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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

The demonisation of single mothers.

336 replies

SantaIsAnAnagramOfSatan · 02/12/2010 06:52

Hi,

I've ended up talking about this in various threads but have never dedicated a thread to it.

So, i'm looking for your thoughts. How do we see this in action? What are the views of single mothers? How are they propagated? Why are they propagated and why do they attract such demonisation?

I'd also like to hear about where you think the feminist vision saw single mothers, did it predict their would be more given the increased freedom women would have in their lives and their ability to leave male partners or choose to not have one without being financially or socially (though that hasn't held true entirely compared to 1960's it's at least possible to live this way) ruined?

Is women being able to have children alone a part of the feminist outcome - if women have more control over their bodies and reproduction surely it was an inevitable outcome? And is it in your mind a positive or negative thing in terms of feminism?

I'm actually going away for a few days now but hope this will attract lots of thoughts for me to read when i get back.

As for me, to put this in context, i am a single mother of a pre school boy. When i found out i was pregnant (unplanned) at 30 i decided that i was happy to be and wanted to keep the baby but that i didn't want to stay in the problematic relationship with the father. Therefore i've been a single parent from the outset.

I have framed this as about single mothers rather than single parents as it is my experience that single fathers are seen very differently, imo as heroes and glorified whereas single mothers get the demonisation treatment in popular culture.

Look forward to reading your thoughts.

OP posts:
HerBeatitude · 06/12/2010 20:46

So, re agriculture - is that just one theory for the urge men suddenly had to enslave women, or are there others?

What do we know about the position of women as mothers in societies where there is no agriculture, or where it is a very minor part of the culture?

HerBeatitude · 06/12/2010 20:42

"Do you know the life story of every single person who ever lived on this planet?"

What exactly is the point of that question?

Young men shouldn't be afraid to stand up for their own interests. My beef with the way you are choosing to stand up for your so-called rights, is that most decent men would simply not recognise your version of rights as being valid, or something they would want to stand up for.

Most men and women want to live together in harmony. Feminism has never been about trying to give women dominion over men, it's been about trying to create a world where both men and women can function as full human beings and share the work, the joy, the resources and everything else, equally and fairly. Most reasonable men are in favour of that and would be disgusted by your horrible mysogny.

Most young men want to be fair and just and actually, they love women, they don't hate them. The problem is that what many people consider just and fair, is culturally constructed and when you analyse it from a feminist perspective, or a communist perspective, or a take-your-pick-of-any-other-outside-the-mainstream perspective, it turns out not to be so fair. Most people think they're against feminism not because of what feminism is, but because of what they think it is. Normal, emotionally healthy young men don't see their interests as being opposite to that of women - they see their interests as symbiotic with them. And in a fair and just society, men and women wouldn't be pitted against each other, they would work together, as millions do all over the world in spite of the patriarchy's existence. But you carry on with your hate-filled standing up for your privilege, no-one sensible is interested.

LadyBiscuit · 06/12/2010 20:39

If we don't engage and just ignore, he will go away.

sixpercenttruejedi · 06/12/2010 20:31

You don't need to cut and paste so frantically. We were here, we read it the first time.
What does your post have to do with the 3 thoughtful posts that preceded yours?

BillHicks · 06/12/2010 20:26

SantaIsAnAnagramOfSatan Mon 06-Dec-10 17:17:46

just been trying to catch up on my thread given i started it and then went away for a few days. some really interesting ideas and thoughts then billhicks.

have reported a load of his posts to MN - don't usually but calling women hussies, suggesting forcibly administering abortion drugs to ones partner whilst pretending they were vitamins, accusing lesbians of being scared of penis's because they were nearly raped once and and women who talk of sexual assault as being hysterical little girls who nothing has ever happened to and the word JAPS was all a bit much for me.

is mn really here to entertain 23 year old men with no kids who hate women and recommend assaulting them?

i get there's a very tolerant low intervention philosophy here but there has to be a limit surely? i'd like to see him banned.

--

I didn't report one sexist insult that was thrown at me nor did I simply retort with sexist remarks, I asked if it would be fine for me to respond to mindless sexist adhominem with more sexist ad hominem whilst demonstating examples of their behavior turned on it's head with all the ugly assumptions they come with using a person's sex/presumed personal history due to political affilliation. as a line of attack.

poshsinglemum Mon 06-Dec-10 17:22:30

Bill Hicks- have you been to see your psychiatrist yet?

