My mom actually tipped me off on this story when she saw a commercial for it yesterday. She earned substantially more than my father for many years while working for IBM, and was appauled at the suggestion that a woman making more than her husband was percieved as a problem in this day and age.

Sadly, it is. And a Harvard professor has even written a book about it. Manliness by Harvey C. Mansfield touts male domination in all aspects of life, especially in the financial arena. While being interviewed on The Colbert Report, Mansfield even suggested that a wife never be allowed to make more than two-thirds of her husband's income. We must keep the systems of power in place, you know.

It is disturbing to me that sexism is being promoted and upheld by anyone, but when it comes from the mouth of a woman, such as White, it is the ultimate tragedy. The key manipulative move of the backlash against feminism and the Women's Movement is to make women think that they need to be submissive and subordinate to men... that they must always think of how their independent actions will come back to harm the psyches of their spouses. That male dominance is the "natural order" of things. When we (women) buy into the propaganda, we are losing ourselves and our identities. No one's identity should be that of service and subordination to another.

Kate's interview also posits another harmful perspective - that of keeping your marriage together at all costs. Instead of choosing the point-of-view that a man being insecure due to marrital financial balance is a problem, the success of the woman is made the issue. And the woman better fix that issue if she wants her marriage to succeed. All the responsibility is placed on her. The atmosphere of "you are doing something a bit inappropriate, here's how to deal with that" is palpable. Should we really be saying that a wife should always keep her success in check, so as not to offend her husband?

The damage done by these ideologies will continue until women are seen as those deserving of respect and ones who should never have to submit. To me, the ideas that these two people have promoted are extremely violent, and I am very concerned about those who are listening to (and agreeing with) them. We must not sit quietly in the background to avoid offending the "man of the house."