Linda Hirshman has learned a lesson or two since her last few major articles have come out — women get irritated when you say they live “lesser lives” when not slogging away for The Man — and she’s tempered her message with a line or two acknowledging the negative messages women get about parenting. She sure as hell doesn’t mention her own number in that equation.
If you haven’t yet noticed her condescending, male-modeled, ego-centered, zero-sum approach to money and power, or her trickle-down approach to women’s equality (worked in the Reagan era, right?), or her sneering contempt for women who parent, a few links for your perusal.
Four things you need to look out for before you endlessly praise Linda Hirshman’s latest piece in the NYTimes:
1) Articles that rely on a thesis that rich white ladies don’t get enough attention are usually bullshit.
2) Articles that rely on the premise that if you make decisions different than the ones the author prescribes you are operating under false consciousness are usually bullshit.
3) If the writer is actively contemptuous of the audience she claims to target, it’s probably bullshit.
4) Hirshman’s previous work. Start with her blog. I guarantee her contempt for the women she claims to lift up will raise a feminist eyebrow.
Note her bizarre hatred for “freelance writers.”
Note that she suggests women who “waste” their college educations as stay-at-home moms should pay the state back for the cost of educating them.
Note she believes that women are not rational actors when it comes to politics.
It’s been awhile since I ran into a feminist who thinks women are stupid.
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