An Eighteen-Year Project
In the Sydney Morning Herald, proud feminist and former educator Polly Dunning shares her experience of motherhood:
I’ve always been a feminist. I’m lucky. My mother, Jane Caro, is a feminist, as is my grandmother, and both always have been. It’s something I’ve never questioned and always felt confident and strident about. Just ask me about it at a dinner party (if you dare…)
Setting aside the prospect of some horrendous dinner parties, note Ms Dunning’s satisfaction with a set of assumptions that are stridently voiced and “never questioned.”
Motherhood has been quite a confronting experience for my feminism so far, and I'm sure it will continue to be. Ever since discovering I was pregnant it’s been a process of adjusting and reconciling my biology with my ideology, particularly when I discovered that my baby, my most-beloved Alfred, would be a boy.
That little red light is a warning sign.
I had never wanted a son. In fact, I had decidedly not wanted one. I wanted daughters, probably because I am one of two daughters and six granddaughters, no sons or grandsons. This seemed altogether to fit in with my feminism better… There were dark moments in the middle of the night (when all those dark thoughts come), when I felt sick at the thought of something male growing inside me.
Yes, I know. The little red light is flashing now. Best cover it with a towel.
In this patriarchal world, this world where even the best men (and women, for that matter) engage in casual and ingrained sexism, how will I raise a son who respects me the way a daughter would?
Oh sweet naïveté. But thank goodness that Ms Dunning, who “felt sick” at even the thought of “something male” growing inside her, is totally opposed to all that “casual and ingrained sexism.”
How do you raise a white, middle-class boy not to think his own experience is the default experience of the world? How do you counter a society that makes things easier for him than for others, and make him see it? See how it is for women, for people of colour?
At this point, readers may wonder if the boy, and later, a young man, will be spending quite a lot of time as grist to the feminist mill, being dutifully reconstructed as a tool with which to “counter” a “patriarchal” society. Which possibly casts doubt on the assumption that his life will be made particularly easy.
Raising a boy who maintains the status quo sure would be easy, but I refuse to be satisfied with that. I will raise a feminist boy. Just like his father and grandfathers before him, but even better. I will point sexism out to him at every turn, and he will never get away with it without being called out.
At every turn. The time will just fly.
I will show him that… products and art targeted at [girls] are no less valuable or enjoyable.
“But mom, I wanted Lego for Christmas.”
He will be immersed in feminism by a family who models it in their everyday life.
Despite the term family, Ms Dunning’s article makes scant mention of any male influence on her son’s life. Just the one sentence quoted above. An oversight, I’m sure. And I suppose it’s good to know that, despite not wanting a son, decidedly not wanting one, because such a disappointment wouldn’t “fit in” with her feminism – and despite being nauseated by the thought of a male baby – Ms Dunning will now have a new political project. One lasting the better part of two decades, with endless opportunities to “call out” any sexism or heresy the boy might display, any incorrect inclination, any untoward maleness. Perhaps mother and son will bond via the medium of dogmatic scolding.
Via Ben Sixsmith.
It’s been said before, most recently about the MTV “White Guys Suck” video, but were you to replace ‘feminism’ with say ‘Christianity’ in the article, Ms Dunning herself would be the very first to denounce the mother as a hateful ideologue.
Must be what happens when you never question your assumptions.
“but were you to replace ‘feminism’ with say ‘Christianity’ in the article,”
Or, you know, replace anything male with “homosexual” and see how that reads.
What’s that I see coming rapidly through the intellectual fog? Why, it’s the headlight of an onrushing train, the 10:20 “Youthful Rebellion” from Uterus, bound for points unknown.
Ms Dunning is currently being pleased by readers expressing dismay at her views.
The kid better hope he can find a good male psychologist when he hits adulthood.
Ever since discovering I was pregnant it’s been a process of adjusting and reconciling my biology with my ideology, particularly when I discovered that my baby, my most-beloved Alfred, would be a boy
If your ideology makes you *feel sick* at the thought of having a baby boy it sounds like it’s the ideology that’s the problem.
If your ideology makes you *feel sick* at the thought of having a baby boy it sounds like it’s the ideology that’s the problem.
And yet that very same ideology is what Ms Dunning wishes to imprint, “at every turn,” on her child.
Won’t be easy, seeing as you are drowning in miscomprehension.
The poor unlucky little bastard.
This is child abuse. Every bit as much as this is:
https://t.co/4HNM5YJe2c
I had never wanted a son. In fact, I had decidedly not wanted one. I wanted daughters, probably because I am one of two daughters and six granddaughters, no sons or grandsons. This seemed altogether to fit in with my feminism better… There were dark moments in the middle of the night (when all those dark thoughts come), when I felt sick at the thought of something male growing inside me.
Why would you put that on the internet under your own name? Some shrink is going to make a fortune off this poor kid.
Why would you put that on the internet under your own name?
Where your son may one day read it.
Is this another of Godfrey Elfwick’s spoofs? It’s so hard to tell.
Despite the term family, Ms Dunning’s article makes scant mention of any male influence on her son’s life.
Why do I get the impression that, even if she is married and the biological father lives with them, her son will still be devoid of any male influence?
If only her husband/significant other/life partner/baby daddy/whatever were called “Kruger”….
I felt sick at the thought of something male growing inside me.
But feminism is nothing to do with bashing men.
“I felt sick at the thought of something male growing inside me.” So — turkey baster?
Even if it were a Godfrey Elfwick production, there’s Jody Allard, whose severely depressed teenage son seems to have been on the receiving end of much righteous indoctrination..
The personal becomes political and then cruises right into pathology. Eighteen years isn’t enough time, I fear, to pass all of it on to her poor son.
at least she didn’t abort the poor little guy…
respects me the way a daughter would
How can she be sure that a daughter would, automagically, respect her? Respect is something to be earned, not indoctrinated.
