Dirty dancing and days off
Updated
I'm loving the blog IzzyMom. She has a couple of great posts up right now, which I heartily agree with. Click on the quotes below to read the full articles:
On "freak dancing" (the latest form of dirty dancing):"...the kids are not to blame. I mean they have their noses rubbed in sexual imagery from childhood on and then we go and sexualize our little girls and then we give them numerous forms of media that are saturated with sexual content and imagery of the most base variety, as well as all manner of negative gender stereotyping and then when they freak dance, we call foul? What the hell did we EXPECT them to turn out like? Nuns and monks? They’re simply products of their environment and you can’t really fault them for that."
I totally agree with that. While I think freak dancing can get pretty gross and degrading, and I'd hate to see one of my teenage cousins doing it, it's not surprising given how much sexual content kids and teens see on a daily basis. I guess the challenge is trying to teach them about healthy body images and gender issues, and hope that they act responsibly.
IzzyMom on Mom's elusive day off:"...when is MY day off? He doesn’t GET that if he had to be “on duty” every second of his life, he’d be resentful, too. In my opinion, he’s the lucky one because he knows that no matter what, I will be in the background making sure everything, as in EVERY DAMN THING, is taken care of. Who wouldn’t want that? Shit! I want a wife, too."
A familiar argument between couples with children, I'm sure! It's not even necessarily a stay-at-home-Mom issue; it's one I've heard many times from mothers with all kinds of jobs. To be fair, I'm sure some Dads feel this way too, but I haven't heard any talk about it!
Update: Vicky chimes in with some great points about the myth of a day off.
Technorati tags: freak dancing, teen, dirty dancing, body image, Moms
Posted in: baby, body image, kids on November 27, 2006
Thanks for the kind words! I just wanted to comment that we had that same old argument even when we had no kids so yes, even people who aren't SAHM's can probably relate to some degree if they are the one's who take care of everything.
In fact, I remember very clearly spending whole lunch hours on the phone with the the cable company or our health insurance provider just dealing with day-to-day crap that you can't do after work. Do you think my husband EVER gave up a lunch hour for something like that? No WAY. He has no clue!