Highly feminist originality:
This idea that women might “forget” to have a baby is perpetuated in modern culture. My generation spent much of their teenage years being told not to get pregnant lest it “ruin your life”. In our 20s, that changed almost overnight and we were told not to leave it too late, lest it (again) “ruin your life”. When women enter their 30s and 40s, they face a maelstrom of misogynist peer pressure, from “when are you going to have a second child” to “is it not unfair to have a baby in your 40s?”, not to mention the classic levied at the child-free: “but who will care for you when you’re old?”
Ms. Cossett’s writing was, a decade back, all about how terrible the patriarchy was because it hadn’t solved the good sex with no brats problem. Now it’s about clock ticking and how terrible the patriarchy is. Another decade and it’ll be how terrible the patriarchy is because middle aged Mums don’t get enough support.
The development of subject matter will be exactly the same as those writing for FeMail. Step by step in lockstep with developments in her own life.
The specific year may well vary but the decadal output won’t. We’ve got the patriarchy’s a bastard for only providing the one grandkid yet to come. Plus, of course, the apotheosis of every feminist’s writing career, the gardening column in The Oldie.
I even glanced through the Guardian article/what a hero!!!/ and noticed that an important point was that WE don’t provide enough child care.
However I’d argue that there’s no fertility crisis.
TPTB import all those blacks and Mahometans precisely to solve this problem.
It seems to me that it is other women who put his kind of pressure onto their sistren. Not blokes, who don’t GAF as long as dinner is on the table. It’s for women who adopt any given course to carry it through and not worry about what others think. But that is not how they are programmed.
“My generation spent much of their teenage years being told not to get pregnant lest it “ruin your life”. In our 20s, that changed almost overnight and we were told not to leave it too late, lest it (again) “ruin your life””.
Actually, it was media people like YOU. Miserable, alcoholic feminists in The Guardian, the BBC etc. Go and have your fabulous career and travel instead of having babies. Except the truth is that travel is vapid and most women don’t have fabulous careers. Most have jobs. And far more than men, they chase stupid ones like writing opinion columns or being historians.
The media is utterly dominated by celebrity gossip, fashion. All variations of zipless fucks for years.
Women should marry at 18 or 19, when their bodies are hard and at their most fertile. No, you’re not going to meet anyone better than you did then. The guys who hit on you at 15 in school are your standard. Going into publishing or flying off to Italy isn’t going to get you any better than that.
You’ll have kids, which are great, and the energy to raise them, and then study and go and have the career and travel if you want. Women could quite easily combine higher education with raising babies. Kids sleep a lot of the day, and dishwashers help.
This idea that women might “forget” to have a baby is perpetuated in modern culture.
Idk, is it? I can’t remember. But I do have a terrible fear of forgetting. Not sure how common that is.
When women enter their 30s and 40s, they face a maelstrom of misogynist peer pressure, from “when are you going to have a second child” to “is it not unfair to have a baby in your 40s?”
Seems like a lot of women interpret every stressful social interaction as misogyny, and women easily find social interactions stressful because they take everything personally. Maybe that’s why so much of female interaction is about cooing and complimenting each other, however insincerely. Men just call each other fat ugly cunts, then laugh about it.
Ms. Cossett’s writing was, a decade back, all about how terrible the patriarchy was because it hadn’t solved the good sex with no brats problem. Now it’s about clock ticking and how terrible the patriarchy is. Another decade and it’ll be how terrible the patriarchy is because middle aged Mums don’t get enough support.
Yes, but maybe they need something to complain about. Women and children are great complainers, which can be annoying, but perhaps helps them live with the fact that life is so unfair. It’s extremely unfair, particularly to women.
The mistake men make is thinking every complaint is a problem to be solved.
The mistake most people make is that every problem must have a solution.
My generation spent much of their teenage years being told not to get pregnant lest it “ruin your life”. In our 20s, that changed almost overnight and we were told not to leave it too late, lest it (again) “ruin your life”.
The idea that they were ‘told’ to do X and did it is funny.
The mistake men make is thinking every complaint is a problem to be solved.
Time was, women used to complain to other women – not to solve anything, but merely to vent. These days women seem to have fewer female friends (and couples are expected to spend more time together), so women end up venting to their husbands instead. This clearly isn’t healthy for either party.
Interested,
Monkey see, monkey do. They weren’t *told* not to have babies; instead television modelled a child-free lifestyle. There’s a robust study from Brazil showing how the expansion of telenovelas correlates to falling fertility.
Outside dedicated children’s channels, one rarely sees kids on TV at all these days.
“Men just call each other fat ugly cunts, then laugh about it.”
Correctamundo! Have just spent a long weekend sharing a house with 16 women. Walking on eggshells ain’t in it.
