Fay Weldon in the Guardian yesterday

[monkeytrousers]

www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/aug/22/fay-weldon-interview-saturday

"Women exhausting themselves with useless jobs instead of looking after children couldn't be sustained."

"You're less likely to get divorced if you do it sensibly, but then you'd just die of boredom. So you should do it rashly."

LOVE both these soundbites - couldn't agree more .

She can't make her mind up what she thinks, can she?!

Agree about the 'useless jobs' sentiment though. Far better to have an interesting and useful one!

Always puzzled at the idea that FW is a feminist. Reading her novels, it seemed she actually disliked women. (Haven't read them since my teens/early 20s though, as I found them quite dispiriting, maybe she's done something better since?)

I agree, edam, that FW is a very depressing author - or at least she was when I read her, at least 25 or 30 years ago.

It must be very easy to dismiss the pay gap as trivial if you are a wealthy novelist.

I thought it was very interesting. More and more I think feminism can only be defined by wanting to improve women's lives. You don't necessaritly have to agree on how that's done, but battle it out aka political parties. I think that model would work better than the one we seem to have which seems afraid of internal feminist competition. I think it would only be to the benefit of women if this changed.

What is the never ending SAHM vs WOHM debate but a battle between opposing feminist camps?

True. But I think it's the 'backlash' accusation that I don't like. As if dissent were anti-feminist.