THE small back-to-farming movement in parts of America is a sign of health and vitality. But, we also need a back-to-factory movement, a desire among many ordinary people to see more goods made and sold in this country. Factories are beautiful, as inspiring in their own way as farms. I am reminded of these words by the 18th century British painter Joshua Reynolds about the causes of the French Revolution. The French, he said, had given themselves to ornament,

to the splendor of the foliage, to the neglect of the stirring the earth about the roots. They cultivated only those arts which could add splendor to the nation, to the neglect of those which supported it – They neglected Trade & substantial Manufacture…but does it follow that a total revolution is necessary that because we have given ourselves up too much to the ornaments of life, we will now have none at all.

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THE previous entry quoted Canadian author Susie Moloney as saying that housewives typically “concealed a core of brutality toward their families.” I thought of that early this morning as I was marketing. I saw a number of women shopping with their young children, buying strawberries and fish. They seemed nice.  I guess the core of brutality was cleverly disguised.

Moloney said:

The cruelty was directed outside and they were evil because, ultimately, I think all housewives are evil,” she says. “I do think that in order to get the ultimate stay-at-home mom’s life — be slim and attractive, have beautiful kids, a successful husband and a beautiful home — you need witchcraft, especially the thin part. [emphasis added]

In response, reader Joe Long writes: 

Many years ago, the great science fiction and fantasy writer Fritz Leiber wrote a quite funny supernatural novel called Conjure, Wife. (I believe someone made it into a bad movie at some point.) Told from the point of view of a faculty member at a university, the premise was that the faculty wives were all witches (unbeknownst to their husbands), and that faculty politics was actually largely driven by their voodoo. Eventually Lieber reveals that the whole world actually works that way; all of the men supposedly in authority are just enjoying delusions of grandeur, as housewives casting spells make the world go ’round. (more…)

HOUSEWIVES sometimes believe if they are nice and very self-deprecating, the world will approve of them. But even if they are as sweet as candy, they will find some consider them infantile or “desperate” or even outright evil.

An interview with Canadian author Susie Moloney appeared in today’s Winnipeg Free Press. Moloney, who is unknown to me, appears to be an author of shlocky supernatural thrillers. She expresses her views about homemakers in her latest shlocky supernatural thriller. (more…)

YOUNGFOGEY writes:

Obviously, a reader’s comments contending that Rep. Weiner should not be scrutinized for his private behavior are absurd. Still, they have caused me to wonder about the widespread reaction to these events.

Why, I wonder, are we responding to his behavior with so much interest and outrage when tweeting sexual pictures to young women is perfectly in line with the philosophy of life we all know liberals hold? Had Rep. Weiner refused to apologize but simply come out publicly and said that sending pictures of his member to pretty girls makes him feel fulfilled and that no one should judge him for he sexual choices, he would at least have maintained a bit of philosophical coherence. When he apologized (if that is what he did) he lost even the bit of integrity seeking such philosophical coherence would have afforded him. (more…)

KATHRYN GALLANT writes:

I just read this article in the New York Times on the pregnancy of Huma Abedin, the wife of Congressman Anthony Weiner.

Poor child! When he or she is born (God willing), the child will have a lot to deal with. (more…)

CHRISTINE writes from Germany:

There is something on my mind which I wanted to write you for a long time.

Following one of your articles about Emmie, the woman who sought advice in The New York Times when considering an abortion, a woman wrote to you about her mother who had had her son aborted by a doctor before she was married. The woman wrote that her mother regretted that for her whole life and never went to Communion because of it. You wrote that you could not understand her, because if she had confessed it she could have gone to Communion. (more…)

MARGUERITE LOUISE D ′ORLÉANS, the 17th century Grand Duchess of Tuscany, was a difficult spouse. Her husband, the Grand Duke Cosimo III de ‘Medici, was so frustrated by her behavior that he eventually had her banished to a convent in France. While at the convent, she had affairs and gambled at the court at Versailles. She also tried to burn the convent down, an act said to have greatly irritated her husband.

I bring up the Grand Duchess for no reason other than to relay the following story of marital conflict. Most stories of marital conflict are interesting, but this one is particularly so. Whether it has any lessons for us who live in a highly scientific and egalitarian age – a time generally devoid of palace cooks and princesses and convents that accept banished wives – I prefer not to say. The anecdote comes verbatim from the wonderful 1905 book Florentine Palaces and Their Stories by Janet Ross. (more…)

HUMA ABEDIN is the 34-year-old wife of Congressman Anthony Weiner. They were married last year and have no children. She is an aide to Hillary Clinton and is described as a workaholic. He is a Jew and she is a Muslim. 

Weiner’s actions were reprehensible. He should resign. At the same time, a wife who travels around the world in pursuit of her own fortunes has no right to expect that her husband will be there when she returns. Was this a marriage or a merger?

