Anyone watch last night's Colbert Report?

[whometense]

If not, see if you can catch the rerun of the interview.

Oh. My. God.

He spoke with Caitlin Flanagan. Joan Walsh reviewed her book, To Hell With All That: Loving and Loathing Your Inner Housewife on Salon (a great read): http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/04/12/flanagan/index.html

There was an interesting thread going on this last night in GD: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x972995

Sorry -just realized I put this up too late for the East Coasters. But never fear. You can watch it online here:



http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_colbert_report/index.jhtml

[jenndar]

1. Yup.

She is quite possibly from another planet.

[globalvillage]

2. I saw it.

I think she does it for the money.
Book whore, IMO.

[beachmom]

3. From a quote from your link on GD

"'Aren't you a working mother?' I ask.

"'All mothers are working mothers,' Flanagan replies.

"'Working mother outside the home, I mean.'

"'No, I'm never outside the home when I work,' she replies. (Geez, I fell right into that one.)

"'But you do have an office in the house? You're not typing in the kitchen, right?'

"'When the boys were really little I did. I sat at the kitchen table. I sat right there and worked.' And so on.

Take it from me, there is no way you can write a book AND take care of small children without a babysitter. Even blogging is topsy turvy when both my kids are home (one's in preschool), and that doesn't take even a 1/10% of the concentration needed to put a book together, even stupid ones like hers. I'm a SAHM, but I refuse to take part in the Mommy Wars. Everyone needs to do what's best for them. There's guilt involved with either choice, believe me.

I haven't watched it yet (it's in my DVR), but I'll look forward to Stephen's interview.

OT, I REALLY want to see JK go on The Colbert Report. However, he needs to prepare for it; this will be a LOT harder than the presidential debates :). Colbert has such a sharp wit, JK needs to be familar with it, and be ready for it.

[whometense]

4. Colbert is realllly tough interview.

He sticks pretty closely to his pseud-O'Reilly persona, but then slyly slips out of it now and then. It's hard to know what the best way is to handle him - NOT easy! Jon Stewart interviews as himself, so is completely straightforward.

As for the mommy wars, I'm with you. I was a SAHM for 12 or so years. It was the hardest work I've ever done - much harder than coming to the office. I think women should stop spending so much time comparing their own choices with the choices of others. There are just too many factors that enter into the decision. It appalled me when I was a SAHM how unsupportive women were of each other - it was like 7th grade all over again.

Not to mention this person, who, yes, wrote her book at home while her kids were at school, and who employs who-knows-how-many nannies, housekeepers, babysitters, etc. while doing it. Sorry, that's not the same thing.

I'm really interested in hearing your reaction to her. I'm sure GV's assessment is correct - that she's a book whore. Perhaps I'm just a product of my era, but I'm not happy with the current antifeminist backlash. Sure, some of the leading feminists were militant and over-the-top and angry. But they pretty much had to be. And the backlash in this particular case is totally demeaning to women ("Date night? A wife's job is to put out.") and to men as well.

[beachmom]

5. Okay, the curiosity just killed me, so I checked out the interview

I thought it was a REALLY funny interview, devoid of any substance whatsoever. For some reason, it didn't make me mad, because it was SO preposterous. Her life is the complete opposite of what she's saying. In the end, she DOES have a life outside of her family and that's writing. She writes when her kids are at school, and the writing gives her that sense of independence and fulfillment. Then her kids come home and she spends time with them and makes dinner. It sounds like she has the IDEAL life -- a perfect balance of family life and career. And she even gets to appear on a nighttime cable show. If what she was saying WAS true, then that would mean her husband could come home the next day, and DEMAND that she stop writing such ridiculous books, and she would say "Why certainly, mein Herr" (mein Herr is German and derogatory of a completely subservient wife). In fact, I would say the opposite is true. SHE runs that family, and her husband just does what she tells him to do, while giving him the impression that he's in charge. Especially since if what she says is true, he gets regular sex out of it, he's fine with her wearing the pants in the family.

And BTW, that is SO true for these red state conservatives. They always talk about "family values" while they bring up sex every second sentence. Blue staters don't feel the need to talk about it -- it's no big deal and part of normal human life. But red staters, who are taught that sex is dirty until it magically becomes holy once married, are downright obsessive about sex, because I think they think it's STILL dirty even when they're married.