CNN contributor Hilary Rosen set off a faux firestorm Wednesday when she accused her celebrity look-alike Ann Romney of having not worked a day in her life.
The RNC, on behalf of all stay-at-home moms (who have recently been placed on the Endangered Species List anyway), is outraged, outraged I tell you! Romney’s response was a bit more nuanced, saying, “Motherhood is the most important job there is.” —which is somewhat akin to responding to the question, “What time is it?” with the answer, “Morning is my favorite part of the day.”
I’m sure that managing multiple households and the staffs of servants therein has its challenges. Hell, I’m sure driving a couple of Cadillacs can be more than a little confounding all on its own. Which is really more the point Rosen was trying to make. She was saying that Romney can’t relate to the problems of women who are not so well off.
The expression “You’ve never worked a day in your life” is often hurled at the well to do by those less fortunate. I’m sure there’s more than a couple of coal miners who would claim I’ve never worked a day in my life. Hell, I’m pretty tempted to say the same of Mitt. And I’d even bet there’s a fair number of stay-at-home moms who would second Rosen’s assertion that Ann Romney hasn’t. It’s all relative.
To read the attack on Ann Romney as an attack on all stay-at-home moms is to buy into the notion that somehow Ann is just Harriet Nelson, if only Ozzie had owned a mansion. I’m not buying it.
Would any of you ladies out there care to sign up for an episode of “Wife Swap” with Ann Romney? I’ll bet you cope with her life a lot better than she copes with yours.
Well, hell no I don’t want to swap lives. I’d have to live with boring old Mitt then. Yuk. And I agree they are just blowing this out of proportion because everyone knew what Hilary was getting at. But it’s not different than when another Hilary said she would never want to be the kind of woman that just stayed home and baked cookies. Got her in a heap of trouble too. It’s that nuts election cycle where you can’t say anything because even if you explain it right then, they only replay the part of the comment that looks bad. It’s the name of the game, and the game sucks this time of year always.
Well, unless she had maids and nannies, she still raised 5 boys, and that is no small task, no matter how much money you have.
I’m guessing that those that can afford nannies and maids feel like its tough too when they actually have to do some of it themselves.
I think the most sexist thing about this all is that they are deifying stay at home moms, but nobody says a word about stay at home dads. Until somebody justifies this exclusion, can we use the term stay at home parent?