conservatives hate ideas

Feminste pointed this out. Phyllis Schaffly and her group of rocket scientists have decided that certain books are dangerous. Hey, what do you know? Marx made the list twice. Any criticism of capitalism is unwelcome.

My favorite? That Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique made the list. Whatever you do, don't challenge male domination. Dare suggest that all women may not find suburban housewifery fulfilling and you are dangerous. Nevermind that historians know that, well before Friedan, women were struggling in the suburbs. Valium and other tranquilizers were used in huge and growing numbers, as was the growth of alcohol among those women.

Here is what bugs me the most. What is so wrong about suggesting that not everone wants to live the same way? Why suggest to all women that they have to live a certain way? Why not recognize that some are going to be wonderfully fullfilled as housewives, but others will not? What is wrong with that?

There seems to be this hugely popular meme going around conservative women, which suggests that those who have decided to not pursue careers are put down by feminists. I am not saying that never happens, but in all the feminists I know, I have yet to see that. I know my experience is annecdotal, but it seems to be growing as an urban legend. Part of the difficulty is that so many of the feminist women I have known are often stay-at-home moms or certainly committed parents. Yet the meme persists that feminists hate families and motherhood.

Why is Phyllis Schaffley even taken seriously here? What credibility does she have on the average woman's life?