again

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 02:01:00 GMT

This time Hirshman is saying that Stay-at-home-mom's have to ask their husbands how to vote! In her article on Washingtonpost.com she called "We've Come a Long Way, Maybe" she says that in her small poll of Washington D.C. SAHMs she learned that people vote like their fathers do, or read the Style section of the paper and ask their husbands what the rest of the news is and she insinuates that we don't care about or understand policy. Grrrrrrrrr. Hey Linda! I'm a SAHM. I live near D.C. I happen to have a college degree in political science. I also have the amazing abilities that including reading, watching the news and forming my own opinions.

I thought the Mommy Wars were over. Why is this woman out there trying to make other mothers look stupid? Is she still pissed because I don't work out of an office? Is this because I don't have to wear pantyhose? Choosing to stay home with your children does not make one apolitical or unthinking.

As with most of Linda Hirshman's writings, I find this offensive as a woman and as a mother. I'm guessing that the article was meant to illustrate that people won't vote for Hillary Clinton just because she is a woman (which may or may not be true) but I think she just set the feminists back another couple of years.

(Thanks to this fabulous post by Pundit Mom where I first found out about this outrage.)

Strollerderby : Linda Hirshman

'Opt-Out' Enemy to Spitzer's Wife: Told You So!

Linda Hirshman Pisses Me Off Yet Again