Renouncing feminism

Anyone who knows me knows my feminist tendancies. They stem from my innate competitiveness, especially since I grew up playing with boys (who always thought they were faster, stronger, etc., just because they were of the masculine gender - at age 10, that was not the case! =]). Now that I am grown, I am still competitive, especially with guys, but I am coming to realize that am not the feminist I thought I was. Somehow, this state of enlightenment is not disconcerting, but rather strangely comforting.

This morning, as I was showering in the ladies locker room, I overheard a conversation (I could not help hearing it, the one woman was speaking very loudly to be heard over the running water). Throughout the entirety of her disquisition, I did not hear a single pleasant thing come from her lips. She slandered her bosses, gossipped about her co-workers, and complained about everything from the weather to the war in Iraq. I kept wondering as I listened to her, what do other people hear when I talk? I hope not that! The last topic she brought up has stuck with me because it was so anti-women, anti-mothers. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! The comment was regarding the wives of some of her male co-workers. The women had apparently gone to their spouses' boss, as a group, to intercede on their behalf. Her response was this: "they need to just shut the ___ up! Let them stay home and pop out some more babies and stay out of their husbands' business." The "pop out more babies" part was what got me initially, but as I thought about it, her entire sentiment really irritated me. She obviously doesn't realize that a marriage is a partnership of equals. Maybe if she had, her own marriage would have survived.

I was appalled that she could be so uncharitable to her own sex. It was obvious she thought "popping out babies" was a job for those who cannot get a "real" job. I wanted to respond to her ill spoken comment (foul language aside), but I decided not to descend to her level. As I stood there fuming, I realized I am not a feminist at all. My idea of equality does not mirror the ideology of the feminists. I still hold to rather old-fashioned concept of seperate but equal roles for men and women. There are very few things men can do that women cannot, but there is one thing women can do that men can definitely NOT do. Why should we degrade this. I think in many ways it is a higher calling. There is no one in the world I respect more than my Mother, and of the people I think most highly, the majority are home-schooling Moms. The more I live in this work-a-day world, the more I am disillusioned by it.

Maybe there is hope for me yet. =P