Conversations about the commencement speech from the kicker are still going strong. Why does no one seem to know that a big part of the feminist push in the 1970s was the idea of paid housework for homemakers? To stop devaluing it.
What an inconvenient truth for many in the present who want to claim feminism is about one path. Here’s looking at you, Chiefs’ kicker.
In reality, feminism is about CHOICE. And not just about our bodies.
This constant stream of women going on the defensive because they want to stay home and raise their kids is maddening. We, feminists, have been fighting for you to do that. We have marched and written and stood up for your right to have your name on those bank accounts, mortgages, loans. We in our stubbornness have made it easier for you to open that part-time business if, let’s say, you’re not finding homemaking as fulfilling as you once did when the kids head off to school.
CHOICE.
Maybe younger people don’t recall the widows and divorcees who found themselves lost later in life after choosing homemaking and child-rearing. That is, full stop, a fulltime job with no pay. What if he’s suddenly not there, earning? I remember the women who scrambled to find a way to survive, pay their bills, make their way. Often not pretty.
Is the football kicker going to send them a chunk of change via Venmo when he follows their advice and they find themselves stuck down the road? What’s the plan?
This is, by the way, only shining a light on those who choose the path the kicker recommends as the way to go. Of course my credo is CHOICE across the board – be a doctor, an electrician, an interior designer, a parent, a cashier, an entrepreneur, or any combination of things you want.
When you assume feminism is a knock on what were once considered traditional roles, maybe pause, and ask yourself, what might the repercussions be? The kicker has chosen his life. We can only assume his wife has chosen hers. Those graduates deserved to hear that they positioned themselves to make informed CHOICES and should have been encouraged to do so.
How is it you wonder why an arrogant declaration and presumption delivered on the very day women are celebrating their intellectual accomplishments, as they are literally sitting there in caps and gowns, didn’t land well on a lot of us? I mean, that’s a special kind of obtuse.
Just for the record, no, I’m not for firing the kicker. I’m for letting the chips fall. Buy his jersey. Don’t buy his jersey. If a bunch of homemakers and the men who love them need that kind of validation for their life CHOICE, that’s on them. Let capitalism play out.
All I’m saying is that if it was up to the founders of the feminist movement, you ladies would be getting a paycheck for your hard work in the home. Full stop.
[Editorial Note: This is my third installment in a series I began in order to give my writing some flow after being in a healing phase from knee surgeries for a year (2023-24).]
