Avoiding (cleverly disguised) right wing propaganda

I take my kids to the library almost weekly and occasionally pick up a book for myself, often just a book that captures my attention, since I have little time to read reviews. This time I took a book called Amanda Bright@ Home about a high-powered PR executive who is struggling with her decision to stay home with her two young children, because it seemed topical and relevant to my personal situation (and the author's name is Danielle!) What I didn't realize until I got the book home is that it's the only fiction book ever serialized by the Wall Street Journal and the author, Danielle Crittenden, is the wife of conservative speechwriter David Frum, best known for (infamously) coining the expression "the axis of evil" in the 2002 State of the Union address, and who served (serves?) as a "special advisor" to GW Bush. Ms Crittenden's previous book is an anti-feminist screed called What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us, wherein she suggests that, unlike her!, modern women should eschew a career and devote themselves to motherhood (a Phyllis Schafley for the new millenium!) She is also one of the founders of the Independent Women's Forum, an anti-feminist, anti-liberal organization, and she is the founder and editor of their magazine, benignly titled, The Women's Quarterly. Upon futher inspection, "Amanada Bright" is blatant anti-feminist propaganda - the book is described thus: "a young, career-minded, feminist liberal learns to appreciate the rewards of traditional motherhood" (this includes a scene where the title character chastises her own career-minded mother for her maternal failings). While it might be edifying, I just don't want to spend my time in the company of this author - there are plenty of other writers whose work deserves my attention . . . even writers who address the issues of balancing work and motherhood without such an obvious agenda.

ADDENDUM December 10, 2006

Before I even absorbed exactly what was contained in this library selection, I had an interesting conversation (at a Christmas party) with a neighbor, Linda, who's about 15 years older than me with grown children. She's not yet a grandmother, and we were discussing the way that many women in "my generation" wait until they are considerably older than their own mothers before starting a family. Of course the author of "Amanda Bright" is suggesting that my generation has been duped into focusing on our careers to the detriment of our happiness and fulfillment (which comes primarily from mothering) and that the women in the generation behind us are eager to be mothers and let their careers take a back seat (as it should be, according to her). We all know that the "Opt-Out Revolution" is a media-created phenomenon, rather than a real demographic trend, and it's only women whose husbands are at the very top of the income scale who can feasibly make the "choice" to give up a second income. (My objection to Ms Crittenden and her ilk is that they object to the "brain-washing" conducted lo these many years by feminists, but then presume to tell me what I prefer in the very way they are complaining about.) Not to make this a sermon; I more wanted to note my comment to Linda (completely outside the context of this book) - which was my assertion that before too much more time goes by (10 years? 20?, certainly by the time my own young daughter is grown), women will have figured out how to balance the competing pleasures and stresses of work and child-rearing and truly be able to make choices that suit their situation and preferences. I believe that. I must.