Robert_S wrote:Coito ergo sum wrote:Bella Fortuna wrote:Yeah, mothers are never expected to give anything of themselves to their children.
PS. You gonna eat that ham?

No, of course mothers are expected to give of themselves for their children. The point was that the man should do it first, and the man has the primary responsibility to save not only his children but his wife. The wife has to save the children, but not the husband. A man saved by his wife in a situation threatening them both is not a real man, according to the ongoing trope, that is.
So you reject the old patriarchal assumptions and values that attempt to shoehorn people into gender roles?
Generally speaking, yes, I do. That does not mean that I deny the existence of gender roles in our culture, or the existence of cultural norms. The question is the propriety of them, I suppose. And, when we are discussing feminism, in terms of the goal of equality for women, extant cultural gender norms are almost always at issue.
In my own life, I am trying to raise my little one to rise above gender norms. But, alas, she will live in the real world, and all sorts of "norms" will apply throughout our culture. Some apply already, as my wife She Who Must Be Obeyed is in favor of some of them. Girls should wear pretty little outfits and girly colors like pink and such, in her view. I have very little ability to impact that. Although as far as norms go, the fact that women often wear skirts and frilly stuff is not the worst. The ones I'm concerned about are the more substantive ones that effect her personal autonomy and notions of self-worth, etc.
The "norms" I want her to avoid are the ones advanced by Apelusters and such -- the "norm" that Apelusters advance, for example, that women are less able to say no to offers of wine and the flirtations of prominent men. That's a norm I don't want my little one ever embracing. She will be able to deal in a social context as equals, whether she's wearing pink or whether she is wearing blue.