Tina, it was GRRRREAT! I have had a lot of trouble with feminism,
wrong time, wrong culture. I left the States in 1969 for Israel.
Israel is kind of weird about feminist issues - if you want to
look at Jewish history, Deborah was one of our best "generals"
and Judith, well, let us say that she wasn't afraid of the sight
of blood!. In more modern times, girls were in the front lines
in the War of Independence in the late 1940's and even now do
compulsory service (my own daughter finished with rank of
sergeant), a woman was Prime Minister (Golda Meir - one of the
best, in my opinion), always in the work force, etc. But we
certainly have our feminist problems and issues too. (eg a woman
cannot divorce a man for any reason whatsoever. A husband has to
AGREE to give a woman a divorce. We have a LOT of problems with
this!) One which I never knew how to handle dealt with
breastfeeding and I was confronted with in the 70s and 80s (I
hear it less lately, but still some). Mostly doctors and nurses,
but sometimes moms, would almost angrily INSIST THAT A MOM HAD
THE RIGHT NOT TO BREASTFEED. Now, I can go along with that up to
a point, but not in the sense or spirit that it was being
insisted upon back in those years. In Israel then, nobody was
being INFORMED about differences between breast and bottle.
Frankly, WITH WHAT WE KNOW NOW ABOUT THE DIFFERENCES, I think
that an informed woman who decides on formula feeding with no
attempt to breastfeed is practically guilty of child abuse.
Insisting upon her "rights" is most questionable, in my opinion,
when you consider that she is DENYING her child immunization to
disease, risking increased morbidity, allergy, anemia, etc. etc.
etc. OK, so I'm a fanatic. I just keep wondering where are the
BABY'S rights here?
That's just one of the problems I had with feminism. The other
was their devaluation of women who chose to found families. I was
very insulted by the sneers of the fast-lane careerists. I did
feel sorry for them (albeit with difficulty) when many of the
sneerers suddenly felt the old biological clocks ticking their
last, and had to scramble for IVFs and pray. I am glad to see
that the movement learned from the sad experience of some that
feminists come in all shapes and beliefs, and that it is a
mistake to sneer at a sister. Unfortunately, I think that the
movement still has a way to go in coping with cultural
differences.
The patriarchy, commercialism, technology manifesto was
unbelieveable. A challenge to add to it. I've gone on too long.
Judy Knopf, who rushes in where anybody sensible......