The Stepford Wives–musings on which will be coming to this space soon–is a remake of the ditzy 1970s flick in which husbands turn their wives into robotic creatures who live only to be perfect for their guys.
Suzanne Fields suggests that the remake is so stuck in the stereotypes of yesteryear that it misses the point about women today.
“The new version,” writes Fields in today’s Washington Times, “should have depicted career women as the authors of the robots, assigned to replace the new generation of women who are turning their backs on work beyond the hearth.
“The career women have declared war on stay-at-home mommies with the vengeance that the Stepford husbands applied to stereotyping their wives a quarter of a century ago. It’s not clear whether the career women are driven by defensiveness or a fear that they’re missing one of life’s great experiences–raising their children.”
The assault on the stay-at-home mother is an important theme for many high-powered career women:
“A year ago,” writes Fields, “Maureen Dowd of the New York Times took a break from assaulting Rummy, Dick and W. and aimed her ink at all those retro women who are ’deserting the fast track’ to spend their days pushing baby strollers with frequent stops for a latte at Starbucks. Full-time motherhood, in this dowdy view, is just another lifestyle choice of a Stepford wife.”
We at the IWF have always been devoted to the proposition that women should do whatever the heck they want to do and can do, whether it’s being a full-time mother or CEO. Scroll down for The Other Charlotte’s report on our luncheon talk by Steven Rhoads, a University of Virginia prof, who’s just published a book on the differences between men and women.
There’s a real hunger for what Rhoads and other iconoclastic thinkers have to say. “[W]e got an overflow crowd eager to hear the erudite and personable scholar explain why so many mothers quit good jobs to stay home with their children, why even Swedish dads don’t take paternity leave unless they have to, and why the husbands of women in high-stress professions don’t live as long as other husbands,” writes The Other Charlotte.