Stewardesses are representative of all that was evil in our past. Just look at ’em. Forget the smiles, the waves, the trim beauty. They are desperately unhappy, the aeronautical equivalent of sex slaves.

In her latest encomium to feminism, which was discussed here, Gail Collins singles out stewardesses, and the employment standards of their bosses, for special censure. Before feminist progress, stewardesses had to be pretty, well-groomed, young and unmarried. Now they can be fat, married men, and that’s amazing.

But what really irks is not the discriminatory rules that insisted they be young and beautiful. Stewardesses were often unambitious women looking for husbands and travel before they settled down to marriage and family. They didn’t want to be president of the airline or even a lowly director of marketing. They wanted to pass the time well before real adulthood began. Feminists despise the lowly stewardess. She lacked ambition. She smiled too much. She could have gotten high marks at any charm school. Husbands and babies adore smiles. And that’s just the problem. Down with stewardesses forever! They are a relic of human happiness, a reminder of lost joy.

By the way, speaking of lost happiness, another New York Times writer echoes the theme of Collins, who states that despite all our amazing progress  much, much more needs to be done to lift women from the dark bowels of patriarchal oppression. According to Judith Warner, recent surveys showing declines in female happiness cannot be blamed on feminism, but on the fact that feminism has not truly succeeded. Warner writes:

Life for women has not come together. That, at least, is the very clear conclusion you have to draw after reading the essays contained in “A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything,” a book-length report released this week by the Center for American Progress. Despite its cheery-sounding title, the report conveys a bleak portrait of women’s non-progress in our day. The wage gap persists, particularly for mothers, who now earn 73 cents for every man’s dollar. Our workforce and education system is still sex-segregated, operating along generations-old stereotypes that steer most women into low-paid, low-status, low-security professions. Women pay more for health insurance than men, have more extensive health needs than men, and suffer unique forms of discrimination in their coverage. (Women may be denied coverage because they had a Caesarean delivery or were victims of domestic violence — both “preexisting conditions.”) Regardless of the number of hours they work, they continue to do far more caretaking and housekeeping work at home than do their husbands. And discrimination against mothers (but not fathers) in the workplace is all but ubiquitous.

That any employed journalist gets away with uttering the lie that women make less money than men because of discrimination, rather than because of their own employment choices, is indicative of the pervasive mendacity that controls the printed page. Here’s the deal. Feminism will not truly be termed a success until every single man in the country is an unemployed wastrel who spends his day scrubbing the floor and dusting the furniture until his boss returns home, happy and triumphant, from her job. Then, and only then, will women be happy.

Michael S. writes:

That photo of  Gail Collins on the NYTimes.com editorial page epitomizes smug condescension.

And Judith Warner is an idiot.

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