Comments on: We Don’t Need a New June Cleaver

By: Sangelia

Sangelia — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 19:02:00 +0000

and here I originally thought that being a feminist. was one who COULD pick where she wanted to be.
be it in a outside home job. or be a stay at home mom.
having being both. worked in a factory for nearly 20 years. and now a stay at home mom. I can see both sides.
no matter what area a woman chooses to be in. she should NOT be degraded.
it should be up to the woman to pick as she feels best to do as she wants.
and with the home computers being in many homes hooked up to the internet. a stay at home mom still can have a social life of a sorts. as well as a home business if she wants and is up to it.
besides, I dont wear pearls. i’m more likely to be found in a polo shirt with comfy pants.
plus i’m more likely to quote where in the Bible. Proverbs Chapter 31. where it praises a woman who does have outside the home jobs.

By: sarah.of.a.lesser.god

sarah.of.a.lesser.god — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:56:55 +0000

@Mama Mia: That’s a terrific point about how condensed things used to be. In the “good old days” there was a morality code in Hollywood that was so extensive that they couldn’t even say the word “pregnant” in I Love Lucy when Lucille Ball was pregnant on the show, and that kind of morality was inescapable. Talk about an improbable representation of maternity.

By: rednrowdy

rednrowdy — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:50:09 +0000

i’d love to know how the hell zurawik came to the conclusion that kate gosselin is, by any stretch of the imagination, a paragon of motherhood. i’m not a watcher of her show, and i know that IV treatments are rampant, but how many mothers had six kids at once due to IV and then had to go on medicaid prior to getting the tlc show?

the last portrayal of a real mother on television was roseanne. roseanne’s show in those first few seasons was more real than any reality show combined.

By: kithkin

kithkin — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:49:21 +0000

I’ve never seen the show, so I have no idea of what “kind of mother” Kate Gosselin is. When the story broke about the infidelity (I am embarrassed to even know this stuff), though, a lot of opinions popped out of the ooze that is the Internet. Judging from Facebook and from Jez, this woman is to say the least not uniformly adored. She’s a Bad Mommy because (a) who puts their family on reality tv and then isn’t perfect? That’s the point of tv, you say? Never! and (b) I guess she is portrayed as controlling? The term “psycho” got tossed around a fair amount and, shockingly, on Wednesday, I heard a wonderful, warm, loving person who has dedicated her life to improving the lives of children and works tirelessly to that end, say in person: “she is really crazy so she probably should have expected it.”

I don’t think anyone but this Zurawik believes she’s a paragon of motherhood and I doubt even he does. It sounds like he had a deadline and a lunch break on which he went to the grocery store and saw this tab. It would have been Angelina Jolie if not for the Gosselins being on the covers this week.

MammaMia, your point about the changing media and generational differences is an excellent one.

By: Mama Mia

Mama Mia — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:33:27 +0000

It is interesting that he would choose Gosselin, since just glancing through the comments on his own page shows that she is equally loved and reviled on the internet. But what he really is not acknowledging is that cable and new media forms are so different from his boomer childhood. When there were only 3 channels, everyone had a shared experience of television, and one character could come to represent an era. Today, we just don’t have that shared experience. Just because someone shows up in the tabloids, as you pointed out, doesn’t mean they represent something larger. It means that people who buy tabloids are interested in them- and not always in a positive way.

It actually strikes me as a bit of generational warfare to choose such a divisive “character” to represent this generation.

By: LPC

LPC — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:42:07 +0000

Being a mother is hard. Doing a good job is even harder. We should all, as mothers, put aside the cultural brouhaha and still try as hard as we can to do a good job. Who cares what they say. Are we symbols? Who cares. In our hearts we know we need to do a good job. All else is sound and fury signifying nothing.

By: sarah.of.a.lesser.god

sarah.of.a.lesser.god — Sun, 10 May 2009 17:53:07 +0000

@alli: Somehow that E! special does not at all surprise me. And we all know Marge Simpson is the hottest mom in Hollywood history.

By: alli

alli — Sun, 10 May 2009 15:47:46 +0000

while proctastinating in all of my housewifely-duties, I just saw that E! is offering “Hollywood’s Hottest Moms”
I don’t think June would make the cut

By: sarah.of.a.lesser.god

sarah.of.a.lesser.god — Sun, 10 May 2009 06:26:22 +0000

I should add that the poll currently featured on CNN’s homepage is asking if you ever wished Carol Brady was your mother. Seriously?

By: SarahMC

SarahMC — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:59:04 +0000

So Zurawik chose Gosselin as the modern day everymom and then asks what it means about “us” that she’s the modern day everymom. It means nothing about “us,” as “we” did not declare her the paragon of motherhood. He did. In the past few years, depictions of uptight, controlling, mean moms have become more and more prevalent on tv – in sitcoms and now with Jon & Kate Plus 8 – with daddy as the spineless know-nothing. I have a hard time believing that’s a coincidence.