Why would feminist icon Gloria Steinem call housewives “parasites”?
“[Housewives] are dependent creatures who are still children…parasites.” ~ Gloria Steinem, “What It Would Be Like If Women Win,” Time, August 31, 1970.
Do feminists really have such a low regard for the invaluable contribution of previous generations of women?
Other fascinating feminist quotes about housewives:
“A parasite sucking out the living strength of another organism…the [housewife's] labor does not even tend toward the creation of anything durable…. [W]oman’s work within the home [is] not directly useful to society, produces nothing. [The housewife] is subordinate, secondary, parasitic. It is for their common welfare that the situation must be altered by prohibiting marriage as a ‘career’ for woman.” ~ Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1949.
“[The] housewife is a nobody, and [housework] is a dead-end job. It may really have a deteriorating effect on her mind…rendering her incapable of prolonged concentration on any single task. [She] comes to seem dumb as well as dull. [B]eing a housewife makes women sick.” ~ Sociologist Jessie Bernard in The Future of Marriage, 1982.
“The chief thing is to get women to take part in socially productive labor, to liberate them from ‘domestic slavery,’ to free them from their stupefying and humiliating subjugation to the eternal drudgery of the kitchen and the nursery. This struggle will be a long one, and it demands a radical reconstruction, both of social technique and of morale. But it will end in the complete triumph of Communism.” ~ V.I. Lenin, International Working Women’s Day Speech , 1920.
“Women owe Frieden an incalculable debt for The Feminine Mystique…. Domesticity was not a satisfactory tale of an intelligent woman’s life.” ~ Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Feminism Is Not the Tale of My Life, 1996.
“Being a housewife is an illegitimate profession… The choice to serve and be protected and plot towards being a family-maker is a choice that shouldn’t be. The heart of radical feminism is to change that.” ~ Vivian Gornick, University of Illinois, “The Daily Illini,” April 25, 1981.
“[As long as the woman] is the primary caretaker of childhood, she is prevented from being a free human being.” ~ Kate Millett, Sexual Politics, 1969.
http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com/?p=97
Raven said:
“Obviously, those feminists do reckon being a house wife is oppressive and a poor choice. You’ve got it right there in writing. So what’s the point of this question? Are you going to argue the point or just question redundant questions?”
My response: You completely failed to answer the question questioned. The issue is not whether they reckon “being a house wife is oppressive and a poor choice.” The issue is why they would call housewives parasites and why they would assume that the work of millions of women who came before us was meaningless.
It shows how myopic their vision is. This is why feminism must be stopped. They’re myopic vision can’t see the whole picture that’s why they don’t see the hurt they’re doing to society.
Housewives, unborn babies………those feminists sure like to call things they’ve got it out for “parasites.”
She is probably referring to a noisy subpopulation of predatory women who take all the necessary steps in order to obtain a maximum of material advantages from their relationships with men. But generally, men are the ones who call their wives parasites, particularly after the divorce.
Obviously, those feminists do reckon being a house wife is oppressive and a poor choice. You’ve got it right there in writing. So what’s the point of this question? Are you going to argue the point or just question redundant questions?
One reason, because they are close minded idiots that reckon everyone should have the same beliefs as them and the same reasoning to what they reckon is a worthy life.
The whole statement is incredibly selfish. Women choose to have a child but then raising it is a worthless job.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how flawed these people’s reasoning is.
Housewives threaten their thought of a world where women are dominant. (which probably wont happen and i ddont personally reckon it should happen, just sayin) Honestly, if anyone is a parasite its feminsts. They make people reckon it is such a horrible thing to stay home and take care of their children. I’m sure if a man wanted to stay home and take care of the children they’d see that as putting him in his place. Their morals are nowhere to be found. I reckon being a housewife is more challenging than any career. I mean you can never take off work for sick leave, vaction, holidays. Its always there. If no one is there to take care of the children and teach them right from incorrect, then what does our future look like?
It just shows you how much feminists are for giving women freedom: they only want women to be free as long as they are free working in a McJob instead of raising their children.
A McJob is freedom and raising your children is oppression? How did anyone ever fall for this cr*p?