I havn't trapped my ex at all. I did take the morning after pill by the way(it was a mutual decision); it didn't work and I was quite happy to continue the pregnancy without his support in any way. I no longer need him. He's a dead end. Like you.

Oh- and I work to pay my way too.

--

You work to pay your way? I'm astonished. rolls his eyes I'll give you a pat on the back for working to support a child that you chose to have.

He is a dead end because he doesn't want children with you? Wow, that's fair.

--

HerBeatitude Mon 06-Dec-10 19:06:36

"Whereas if you blame men, you have to admit that there has never been a time of civilised values."

Why blame men as a sex for anything? Should people start blaming blacks a race for crimes that black individuals have committed(in record numbers) or is that unfair? It is unfair, isn't it? When did this shit become about pinning the blame on people?

As for civilised values never having existed? How do you know that? Do you know the life story of every single person who ever lived on this planet?

www.libraryireland.com/SocialHistoryAncientIreland/III-XV-2.php

Before Ireland got destroyed by constant invasions, it was actually a pretty nice place to live for women.

We know women got treated badly throughout history and men treated badly thoughout history. We know that women still get treated badly and so do men. Just... women have had alot more help in recent years, I've posted numerous stories about men who have been fucked over by women to prove this shit isn't all one-sided.

Women for the most part aren't afraid(shouldn't be either) to stand up say "I don't think that is right." on behalf of women, women shouldn't be afraid to be an advocate for change when it comes to discrimination.

When will it be okay for young men to become advocates for men? How many years will we have to wait before we can do that without being suspected of trying to enslave women like some archaic tyrant?

This is what we get when we stand up for ourselves, I can only imagine what would have happened MRA's rocked up doing the same shit.

LadyBiscuit · 06/12/2010 20:23

Up until fairly recently in the West, if women became pregnant outside of marriage they were cast out. I don't think things have really changed that much but women aren't ashamed any more. And that's what gets society's ire.

Also a lot of men used to do the 'decent' thing and marry women they'd got pregnant - both of them decided that was the best thing to do. But now neither of them feel those kind of societal pressures and yet the disapproval still exists. My nan is 100 and told me years ago she would have divorced my grandad if she'd been able but there was no way for her to have done so without casting herself and her children into abject poverty. So she stayed with him.

No idea where I'm going with this really, just that I think that while in a lot of ways we seem to have made progress, the single mother still threatens an awful lot of our society's constructions.

sethstarkaddersmum · 06/12/2010 19:55

why would enslaving women come with the invention of agriculture - because you suddenly needed a fixed labour force to do the jobs of growing and processing, and once the old hunter-gathering skills had been lost it became harder for people to just leave if they didn't like it?
once you have agriculture you have ownership of land.

though I am also thinking about that Ray Mears programme about ancient wild food, which demonstrated that there was an awful lot of processing work needed to extract the nutrition from many gathered foods - it wasn't just a matter of picking berries and scoffing them. And also there are hunter-gatherer cultures that are misogynist. So I'm not sure.

a lot of other things changed at the same time as the invention of agriculture - towns came around the same time IIRC.

HerBeatitude · 06/12/2010 19:35

But what was the real problem?

At what point in history, did men suddenly start getting the urge to enslave women?

I know there's a theory that it all went to pot with the introduction of agriculture, but why? In ancient societies, the goddess mother, Demeter and her equivalents, were the mosst worshipped and important of the gods - at what stage did men start pretending that life came from men and that women were only vessels, not full human beings?

SantaIsAnAnagramOfSatan · 06/12/2010 19:24

an odd thought but what if it was all misdirection, that that was the crux of misogyny/patriachy etc. that we were the scapegoat to blame all ills on to misdirect attention from the real problems?

like patriachies jews?

probably a bit random.

OP posts:
SantaIsAnAnagramOfSatan · 06/12/2010 19:22

and thanks.

it's been really interesting to come back and read the thread. nice to just light the touch paper and leave too so you really see what people think rather than influence it or start arguing your point.

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ElephantsAndMiasmas · 06/12/2010 19:21

good point, Santa. That's why there are countless articles about the perils to society of women drinking/smoking/sleeping around/having children at a young age/having children at an older age i.e. things that men have always done without censure. But never any about men doing those things.

SantaIsAnAnagramOfSatan · 06/12/2010 19:19

i think the is falling apart is enjoyed, as in propogating fear and trying to control behaviour and hold back change. think it's different to acknowledging the very foundations of it are a lie iyswim.

