How soon "old '60s feminists" forget. As historian Christine Stansell pointed out in a University of Chicago lecture earlier this year, "The Revolt of the Daughters: Matrophobia and 1960s Feminism"--hopefully soon to be published in some form--"While most women's-rights movements since the 1880s have been fueled by a similar rejection of the previous generation's values...the '60s daughters-vs-mothers fervor was a symbolic form of matricide." Stansell convincingly argued that mommy-bashing was a key feature of second-wave feminism, not incidental to it (and, by the way, severely impeded coalition-building between feminists/womanists of color). It took "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens" by Alice Walker to inspire a reappreciation of motherhood for many, and while 60s feminists seldom get the props they deserve, they've hardly covered themselves in glory by suggesting that a vote for Hillary is a woman's duty. In fact, it's shameful, and I think it would behoove my elders to examine their own consciences instead of wagging a finger at their third-wave daughters (and sons).

So..as a youngster what will you do, Lola, to stop the hatred. Oh...I see. You'll blame mom. You'll write how your generation's bashing really another generation's causing, controlling you as you did here. Dodging any responsibility. Wow. Way to prove Linda's point. The question is, what will you do if blaming mom and her generation is out of the equation as a first course of action for you.

Just how does 52 to 54% of a population become a minority? Laziness? Stupidity? Or is it something else? Why did it take a "third wave" as you so belligerently put it to obtain your goals? What is to be said about the women of Earth? You have access to government, money, weapons, some weapons of mass destruction, you could put males into the camps tomorrow. If only you could unite around a leader....ah, but therein lies the problem, but also the answer....women will not follow a powerful leader. They will drive the hag out of their kitchens.

There is a chance, perhaps a small one, but a chance none the less that when given an order by his father, a 30 year old man might comply. If a woman of 30 is given a direct order by her mother, the chances of her obeying are the chances of the sun moving around the Earth.

Manhood, in form, as a goal, as a concept, will always trump womanhood. Sorry. But it has to be this way. The alternative is unthinkable.

Just how does 52 to 54% of a population become a minority?
When you consider that the key to power for the first 100,000 years or so of human development was PHYSICAL STRENGTH, the answer to the question is obvious. One characteristic of the march of civilization has been a slow but inexorable rise in the status of women toward equality. We are not there yet, in this country, and the events and underlying themes of the current presidential campaign have made that abundantly clear.

One characteristic of the march of civilization has been a slow but inexorable rise in the status of women toward equality. We are not there yet, in this country, and the events and underlying themes of the current presidential campaign have made that abundantly clear

I'd say the fact that Obama and Clinton are the two remaining candidates in the primary-- coming out of a field in which neither was in the top two as far as vision or experience (though Obama certainly was in terms of charisma)-- reveals just how far our country has come in terms of both race and gender relations.

Um, I love my mother--sorry to feel the need to point that out--and I don't agree that my generation has no responsibility in contributing to any misogyny that characterizes the current political discourse, but young women's support of Obama can't be attributed to it. (See Alice Walker's far more eloquent defense of her own support here: <link>) My point was that mom-bashing isn't new, and that the author is suffering from some seriously self-serving historical amnesia in asserting this; 60s feminists often were more interested in following in their father's footsteps than understanding the choices that their mothers made (often tidily filed under the rubric of "complicity with patriarchy"), or the very real constraints they were under. If I rock an "I'm for Obama" T-shirt while my mother hopes to cast her vote for Hillary in November, it's not because I'm rebelling against her or don't want to see a woman of my mother's generation as commander-in-chief. It's just not Hillary.