Seems like a lot of women interpret every stressful social interaction as misogyny, and women easily find social interactions stressful because they take everything personally.
That’s why groups of women are so terrible: they all hate each other and they all get upset because the others hate them.
“Time was, women used to complain to other women – not to solve anything, but merely to vent. These days women seem to have fewer female friends (and couples are expected to spend more time together), so women end up venting to their husbands instead. This clearly isn’t healthy for either party.”
Also, women go to work, which mean they bring home their work problems and complain to their husbands.
I’m a big believer in one aspect of traditional marriage, which is specialisation: men are stoic, work fucking hard, do long hours. Women provide comfort to men to make all the shit like standing on a tube train or bollocking junior staff worth it. That means you dress nice for when he comes home, have steak and kidney pie cooked and have trimmed your cooch.
I truly believe this is the key to happiness. Not “work/life balance”. Not new men. Not vain, wasteful attempts at self-actualisation.
Too many women are all “me, me, me”. Then they wonder why their lives are fucked. Well, maybe because your husband or boyfriend is looking around at the alternatives. He’s not going to apply himself if he comes home to you in sweatpants, overweight, watching Eastenders with a microwave meal to cook.
Men and women who go against the current BS are going to be winners. For men: Wear a suit instead of a band t-shirt. Don’t waste your money on tattoos, you edgy prick. Spend good money on dates. Learn to dance. Go to wine festivals where you meet nice women, instead of beer festivals full of fat blokes and quasi-lesbians. Hold doors open. I’ve never had a hot woman complain about that. For women: look nice. Don’t get a haircut that makes you look like a member of Spectre. Bin feminism. Learn to cook. Don’t read Cosmo. Learn about culture and wine.
“Ms. Cossett’s writing was, a decade back, all about how terrible the patriarchy was because it hadn’t solved the good sex with no brats problem.”
Actually, in her case, nature has already solved the good sex problem.
Steve,
“Seems like a lot of women interpret every stressful social interaction as misogyny, and women easily find social interactions stressful because they take everything personally. Maybe that’s why so much of female interaction is about cooing and complimenting each other, however insincerely. Men just call each other fat ugly cunts, then laugh about it.”
The thing with old feminism is that it was about hard-arse bitches who were happy playing in the hard world with hard rules. Thatcher, Barbara Castle, Theresa Gorman, Ann Robinson, for example. They entered the ring, and punched hard.
Third wave feminism is a disaster because it’s women who don’t have that constitution, who are really more like traditional women, but are cosplaying as serious, hard-arse bitches. They join competitive arenas and then complain about how men try and humiliate and undermine them, despite that being what you get in competitive arenas.
“If you can’t stand the heat, get back into the kitchen”
Anon
“Men and women who go against the current BS are going to be winners. For men: Wear a suit instead of a band t-shirt. Don’t waste your money on tattoos, you edgy prick. Spend good money on dates. Learn to dance. Go to wine festivals where you meet nice women, instead of beer festivals full of fat blokes and quasi-lesbians. Hold doors open. I’ve never had a hot woman complain about that. For women: look nice. Don’t get a haircut that makes you look like a member of Spectre. Bin feminism. Learn to cook. Don’t read Cosmo. Learn about culture and wine.”
Bravo.
Wherein we learn once again than feminists don’t understand the notion of opportunity cost.
“When women enter their 30s and 40s, they face a maelstrom of misogynist peer pressure”
Um, aren’t the ‘peers’ of women in their 30s and 40s, women in their 30s and 40s? I can’t ever remember telling a woman to have or not have a baby at any particular age. Has any of the men on here? I couldn’t give a shit if women do or don’t have babies or careers or both or neither. If such conversations take place it will be other women their age (or their mothers or grandmothers) discussing such things.
Misogynist? Ha bloody ha.
@ Andrew C
*Of Course* it’s misogynist – the worst misogynists are always women.
@AndrewC Tell a woman to her face to have a baby, because..? As a bloke?
Not unless you wish to get murderised in inventive ways. It’s one of the quickest ways to get ganged up on by them..
I like the cut of Anon’s jib, though I’m not 100% sure that wine festivals are where you meet nice people of either gender. Don’t get me wrong I have lots of very nice friends who drink wine like its going out of fashion, but I doubt one has ever been to a wine festival, they’re all too busy necking the stuff at home and having a good time.
My guess is that wine festivals are full of crashing bores (mostly men) and lushes (mostly women).
We can also expect- why i can’t stand my son’s nth wave feminist girlfriend?
@ Jim
Well said.
I’m liable to be a wine bore if I am not concentrating on not being one and I *never* go to wine festivals, so heaven only knows who does go to them.
Apotheosis of writing or apogee?