Sarah Palin, Neglectful Mom vs. Joe Biden, Hero Widower
I noticed the comments sections in the New York Times' articles about Sarah Palin are filling up with a certain point of view--that a woman who has a special-needs newborn on top of four other children cannot fulfill the demands of both her family and the vice-presidency. "Who is going to be taking care of the kids?" the comments moan. Well, Joe Biden decided that he would start his first term as a senator when he was the ONLY parent of TWO injured pre-K boys, and I don't hear anyone musing that he should have forfeited his career aspirations to take care of them properly. Why is a father allowed to farm out care (to loving and competent people, no doubt) so he can become the successful figure his sons look at with pride, but a mother is supposed to sacrifice her ambitions in order to be physically there for her kids?
I think it's because our ideal vision of motherhood is about the actual physical embracing of the child by the mother, where our ideal vision of fatherhood is having someone powerful and strong protecting us. I did a Google image search using the term "mother" and then one using the word "father," and it sorta confirmed my hypothesis. "Mother" is represented by close-up shots of women wearing babies very near their faces, while the camera pulls back for taking in a image of "father," a large figure standing next to, but not necessarily touching, a smaller figure. The father is supposed to loom large over the lives of his children, but the mother is supposed to be immersed up to her neck in them. Um, ideally? Well, get on the phone to Central Casting. That's the only place where most of the parents fit that description. And there are a lot of people who grew up with that kind of scene and still hate going home for Christmas.
Well . . . interestingly, Biden's story has some side notes of its own. According to his son Beau's speech at the DNC, Biden decided after his election, which was closely followed by his wife's untimely car accident and death, that he would not go forward being sworn in as senator. He said, "Delaware can always get another senator. My boys cannot get another father." Then, of course, he was ultimately talked into going forward with his role by senior members of the Senate. He was sworn in to office in the hospital, at the bedside of his son, Beau (Joseph, who was recovering from the same car accident in which Biden's wife and daughter were killed. Yeah, he DID go forward, which is ultimately what matters in terms of the parallel that you're drawing. But he commuted every day, taking the train into Washington instead of staying in the Capitol. I'm not a Biden expert at all, but if we are to believe what has been said, it seems he really did put his family first to a much greater extent than most men by the standards of his era (or maybe even by current standards). Still and all, I think it's dubious for Palin's role as mother of five kids to be such a focus of criticism in terms of whether she ought to be VP. There's enough else to worry about in terms of her actual lack of qualifications without playing the motherhood card, imo.
I found this in the Washington Post, which is funny, in a dumb guy kind of way.
"Not anticipating that McCain would choose a woman as his running mate, the speech that was prepared in advance was "very masculine," according to campaign manager Rick Davis, and "we had to start from scratch.""
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic...
They probably had to tell her to not grunt and scratch herself like a guy would.
It's great that Biden went forward with his career, he's contributed so much to Washington, and his kids have flourished ... but why is he sainted for it? Palin makes the same choice, an even more gounded choice as her husband is an active parent, and she's flayed. I am shocked that more feminists aren't outraged. I don't agree with all her politics, I just want what I've always rallied for: a fair fight.
"Who is going to be taking care of the kids?"
um, Dad? He seems capable of being the primary caregiver. Equally as she seems capable of being the breadwinner.
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