Lisa
added a quote:
"According to Crittenden, young women today are deeply unhappy and confused because they ignored the siren song of the new momism and instead followed the really bad advice of their feminist mothers, who allegedly told their girls to forget marriage and motherhood. Instead, feminist mothers supposedly insisted that happiness only comes to those who climb the corporate ladder by impaling men's balls on their Ferragamo heels. (We are both card-carrying members of the feminist axis of evil, and we know of no mothers of twenty- and thirty-something daughters who have said, "Honey, I definitely do not want grandchildren. I want you to get that promotion and work seventy hours a week instead of sixty." Having heeded their feminist mothers' advice, these loser young women have "postponed marriage and childbirth to pursue their careers only to find themselves at thirty-five still single and baby-crazy, with no husband in sight." (No mention of the fact that once you remove the 10 percent of guys who are gay, and the other 30 percent who are snorting wasabi till they puke because they saw it on Jackass, the pickings can be slim.)" — Susan Douglas
"According to Crittenden, young women today are deeply unhappy and confused because they ignored the siren song of the new momism and instead followed the really bad advice of their feminist mothers, who allegedly told their girls to forget marriage and motherhood. Instead, feminist mothers supposedly insisted that happiness only comes to those who climb the corporate ladder by impaling men's balls on their Ferragamo heels. (We are both card-carrying members of the feminist axis of evil, and we know of no mothers of twenty- and thirty-something daughters who have said, "Honey, I definitely do not want grandchildren. I want you to get that promotion and work seventy hours a week instead of sixty." Having heeded their feminist mothers' advice, these loser young women have "postponed marriage and childbirth to pursue their careers only to find themselves at thirty-five still single and baby-crazy, with no husband in sight." (No mention of the fact that once you remove the 10 percent of guys who are gay, and the other 30 percent who are snorting wasabi till they puke because they saw it on Jackass, the pickings can be slim.)" — Susan Douglas
Lisa
added a quote:
"Coonskin caps and silly putty were just not going to cut it anymore. The good mother got her kids toys that were educational, that advanced gross and fine motor skills, that gave them the spatial sensibilities and design aptitude of Frank Lloyd Wright, and that taught Johnny how to read James Joyce at age three. God forbid that one second should pass where your child was idle and that you were not doing everything you could to promote his or her emotional, cognitive, imaginative, quantitative, or muscular development." — Susan Douglas
"Coonskin caps and silly putty were just not going to cut it anymore. The good mother got her kids toys that were educational, that advanced gross and fine motor skills, that gave them the spatial sensibilities and design aptitude of Frank Lloyd Wright, and that taught Johnny how to read James Joyce at age three. God forbid that one second should pass where your child was idle and that you were not doing everything you could to promote his or her emotional, cognitive, imaginative, quantitative, or muscular development." — Susan Douglas
Lisa
added a quote:
"In 1970, Alix Kates Shulman, a wife, mother, and writer who had joined the Women's Liberation Movement in New York, wrote a poignant account of how the initial equality and companionship of her marriage had deteriorated once she had children. "[N]ow I was restricted to the company of two demanding preschoolers and to the four walls of an apartment. It seemed unfair that while my husband's life had changed little when the children were born, domestic life had become the only life I had." His job became even more demanding, requiring late nights and travel out of town. Meanwhile it was virtually impossible for her to work at home. "I had no time for myself; the children were always there." Neither she nor her husband was happy with the situation, so they did something radical, which received considerable media coverage: they wrote up a marriage agreement... In it they asserted that "each member of the family has an equal right to his/her own time, work, values and choices... The ability to earn more money is already a privilege which must not be compounded by enabling the larger earner to buy out of his/her duties and put the burden on the one who earns less, or on someone hired from outside." The agreement insisted that domestic jobs be shared fifty-fifty and, get this girls, "If one party works overtime in any domestic job, she/he must be compensated by equal work by the other." The agreement then listed a complete job breakdown... in other worde, the agreement acknowledged the physical and the emotional/mental work involved in parenting and valued both. At the end of the article, Shulman noted how much happier she and her husband were as a result of the agreement. In the two years after its inception, Shulman wrote three children's books, a biography and a novel. But listen, too, to what it meant to her husband, who was now actually seeing his children every day. After the agreement had been in effect for four months, "our daughter said one day to my husband, 'You know, Daddy, I used to love Mommy more than you, but now I love you both the same.'"" — Susan Douglas
"In 1970, Alix Kates Shulman, a wife, mother, and writer who had joined the Women's Liberation Movement in New York, wrote a poignant account of how the initial equality and companionship of her marriage had deteriorated once she had children. "[N]ow I was restricted to the company of two demanding preschoolers and to the four walls of an apartment. It seemed unfair that while my husband's life had changed little when the children were born, domestic life had become the only life I had." His job became even more demanding, requiring late nights and travel out of town. Meanwhile it was virtually impossible for her to work at home. "I had no time for myself; the children were always there." Neither she nor her husband was happy with the situation, so they did something radical, which received considerable media coverage: they wrote up a marriage agreement... In it they asserted that "each member of the family has an equal right to his/her own time, work, values and choices... The ability to earn more money is already a privilege which must not be compounded by enabling the larger earner to buy out of his/her duties and put the burden on the one who earns less, or on someone hired from outside." The agreement insisted that domestic jobs be shared fifty-fifty and, get this girls, "If one party works overtime in any domestic job, she/he must be compensated by equal work by the other." The agreement then listed a complete job breakdown... in other worde, the agreement acknowledged the physical and the emotional/mental work involved in parenting and valued both. At the end of the article, Shulman noted how much happier she and her husband were as a result of the agreement. In the two years after its inception, Shulman wrote three children's books, a biography and a novel. But listen, too, to what it meant to her husband, who was now actually seeing his children every day. After the agreement had been in effect for four months, "our daughter said one day to my husband, 'You know, Daddy, I used to love Mommy more than you, but now I love you both the same.'"" — Susan Douglas
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"The question here is not which path women choose, or which one is "right." "
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Lisa wrote: "Don't you think you need to update this? And talk about how we just had to go to Borders this weeken...more " |
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This book took me exactly a day to read. It has been sitting on my bookshelf for almost a year. I was putting off reading it because I didn't want to go down the "crazy" anti-vaccine path.