According to ABC,

Officials tell ABC’s Claire Shipman Abedin will be on a plane bound for Africa with Hillary Clinton Wednesday evening. They say she’s been working non-stop since the scandal broke, and “hasn’t missed a beat.” They also say “she is committed to her marriage,” and that “they love each other.”

The feminist works non-stop even when her marriage is in crisis. Her strength is awesome. Here we see what feminism is really about: the avoidance of pain and intimacy.

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SEE Jesse Powell’s comments in the previous entry in response to a reader’s contention that feminism supports traditional mothers and wives. He writes:

Why would a man treat as a duty the financial support of the household if from the woman’s point of view being a homemaker is merely a “choice?” If women view homemaking as a mere “choice” then men likewise will be inclined to see their wife’s homemaking as optional and be unmotivated to financially support it, denying the woman the “choice” to be a homemaker at all since being a full-time homemaker by definition requires the husband’s support in order to make it practical.

Claiming women have the right to “choose” whether they be homemakers or not implies that men have a “duty” to support the woman in whatever she “chooses” to do; there is a problem with this formulation. (more…)

ROBIN writes, in response to this post:

Eleanor writes: “[F]eminists are not against women staying at home and raising children. Part of the feminist movement is the tenet that we need to place more value on what used to be called “women’s work” like cooking, cleaning, raising children. The feminist movement is about giving women options, so that women who are interested in being housewives can be housewives.”

Feminists whom I know would have everyone believe that this is truth; they are very concerned about “empowering” women and creating “value” for women, all the while ensuring that women have the ever-popular choice to become whatever they want to be. (more…)

THOMAS F. BERTONNEAU writes:

Representative Anthony Weiner’s press conference Monday was a case study in the rhetoric of moral evasion. I have extracted some key moments and added commentary. 

WEINER said: “I’ve exchanged messages and photos of an explicit nature with about six women over the last three years.” It seems like a genuine confession, but it is not. Notice the equivocal about. Is it five? Is it seven? Numbers under ten are easy to count and easy to remember. Numbers larger than ten are more difficult to count and remember. Almost certainly “about six” means more than six, likely many more than six.

WEINER said: “I’ve done things that I deeply regret.” Notice what Weiner does not say. He does not directly say, I did perverse and wicked things. He says merely that he did things (things – a vague and neutral word-choice) that he now regrets. However, regret is also equivocal; coupled with things, it lacks a moral context and appears pragmatic only. Regret in this locution implies discomfort over having been caught, not remorse over having committed sexual transgressions.  (more…)

ELEANOR writes:

You write that feminism is anti-housewife, and I, as a feminist who was raised by a stay-at-home mother, would like to clarify something: feminists are not against women staying at home and raising children. Part of the feminist movement is the tenet that we need to place more value on what used to be called “women’s work” like cooking, cleaning, raising children. The feminist movement is about giving women options, so that women who are interested in being housewives can be housewives. (more…)

JONATHAN M. SMITH, professor of geography at Texas A&M University, writes:

A long-time reader of your interesting blog, I would like to pass along a quote from the discussion of divorce in Timothy Dwight’s Theology Explained and Defended (1818-1819), vol. 4, pp. 270-271.

During the contentions of parents, which will usually be generated by the mere attainableness of divorce, and which become ultimately the occasion of granting it, the children will either be forgotten, or forced to take sides with the parents. . . . Jarring parents; and there will be millions of such parents wherever divorce prevails, to one where it does not; can never teach their children religion, either by precept or example. (more…)

  THE PERCENTAGE of U.S. households with children has dropped from 36 percent in the 1960s to 24 percent today. USA Today recently looked at the impact on the Philadelphia suburb of Levittown. Where playing children were once a common sight, there are now empty streets and yards. The change is particularly glaring in predominantly white neighborhoods such as Levittown. When Levittown was at its heydey, and flush with children, the norm was the traditional family, with married women in the workforce in relatively low numbers. The more money white married women make, the fewer children they have. The U.S. population under 18 is 54 percent white. From 2000 to 2010, the U.S. population grew by 9.7 percent. Nonwhites made up 92 percent of that growth. More U.S. households now have dogs than children.

BOB writes:

I grew up in working-class England and, shocking as it may seem, we had an oven. For roasting! Nearly every Sunday, we would have a Sunday “joint” with roast potatoes. My mother also boiled, horrifically so. (more…)

JOHN P. writes:

I’ve been following the occasional discussion at your site on pizza and modern food with some interest and I’d like to offer a dissenting opinion. I think there may be some mythologising going on here. I’ll concede the point that young people probably eat too much pizza but in principle a dish made up of meat, cheese, green peppers and tomatoes, etc. is not so bad. Same thing for the various wraps available at fast food places.

Contrast this with the diet my parents had as children: boiled potatoes, boiled cabbage, boiled carrots and a bit of fish, almost seven days a week. They might have a small portion of beef on Sunday. Everything was boiled, no roasting, and maybe some frying. They had porridge with milk and brown sugar for breakfast every single day. The English-speaking people have never been notable for the excellence of their indigenous cuisine. (more…)