Thanks for your in-depth cogent takedown of Spier’s absurd essay. The idea that women were “happier” with fewer rights and that female friendship reduces the bonding that should rightfully belong to a man is so ridiculous it sounds like it’s from The Onion. I guess, according to Spier, we should diminish and decenter ourselves and stop spending so much time with our good besties and then all will be right with the world.
Women like Spier take the rights they have for granted. They don’t value what was fought for and what their entire lives as young women are based upon. Maybe she’d be happier staying home and working on her bonds with men instead of having the privilege to use her voice and be taken seriously. That credit card she uses, that business she might own, the mortgage she might have taken out- none of that was available to my generation until our mid- teens. I have a particular problem with women who have no respect for the fact that they have freedoms ( that are under attack) that their foremothers suffered and died for.
I started reading the Hannah Spier post without knowing anything about her but began to suspect she has a specific point of view when she attributed the development of assertiveness as being induced by anger. In my experience, assertiveness more often develops when more, and better, information becomes available. And sometimes it develops when one’s back is against a wall or when a loved one is in danger. As I continued reading, I came across the phrase “women had properly adjusted to adult functioning”. What, I wonder, would she argue was evidence of such “proper adjustment”? Adult functioning better cover a broad range of areas — public (civic), employment, domestic, social — and who is setting the standard for “proper adjustment” in each of those areas? Furthermore, are those standards gender-based? I realized by the end of her article that I really didn’t want to read anything else from her. But thank you, Professor Meredith, for your post! I may have lived for over 3/4 of a century feeling like a stranger in a strange land, but now feel like I lived through a revolution of sorts wrt female empowerment.
She also seems to present her data in a vacuum. How does women's “happiness” (etc.) compare with men’s during the same periods?
I notice that women are still burdened with maintaining relationships. Where are the men? What is their responsibility?
I read years ago that more women file for divorce than men because men use affairs as their escape. They don't want a divorce. They have no desire to lose the labor of a wife.
Women do have affairs, of course -- if they can find the time.
This is such a powerful piece. Thank you for putting into words what so many women have dealt with their whole life. I wish every man and conservative trad-wife woman who supports the misogyny that permeates all of society was required to read it. Most of them probably still wouldn't get it, but change is slow, and we have to keep fighting for progress for as long as it takes.
In other words being woke. Funny how god came to the same conclusion. He didn’t want Eve to have any knowledge so that she would blindly submit and not recognize the oppression she was forced to live under.
“Maybe women are unhappy because feminism told them they were people, and then the world handed them a second shift, a childcare bill, a pay gap, a Dobbs decision, and a man asking why they don’t smile more.” Perfectly stated.
If this were just about grievance and feminist brainwashing the why do all systems of oppression follow a similar playbook? I dare her to write a piece about how addressing racism has made black people grievance victims(something fox news did on the regular) who were happier when they were kept in their place. Its the same argument; it just dupes us better becuase it overlaps into the personal narratives and social norms that kept us from asking for too much. .
I’m 68, always single, childless by choice, so domestically, I’ve never suffered from any of this, but have watched my friends and family. I like my friends’ husbands, but would not put up with things my friends do. Part of the reason I never married was that I would not participate in the “women’s work” theory of life. Of course, in the work place, that was where I got to participate in some of the bullshit. Your article articulated what I’ve believed for more than 50 years. Thanks for the confirmation!
Susan B. Anthony wrote they she didnt marry and had several opportunities byt did not want to be either a doll or a drudge which were the only two options, unless you had a benign master(my words)
Hannah Spier carries water for the patriarchy. Substack recommended her when I first joined and I blocked her profile so it would stop showing up.
Thanks for your in-depth cogent takedown of Spier’s absurd essay. The idea that women were “happier” with fewer rights and that female friendship reduces the bonding that should rightfully belong to a man is so ridiculous it sounds like it’s from The Onion. I guess, according to Spier, we should diminish and decenter ourselves and stop spending so much time with our good besties and then all will be right with the world.
Her entire thesis seems to be that “if women just had less self-respect everyone would be fine!”
Women like Spier take the rights they have for granted. They don’t value what was fought for and what their entire lives as young women are based upon. Maybe she’d be happier staying home and working on her bonds with men instead of having the privilege to use her voice and be taken seriously. That credit card she uses, that business she might own, the mortgage she might have taken out- none of that was available to my generation until our mid- teens. I have a particular problem with women who have no respect for the fact that they have freedoms ( that are under attack) that their foremothers suffered and died for.
That's messed up. So the only probwith patriarchy is that women are too immature to agree to it?
Internalized misogyny is a scary drug.
THIS IS THE MOST INCREDIBLE TAKEDOWN I HAVE EVER READ!!!
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
🥂
Professor Meredith, you are *that bitch* and I say that with all of the love in my heart 🥰
I started reading the Hannah Spier post without knowing anything about her but began to suspect she has a specific point of view when she attributed the development of assertiveness as being induced by anger. In my experience, assertiveness more often develops when more, and better, information becomes available. And sometimes it develops when one’s back is against a wall or when a loved one is in danger. As I continued reading, I came across the phrase “women had properly adjusted to adult functioning”. What, I wonder, would she argue was evidence of such “proper adjustment”? Adult functioning better cover a broad range of areas — public (civic), employment, domestic, social — and who is setting the standard for “proper adjustment” in each of those areas? Furthermore, are those standards gender-based? I realized by the end of her article that I really didn’t want to read anything else from her. But thank you, Professor Meredith, for your post! I may have lived for over 3/4 of a century feeling like a stranger in a strange land, but now feel like I lived through a revolution of sorts wrt female empowerment.
She also seems to present her data in a vacuum. How does women's “happiness” (etc.) compare with men’s during the same periods?
I notice that women are still burdened with maintaining relationships. Where are the men? What is their responsibility?
I read years ago that more women file for divorce than men because men use affairs as their escape. They don't want a divorce. They have no desire to lose the labor of a wife.
Women do have affairs, of course -- if they can find the time.
This is what they're doing now?? Wild!!
This is such a powerful piece. Thank you for putting into words what so many women have dealt with their whole life. I wish every man and conservative trad-wife woman who supports the misogyny that permeates all of society was required to read it. Most of them probably still wouldn't get it, but change is slow, and we have to keep fighting for progress for as long as it takes.
In other words being woke. Funny how god came to the same conclusion. He didn’t want Eve to have any knowledge so that she would blindly submit and not recognize the oppression she was forced to live under.
“Maybe women are unhappy because feminism told them they were people, and then the world handed them a second shift, a childcare bill, a pay gap, a Dobbs decision, and a man asking why they don’t smile more.” Perfectly stated.
Excellent essay as always!
If this were just about grievance and feminist brainwashing the why do all systems of oppression follow a similar playbook? I dare her to write a piece about how addressing racism has made black people grievance victims(something fox news did on the regular) who were happier when they were kept in their place. Its the same argument; it just dupes us better becuase it overlaps into the personal narratives and social norms that kept us from asking for too much. .
I’m 68, always single, childless by choice, so domestically, I’ve never suffered from any of this, but have watched my friends and family. I like my friends’ husbands, but would not put up with things my friends do. Part of the reason I never married was that I would not participate in the “women’s work” theory of life. Of course, in the work place, that was where I got to participate in some of the bullshit. Your article articulated what I’ve believed for more than 50 years. Thanks for the confirmation!
Susan B. Anthony wrote they she didnt marry and had several opportunities byt did not want to be either a doll or a drudge which were the only two options, unless you had a benign master(my words)