April 29, 2003

DON'T HAVE a cow, Naomi!

DON'T HAVE a cow, Naomi! Vice-presidential image wrecker Naomi Wolf has been in Australia for maybe three hours or so, and she's already decided that we treat our mothers like common breeding ruminants:

Celebrity feminist Naomi Wolf says Australian mothers are being reduced to a kind of solitary servitude by society's "contempt" for motherhood.

"We need to shower them (mothers) with affirmation, we need to give them money, we need to not act like motherhood is some natural thing you just do like a cow."

Well, guess I'd better take cud off this year's Mother's Day gift list. Australia, as it happens, does give money to mothers. It's a secret we only reveal to visitors after they've been here longer than one day. As for this "contempt" Wolf mentions:

As evidence of the "contempt" in which motherhood is held, Ms Wolf cited "the fact that medical procedures in Australia, as well as the US, tend to treat birth as an emergency rather than a natural process".

So we shouldn't treat motherhood as natural and we should treat motherhood as natural. Stupid mother.

UPDATE. Gareth Parker e-mails to point out that Wolf isn't even in Australia - the interview was a pre-emptive strike via satellite to publicise an upcoming book tour or somesuch. Be warned, Wolf! We hold mothers in contempt!

Posted by Tim Blair at April 29, 2003 09:14 AM
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