On Caitlin Flanagan (phhhbt)

I just read Caitlin Flanagan's book "To Hell With All That" -- primarily because I'm a masochist who will read the two extremes of feminism and anti-feminism (I even read the Dr. Laura book, for cripes-sake) and bore my husband by shouting out "neither of these camps represent me!"

And, I will admit, there have been times when I've been surprised to find something good in a book that I thought for sure I'd hate. No, not the Dr. Laura book. It was stupid and mean, not surprisingly. But I read "The Surrendered Wife," the book darling of many fundamentalist conservatives and was shocked to find that not only did it make some good points, but I couldn't figure out why the fundies liked it. (I won't go into all that now. Just check it out from the library and give it a chance. It's more about "don't take on everything, allow your partner to genuinely partner with you" than surrendering. But you can see how her title is more eye-catching than mine.)

Anyway, so I checked out the Flanagan book, since it's getting lots of press. I did hate it, but not for the reasons I thought I would -- the press invariably picks up her quotes about there being something lost when Mom works -- but because it was such an odd book. The kind of book where you would think an editor would say, "Um, I don't get your point?"

Happily, since I don't have the time right now, someone has done a much better job than I at discussing this:

http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/04/12/flanagan/index.html

More later, from the Feminist-Stay-At-Home-Mom-in-Tennis-Shoes.