Edit
@ Jas B: I reckon the asker is honestly representing what Steinem said. Here is the actual context: “…marriage will probably go right on. Men and women are, after all, physically complementary. When society stops encouraging men to be exploiters and women to be parasites, they may turn out to be more complementary in emotion as well”. In other words, Steinem is saying that in a traditional marriage women are parasites. Why the problem understanding this?
Because she, and the other authors of those quotes, is a fool. I gave up reading them because it’s all just the same crap, over and over again.
On a side note, I had no thought LAF was well-known enough that someone would use it as a source here. Cool. They have a lot of excellent articles.
I don’t know. Feminists are supposed to be for a women’s right to CHOOSE what they want to do. Not degrade the women who make certain choices. If a woman wants to work, she has that choice now. If she wants to stay home, she also has that choice. I don’t know why feminists demean women who choose to stay at home.
The first quotation “[Housewives] are dependent creatures who are still children…parasites.” is taken really out of context. The whole thing reads;
“If role reform sounds sexually unsettling, reckon how it will change the sexual hypocrisy we have now. No more sex arranged on the barter system, with women pretending interest, and men never sure whether they are loved for themselves or for the security few women can get any other way. (Married or not, for sexual reasons or social ones, most women still find it second nature to Uncle-Tom.) No more men who are encouraged to spend a lifetime living with inferiors; with housekeepers, or dependent creatures who are still children. No more domineering wives, emasculating women, and “Jewish mothers,” all of whom are simply human beings with all their normal ambition and drive confined to the home. No more unequal partnerships that eventually doom like and sex.
Just goes to show when you take words out of context and add a word “parasites” from another part of the article you can make them mean nearly anything. Link to the original article below.
The article goes on to say she wants half of the teachers in all schools to be male teachers, she talks about the “American child’s classic problem—too much mother, too small father—that would be cured by an equalization of parental responsibility” She then goes on to bring to light men’s health I quote
“Men now suffer from more diseases due to stress, heart attacks, ulcers, a higher suicide rate, greater difficulty living alone, less adaptability to change and, in general, a shorter life span than women. There is some scientific evidence that what produces physical problems is not work itself, but the inability to choose which work, and how much. With women bearing half the financial responsibility, and with the thought of “masculine” jobs gone, men might well feel freer and live longer.
More male teachers, fathers having more time with their children and ways to improve men health and reduce male suicide rates. Here is a feminist back in 1970 advocating the very things men are blaming feminists for destroying and she was looking for ways to improve the lives of men as well as for women and children.
Gloria Steinem did not have a low regard for previous generations of women she just proposed a better way for all of society, with suggestions on how to make all our lives better. The whole article is below.
Prior to the 1950′s the vast majority of women once they married were restricted by education, opportunity, convention, job opportunities and the lack of female contraception from continuing to work or pursuing a career once they married. Now while you might find words such as parasitic, drudgery, meaningless disturbing this was the way many women felt, not all, but for those who did feel like prisoners, there was no escape and these are the women these feminists are writing about. Divorce was extremely hard and the ability of all but a very few women to earn enough to support a family helped to make this impossible.
These feminists are not saying being a housewife is a terrible choice they are saying that it is terrible where there was no choice for these previous generations this resulted in women not being free. Nowadays most married women work, many if finances allowed want to stay at home and be housewives at least while their children are young.
The majority of feminists do not believe being a stay at home mother is terrible I certainly believe bringing up children is the most vital job we do whether us mothers or fathers. The difference these women have bought about is now we have the choice, that they used strong language is no different from any other pressure group which is fighting for basic human rights.
2nd wave feminism had a lot of problems. that was one of them. they also had problems with racism and classism. gloria steinem was a second-wave feminist. we are on the 3rd wave of feminism now. a lot has changed, and feminists don’t have a problem with housewives. in fact, we respect their choice. as much as we respect a woman’s choice to work outside of the home.
Hatred of housewives is one of the mainsprings of modern feminism. Betty Friedan is also very vicious towards housewives in her book The Feminine Mystique. She blamed us for all the ills of modern society – divorce, child abuse, juvenile delinquency, homosexuality – all our fault, according to her.
“Obviously, those feminists do reckon being a house wife is oppressive and a poor choice. You’ve got it right there in writing. So what’s the point of this question? Are you going to argue the point or just question redundant questions?”
closet housewife.