Raising a boy who maintains the status quo sure would be easy, but I refuse to be satisfied with that. I will raise a feminist boy. Just like his father and grandfathers before him, but even better. I will point sexism out to him at every turn, and he will never get away with it without being called out.

And that boy grew up to be……
Some more feminist parenting in action.
So she’s totally against sexism but she “felt sick” at just the thought of “having something male growing inside me”…?
To be fair, if the baby were a girl, I’d feel sorry for her, too. Equality!
So she’s totally against sexism but she “felt sick” at just the thought of “having something male growing inside me”…?
I suppose you have to marvel at how some people can build a political persona around quite dissonant ideas in very close proximity.
Why is it that I think she’ll drive her child to some atrocity, and the whole way through picture herself as Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin? She’ll be seeing each and every rebellion or hint of acting normal as her child being evil, evil!, and will never ask herself any questions, because… well, her child is male. He’s not one of the good ones. There was nothing she could have done.
Some more feminist parenting in action.
The captions are gold – so many cliches, so little time.
Shawna and Beezus guide the group down the 14th Ave South parade route on Sep. 17. The Clinton cardboard cutout was wrapped in plastic for rain protection
We must protect the Holy Icon.
Right, 9 year old knows she is a lesbian. You really have to go read the whole train wreck of psychopathology Jonathan linked, the sad part is that these people think they are a) normal, and b) mainstream middle America.
It reads like Rosemary’s Baby.
I think Dunning will discover that children are not blank slates waiting to be formed into whatever shape that their parents choose, but rather that boys will be boys.
The Clinton cardboard cutout was wrapped in plastic for rain protection
I think when people were referring to Hillary as a bag lady that’s not what they meant.
she prefers the term “childcare” over “day care.”
This is the same facile and pretentious “question everything” idiocy that has some, no lie, objecting to the use of “handicapped parking” as a term because the parking itself is not handicapped. Or the ever popular “a person cannot be illegal”.
No. “day care” – “daytime care of children”, as opposed to nighttime care. “Handicapped parking” – “parking for those who are handicapped”. The “handicapped” (adjective as noun, not unusual). “Illegal immigrant”->”illegal”, someone who has not immigrated legally, and an adjective as noun. See also “he who commits criminal acts” ->”criminal”.
These people think that their lack of parsing simple English coupled with their need to bicker and argue means that they are revolutionary and clever. Quite the opposite, it is a display of utter shrieking ignorance and inability or unwillingness to learn. They are incurious, belligerent, and it’s your problem, somehow.
They. Are. Children.
Anna comments: “If your ideology makes you *feel sick* at the thought of having a baby boy it sounds like it’s the ideology that’s the problem.”
And I agree, but if you read it carefully it’s worse. She said she had to “adjust” and to “reconcile her biology with her ideology” when she discovered she was pregnant. That exclusively female condition was cause enough for her feminist complaint. It just got worse when she discovered what was growing inside her was a boy.
Some more feminist parenting in action.
Oddly enough, what comes to mind is the cliché of an overbearing mother who steers her six-year-old daughter into intensely competitive juvenile beauty pageants. There’s something similar about the dynamic.
The woman in the article has lived a life of such safety and freedom from want that she cannot think of a case where her son might need every advantage that he can get in order to survive or prosper.
“yarn addict”
How very stereotypically FEMALE of her.
Or am I inadvertently dissing the coterie of male knitters and crochet-connoisseurs that haunt this blog?
the coterie of male knitters and crochet-connoisseurs
I must admit to liking to tie knots and wanting to get into knitting for the hell of it, but my project cars and video games and reading haven’t left me much time.
reconciling my biology with my ideology
This would be interesting, as the “biology” boils down to it being a male is a modified female optimised for spreading genes, so she’ll begin to experience the biological urge to encourage her son to sow oats as far and wide as possible, after all, how you going to get those feminist genes out there?
“yarn addict”
Wait, that doesn’t mean a teller of tall tales or one that likes to listen to them?
“at least she didn’t abort the poor little guy…”
When she gets through with him, he’ll probably wish that she had…
Look on the bright side. If Lefties are voluntarily destroying their own families with psychotic nonsense, it’ll be a one generation phenomenon.
And hey, by the time the baby boy grows up, there will be robot caretakers to wipe the drool off his chin.
That photo essay on the “progressive” parents…ugh. Their house smells like old cabbage and sweat and patchouli, I can just tell. And hauling young kids to a political parade, then making the 11-year-old LEAD the parade? Shouting with such an angry face? I just…feel very tired and sad about this family’s kids.
Love how that parade photo is composed. How many people in that “parade”, exactly?
Oh, after taking the plunge and looking at all the photos in that link, I see there’s a pic with about 20-30 people in a parade. My bad. Didn’t realize HRC had such massive support.
“at least she didn’t abort the poor little guy…”
Installment plan, apparently.
Or am I inadvertently dissing the coterie of male knitters and crochet-connoisseurs that haunt this blog?
[ Surveys room, raises eyebrow. ]
Oh I dunno. They can’t all be brigands, pirates and alcoholics. There may be one or two who lean towards the, er, woollen arts.
…woollen arts.

Alas, this gets us back to yesterday.
There may be one or two who lean towards the, er, woollen arts.
knitting guilds, exclusively male
That I did not know.
[ Slides slice of cake along bar. ]
One must take up flint knapping or welding to convince others to keep the distance.
Mothers should keep balms and salves available for the unfortunate.
If one has a mean sister then pound the dolls into swords.
Men at work. Not safe.
mmmm…. come for the conversation, stay for the cake…