The left hates the fact that men and women are different. They hate the differences so much that they pretend they don’t exist. It’s kinda’ like when my five year old is mad at her brother. She closes her eyes, covers hear ears and announces, “I can’t hear you.”
Journalist Kate Stone Lombardi believes that the different ways that Mothers Day and Fathers Day are celebrated shows how backwards we are and not as hip as say… Time Magazine.
Of course, there is not a thing wrong with children saying thank you for all those cuddles and comfort, or for expressing gratitude for models of strength and responsibility. These are all lovely sentiments. The question is: why in 2013, are we still dividing all these traits by gender? It’s insulting to both women and men and it has less and less to do with contemporary American families. Dads can be nurturers. Moms can be role models. Many, of course, already are.
A recent Pew study noted that the family roles of mothers and fathers are increasingly converging. Dads are doing more housework and childcare; moms more paid work outside the home. In fact, today nearly equal shares of working mothers and fathers report feeling stressed about balancing work and family life.
I read this and I thought originally that I was just reading someone who was up against a deadline and was desperate for something to write about. I mean, think about it, I think most families decide how to spend Mothers and Fathers day all by themselves. There’s no Hallmark council enforcing regulations.
So I thought it was a pointless piece. But alas, when I read it again it all became clear. It turns out she hates Mothers and Fathers day because it doesn’t work into her worldview that families are fungible. She writes:
Of course, there is not a thing wrong with children saying thank you for all those cuddles and comfort, or for expressing gratitude for models of strength and responsibility. These are all lovely sentiments. The question is: why in 2013, are we still dividing all these traits by gender? It’s insulting to both women and men and it has less and less to do with contemporary American families. Dads can be nurturers. Moms can be role models. Many, of course, already are.
A recent Pew study noted that the family roles of mothers and fathers are increasingly converging. Dads are doing more housework and childcare; moms more paid work outside the home. In fact, today nearly equal shares of working mothers and fathers report feeling stressed about balancing work and family life.
And that’s just heterosexual married couples. Single parents assume multiple roles that blur “traditional” realms. Studies that look at gay parents question the presumption that mothers and fathers bring separate gender-based skills to parenting (like mothers excel in nurturing and caretaking, while fathers bring discipline and rough housing into the mix).
Ah. You see, this isn’t about how these holidays are celebrated. This is about there being a Mothers and Fathers day at all. Perhaps she’d like it more if we tossed the old holidays and instituted “Legal Guardian Day” or maybe “Dad and his live-in-partner Eric day.”
Her issue isn’t with Mothers and Fathers Day, it’s with Mothers and Fathers.
May 9, 2013 at 4:25 pm
Hallmarks-ism generates secular (hardly holy) days as a pale substitute for the Christian calendar that was eliminated by the Reformation. Natural Law tells us that feasts and seasons are essential (as in Alec Guinness' perceptive quote at the head of this page), and when children are raised in ignorance of them, they will, as adults, institute, with good intentions, a secular calendar and secular religions, such as worship of a football team.
We already have several Mothers' Days, including St. Monica (now THERE is a nagging mom!) and any day honoring Our Blessed Mother, the very model for all mothers.
– Mack
May 9, 2013 at 5:26 pm
Mack makes a good point.
I for one, saw this as the leftist social engineers, seeing what a success they have had in waging and winning political and social war. Are now scouring the killing fields for the last traces of life. Or in this case residual institutional elements that speak to the traditional family unit. It's like walking through the battlefield after its over to pillage jewelry and put a .38 into the heads of any survivors.
May 9, 2013 at 7:20 pm
….in support of devoted peers!..;)
….yes, we have suffered heavy losses, with more promised by heaven to come!
….(and in honesty, we know why)
….but, this "is not over" yet!
….we have been given both, the remedy
and solution!
….the power of heaven may be called down, and answered by the humblest call for help!
…."behold the glory of our most holy Mother, Regina Caeli!" "Mediatrix of Heaven"!
….nothing will defeat her rosary and scapular!
….I suspect that Mother's Day and Our Lady of Fatima Day are going to be very exiting!
May 9, 2013 at 8:36 pm
I have been hearing this slog since subjected, as a child to "Free to Be You and Me" courtesy of liberal saints Marlo Thomas and Alan Alda. Somehow, the propaganda didn't sink in to my thick little skull. I have a big family with traditional gender assignments.
Nature will always reassert herself and consign these dunces to the dustbin of Darwinian natural selection. This comforts me. Is this a Catholic attitude? Probably not. I should probably hope that the people caught in the snare of this lie would awaken to the unflinching rigidity of the natural law, but I am a realist above all. I simply hope they exit the gene pool as quietly as possible.