I picked it up because I've been mulling over my daughter's reaction to her recent vaccines. It took her about 10 days to recover from that set. She's never had a reaction to vaccines before so aside from a slowed down schedule based on Dr. Sears' The Vaccine Book, I didn't give it much thought. I’ve always felt like the benefits of vaccines in protecting our society against disease outweigh the “standard” side effects.
I still don't really know where I stand on the issue completely after reading this book. However, if you can wade through all of Jenny McCarthy's personal crap (and I'm not talking about her personal reaction to her son's disease, I'm talking about some of her very Hollywood-actress-type-beliefs about the world), I think there are a lot of valid points and things to consider brought up in this book.
Like whether vaccines should really be "one-size fits all," how they should really "green up the vaccines" and get all the crap/toxins like aluminum out of them, whether the AAP's recommended schedule is far too accelerated, whether tests should be done on children prior to administering vaccines to determine whether their immune systems can handle them, etc.
I also think it is really neat she gave a voice to so many parents that feel their voices on this subject are not being heard by their doctors and others. It is written in a very casual style that is easy to get through. I did sometimes get a little annoyed with her little snippets of commentary every so often on each parents' story, but it is her book afterall so I guess it is to be expected.
I saw a headline today that said the autism rate is now at 1 in 100 kids. That's just crazy. So all of this is definitely something to think about and I think her book is a good starting point for parents looking for answers.
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The phenomenon of The Shack has not gone unnoticed by myself and several of my friends. Most of the people I know have read it and found it to be a a really good book that opened them up to new ideas about their relationship with God. As such, this book has been recommended to me countless times.
As far as a work of fiction, I think Young does a good job of the writing and in keeping the reader interested. It only took me a couple days to get through it and it wasn't a chore to read, by any means, even though as you'll see in my review I had some concerns and problems with much of what I was reading.
However, I must say I was majorly disappointed to find partway into my reading (through outside research) that the main character "Mack" was not a real person at all, especially since everything from the forward to the afternote present him as such. I understand that Young is using a literary device here to set the scene, but I think this hurts the credibility of the story immensely! Basically the logic goes, if Young is lying about Mack, what else is he lying about here?
There were many clever little situations and quotes I found throughout the book that I think would be good things for someone struggling in their relationship with God to read and ponder. So, I can see why many people are latching on to this book with such fervor.
Unfortunately, I think overall the book gets much wrong as far as theology is concerned. Furthermore, I think some of it is so wrong that it would almost be dangerous to present to someone either struggling in their faith or without any faith.
Upon addressing some of the initial theological issues, admittedly my first reaction was that this book was like, "C.S. Lewis for dummies." As Young continues to simplify issues that theologians have wrestled with for centuries without easy conclusion, however, I became a bit annoyed. I think in many circumstances he oversimplifies them to the point where he doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the giant mystery that they are meant to be.
However, the book is presented in such a way that it is almost like if you are questioning Young's theology of those subjects as they are presented, you are questioning God. It's just a vibe I get that is sort of off-putting in general.
There definitely seems to be a subversive tone throughout the book when it comes to institutions such as government and marriage, the church and even theology/education. I definitely sensed some anti-organized religion/church overtones throughout the book.
What ruffled my feathers the most, though, is the theology/education issue. This is an attitude that seems to prevail throughout Evangelical churches today and I have a problem with it there too. While there are people that get lost in book knowledge and doing the right thing or going through the motions and traditions, I don't think this means we need to throw theology and learning out the window.
While I don't agree with everything these two guys have to say about the book and theology in particular, I think the following two reviews do a very good job of addressing some of my major concerns with the book, read them if you like:
http://www.challies.com/archives/book-re...
http://www.boundlessline.org/2008/06/the...
Anyway, I thought the book was a fairly good read, but because of many of my concerns with it there is really no way I would recommend it. I choose instead to let the phenomenon stop with me and feel there are much better ways to reconnect (or connect for the first time) with God and right relationship with him.
Edited to add: I saw another review with similar thoughts as mine on this book and I had to add what was said here because I also found this part to be quite weird,
And that brings me to “The Missy Project.” At the end of the book, right after the acknowledgements, the author tells us about this special project, and I think to myself, “Finally, after 250 pages, here’s something I can believe in. The author is going to donate all of his money from this horrible book to helping find missing children.”
But I was disappointed – yet again. “The Missy Project” is just some strange scheme to sell more books. Yes, that’s right, Mr. Young lists ways you can help him get more copies of his book into circulation. Are you kidding me?
And so I end this review with a challenge. If you really want to be spiritually transformed, don’t spend your money buying this book. Instead, go out and help someone in need or donate to a worthy cause.
I guarantee it will be infinitely more rewarding.
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Lisa
read and liked
Amanda J's
review of The Shack:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Lisa wrote:
"Well so far... I don't know if I like it. Here are my issues:
-The way it is presented with the for...more " |
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