MOTHERS CAN BE SEXIST TOO
The following excerpt is from the self help
psychology book, Be Your Own Therapist.
I recently spoke with a mother who called herself a feminist.
She told of how she and her female friends would never have male
baby-sitters for their children because of the likelihood of
physical or sexual abuse. Obviously her ideas lump men in a
sexist way as abusers and molesters. What do you think her
children and her friends' children are learning from their
mothers' behavior? They are learning that men cannot be trusted,
that men can't take care of children, that men are louts, etc.
This is incredibly sexist, and it is the women who are
promulgating the sexist message. They are causing trauma in both
their male and female children with such messages. Their
children will struggle for years overcoming such sexist
messages.
| Today many misguided parents are teaching their children that ALL authority is bad, not just that bad authority is bad.
|
Some surveys show that over half the mothers of today are
reluctant to allow full child-rearing participation by the
fathers, because "the fathers just wouldn't do it right." I
wonder what such women would say about a CEO today remarking
that "women don't belong in the CEO's chair because women just
wouldn't do it right"? That CEO would be an immediate target of
protest.
I think there is more involved in women being protective of
their child-rearing status than just whether the father would do
it right. Consider the power and increased self-esteem that the
average woman feels while raising children. Many women would say
that the mothering role is far more important than any work role
(translation: more important than work outside the home). The
raising of their children is a real power trip (empowering, not
necessarily unhealthy) for many women. How do men feel about
raising children? Men haven't generally admitted it, but feeling
weak and dependent upon their wives accurately describes the
situation of many traditional males vis-a-vis child-rearing.
Isn't this precisely the traditional female experience
concerning money and power outside the home? Some women seem no
more willing to give up their power spheres (child-rearing and
the home) than some men are willing to give up their power
spheres (money and work outside the home). Yet much current-day
rhetoric indicates that men are the sole problem.
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He whom neither slander that gradually soaks into the mind nor statements that startle like a wound in the flesh, are successful may be called intelligent indeed... Confucius 500 B.C. |
More Excerpts This Chapter
ARE 97% OF FAMILIES NEUROTIC?
TRAUMATIZING CHILDREN - 97% OF THEM?
ARE WE REALLY HUMANE?
EFFECTIVE PARENTING
OUR CURRENT FAMILIES BRING OUT OUR SKEWNESS
MOTHERS CAN BE SEXIST TOO
MANY MEN STILL ABDICATE THEIR PARENTING ROLES
WORKING MOMS - ARE THEIR KIDS OK?
LATCHKEY CHILDREN DON'T DO AS WELL
THE SEARCH FOR APPROVAL
THE ELDERLY
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Sexual Education Psychology
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