by Chris Bodenner
A reader writes:
The Right's incoherence on this issue is obvious to everyone not in in thrall to their rigid ideology. Think about it this way: these people see no contradiction in seeing the Palins as epitomizing Traditional Gender Roles and Values, while simultaneously believing that the Obamas, a much more traditionally organized family – where the wife, Michelle, has decided to put her own career on hold in deference to her husband and children – are representative of the feminizing of men and the dissolution of the American Family unit.
And of course there's this classic thought experiment: Imagine if one of the Obama girls were 17 and got knocked up by the black equivalent of a "fucking redneck". Or danced provocatively in front of millions of TV viewers. Anyway, back to the Room For Debate forum on parenting, Jeremy Adam Smith offers some compelling statistics on the lingering sexist attitudes of women:
Rising inequality and economic instability has meant that families can’t afford specialists anymore. And so they’re moving from a family model that stresses efficiency to one that tries to build resilience in the face of economic shocks. In the ideal resilient family, both women and men are capable of working for pay and working at home.
But families often fall short of this ideal, partially because of lingering structural and interpersonal sexism, and partially because men lack support for their new caregiving roles at both home and work. Studies consistently show that 80 percent to 90 percent of mothers still expect fathers to serve as primary breadwinners (and very few will consider supporting a stay-at-home dad). At work, only 7 percent of American men have access to paid parental leave, among other structural limitations.
(Photo: US first lady Michelle Obama, daughters Sasha (C) and Malia take turns reading to children from 'The Cat in the Hat' by Dr. Seuss as they visit the Emthonjeni Community Center in Zandspruit Township, Johannesburg, South Africa on June 21, 2011. By Charles Dharapak/AFP/Getty Images)
The Dish 