The Mother of All Meltdowns
Motherhood has long sparked debate within the feminist movement, but a recent kerfuffle over a Mother’s Day essay by
New York Times opinion writer Elizabeth Bruenig suggests that debate has lapsed into deep confusion now that intersectional “woke” politics is the dominant strain of leftwing thought.
In her essay, Bruenig explored her feelings about becoming a mother within the context of arguments for more government support for families. Although I disagree with her calls for expansive federal intervention in the family and question her grasp of economics (I’m sorry, Elizabeth, but it wasn’t “Mayor Muriel Bowser’s dime” you were spending when you made use of free, universal pre-K in the District of Columbia; it was the taxpayer’s), the essay is an honest and lovely reflection on her experience of motherhood.
By Caleb HoweMay 10th, 2021, 12:16 pm
New York Times columnist
Elizabeth Bruenigwrote last week about her experience becoming a mother at the age of 25. Shortly after the article was published, and well into Monday morning, the reaction on Twitter was fierce, as were defenses of the column.
If it seems strange that an essay on motherhood would require fierce defending, it’s possible you haven’t spent much time on Twitter.
The biggest swarm of negative reactions were from a feminist standpoint, treating the column as an affront, and consisting in the main of unverified accounts with few followers to many tens of thousands. But the debacle really blew up when Salon’s
Reframing Britney: Press and Public Waking Up to Guardianship Harms
What a difference two years make.
Back in spring 2019, the tabloids were training their gaze on the mental health of pop star Britney Spears who’d recently reemerged from rehab after canceling her latest Vegas show and the rise of a #FreeBritney fan movement rallying for her release from a decade-long California “probate conservatorship.” Called a guardianship in other states, the arrangement gives a court-approved third-party control over the affairs of an incapacitated, typically elderly, person. In Britney’s case, the conservator is her father, Jamie, and he’s controlled almost every detail of her finances, healthcare, and personal life since her “breakdown” in 2008.
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Q&A with Jude Ellison S. Doyle on why Substack isn’t about Substack. Substack is still chugging along as a company and a content management system (although we’ll be leaving it soon). The company, now in a fresh new round of fundraising, has either ignored or combatively engaged with the criticism it’s fielded over the last few months namely, that it does not enforce its community guidelines when it comes to the harassment of trans people, and that it has been (opaquely) providing money to a selection of writers in its “Pro Program.”
Here is a snipper of the conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity. You can read more here.