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ISNT · 06/12/2010 19:10

Santa yes that is an excellent point.

it's an exercise in misdirection.

HerBeatitude · 06/12/2010 19:06

I suppose if you blame women, you can comfort yourself with the notion that once upon a time -between 30 and 50 years ago, that is always the golden time for any society - the world was civilised and ordered, and if only we go back to the way we lived then and the values we had then, everything would be restored to civilisation again.

Whereas if you blame men, you have to admit that there has never been a time of civilised values.

HerBeatitude · 06/12/2010 19:04

Santa I think that's a really good point.

If we blame women, that is less threatening isn't it?

Although, the Daily Mail et al absolutely revel in "our society is gone to hell in a handcart" stuff, they actively like feeling threatened.

So am not sure.

SantaIsAnAnagramOfSatan · 06/12/2010 18:51

i wonder if part of it (much of what i've thought about on this topic has been discussed and some really good points made re:reasons) if part of it is to hide the failings of men.

the reality of a father choosing to have zero contact with his child (such as my son's), the reality of of only 2/5's of absent men even paying any financial support for their children, the casual inhumanity of such a reality (i mean inhumanity as in lack of social responisibility, failed socialisation, abandonment of moral standards and what we see as fairly basic values, by men) is too ugly and threatening to society.

blaming the women, demonising the ones who are actually behaving humanely, sticking around, raising their children, making all the sacrifices we do is somehow less threatening? if women are bad uncivilised, immoral creatures it's ok (hell we've always said they were, that's why we have to control them) but if we admit men are then society, civilisation etc is unmasked as a lie.

and now i think this i wonder if that's what the denial of rape and victim blaming is all about too.

OP posts:
Trop · 06/12/2010 18:46

This made me chuckle...

A certain presence on this thread lasted from about midday yesterday to 1 in the morning, he was then absent until 3.30 this afternoon.
Just after school closing time.

I also note that his entire Sunday afternoon was spent venting on mumsnet so I suspect this one-of-a-kind tomboy gf he was raving about is either a figment of his imagination or was out having a life without him.

Grin
ISNT · 06/12/2010 18:45

Sorry wrong thread!

ISNT · 06/12/2010 18:45

I mean I think that most women would struggle to BF a 2mo when away from the 10 or 12 hours a day.

ISNT · 06/12/2010 18:41

Woman who is going to be a single mother soon starting to get nicely demonised on another thread at the mo.

TheFeministParent · 06/12/2010 18:03

So do we think our generation of single mothers get the same prejudice as our mother's. Afterall I think my Mum's generation (she's 56) would have disappeared and had a baby adopted rather than be a single parent from the off. I also remember my first friend whose parents divorced, I am 36.

SantaIsAnAnagramOfSatan · 06/12/2010 17:23

can i just suggest or politely request that if you wish to rant away about the evils of women and feminism that you start a thread of your own rather than contaminate a thread on which feminists are talking about single parenthood.

just a bit of common courtesy.

thread title suggestions, 'aibu to think all women are scheming cunts who send men to war so they can fuck american soldiers?'

'aibu to give my pregnant partner an abortion pill without telling her"

'aibu to state that victims of sexual assault were probably just brushed up against in a corridor once and are being hysterical bitches about it?'

go for your life.

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poshsinglemum · 06/12/2010 17:22

Bill Hicks- have you been to see your psychiatrist yet?

I havn't trapped my ex at all. I did take the morning after pill by the way(it was a mutual decision); it didn't work and I was quite happy to continue the pregnancy without his support in any way. I no longer need him. He's a dead end. Like you.

Oh- and I work to pay my way too.

SantaIsAnAnagramOfSatan · 06/12/2010 17:17

just been trying to catch up on my thread given i started it and then went away for a few days. some really interesting ideas and thoughts then billhicks.

have reported a load of his posts to MN - don't usually but calling women hussies, suggesting forcibly administering abortion drugs to ones partner whilst pretending they were vitamins, accusing lesbians of being scared of penis's because they were nearly raped once and and women who talk of sexual assault as being hysterical little girls who nothing has ever happened to and the word JAPS was all a bit much for me.

is mn really here to entertain 23 year old men with no kids who hate women and recommend assaulting them?

i get there's a very tolerant low intervention philosophy here but there has to be a limit surely? i'd like to see him banned.

OP posts:
ElephantsAndMiasmas · 06/12/2010 17:13

took the words right out of my mouth re: feminist utopia SSM.

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