Letters to the Editor
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It has a credulous sound to it..
Woman looking over her shoulder and justifying her choices by deriding the choices of the woman she's comparing herself to.
Imagine Senator Edwards saying: Bill and I both got law degrees but we made different decisions and I think I"m more joyful than he is.
If Edwards dind't say it, then shame on the LHJ for saying she did - just goes to show that even in a world where women stop with the vicious underhanded competing (instead of open, honest, head-to-head competing), there are alway other women out there ready to pretend it's still happening, keeping those fires burning. Is getting women to hate themselves and one another really such a profitable growth industry? Depressing.
If Edwards did make such a lunkhead statement, I'd observe that it seems to me Edwards is spending a lot of time yakking about comparative happiness instead of just doing what purportedly makes her happy.
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Hillary
"I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life."
Hillary's comment was the first salvo - how come that isn't considered in the same category as Elizabeth Edwards' comment?
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Where is the insult?
Based on what I'm reading, she didn't say she was a better mother, or a better person, or more moral... just happier. I wouldn't say that being a politician is particularly "joyful", although it may be satisfying in other ways, so I suspect it's an accurate assessment. I don't think that is much of an insult. It certainly isn't demeaning to working women. If anybody should be offended, it would be non-working women, since this implies that they made the easier choice. But that's stretching it a bit, too. This is just another media "tempest in a teapot", where they try to take someone's harmless words and create a story.
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Edwards Vs. Clinton
Ms. Meltzer, I believe that Elizabeth Edwards did not intend to pass judgement on Hillary. She simply misspoke. As we southerners say, "Stop beating a dead horse".
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Huh?
Could someone explain to me what's so "odd" about the word "joyful"?
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joyful?
The only thing offensive to me is one person claiming to be "more joyful" than another. I would imagine that the fake role of First Lady, with the focus on what she's wearing and how she styles her hair and the ridiculous parties and gowns wouldn't be joyful to anyone, especially a career driven person like Hillary. I bet being a US Senator is very joyful for her. She's done with child raising and can focus on career. Unless it's something they've spoken about in the past, Mrs Edwards would have no idea what Senator Clinton finds joyful.
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I can't see what's so joyful
About staying at home on your ass leaching off your husband, and letting an expensive degree go to waste, but that's just me.
Maybe if she really was so joyful, she wouldn't feel the need to point her joy out. Sounds more defensive than joyful.
If her husband is thinking about running for re-election, he might want to consider telling his wife how many joyful working female voters there are in this country, because I'm not voting for anyone who marries a smug little ninny like this.
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'joyful' ?
just kinda Christmas'y, maybe
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same generation, but different life phases
I like them both, and like both of their choices--which they are making at different points in their family's life, even if they are the same age. The reason it's an odd comment to me is that Elizabeth Edwards has two elementary-school-age children (and one in college, and of course one deceased), whereas Hillary's daughter is out of college. Isn't life long enough to make lots of different choices at different times? I'm home with my kids right now, but they're small, and I imagine as they grow, I'll develop renewed interest in my career and sink my teeth back into that aspect of life. Except the choice to have kids at all, no choice is forever, and the sets of working/at-home moms are mutable. I've got thirty more years before retirement. Seems plenty long to me to try different things.
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it's different
"'I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life.'
"Hillary's comment was the first salvo - how come that isn't considered in the same category as Elizabeth Edwards' comment?"
Clinton was comparing one personal choice that she could have made to another, basically stating that personally, she would be unsatisfied without her profession. She wasn't deriding stay-at-home moms for their choices. Edwards was comparing her life to Clinton's and claiming her choice is superior and gives her more happiness than Clinton's choice gives her. Which gives me the impression that Edwards is just a big ball of insecurity, and thus full of shit.
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A break, please.
I for one would be a lot more joyful . . . if we could all just choose our choices and not have to defend them.
Agreed. And yet, it seems that Broadsheet takes SAHMs to task on a near weekly basis for leaving their (undoubtedly satisfying) careers to care for their children. I know it makes for an active letters section, but it would be nice if Salon could give the issue a rest for a bit.
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Hillary
Hillary was deriding SAHMs for their choices. Her sarcasm was fully intended.
Broadsheet often does exactly the same, as though staying at home to raise children were a bad thing.
Men and women should be free to live as they wish, without rigid ideology from either the far-right wing or feminists, who are just as inflexible and oppressive, especially when it comes to this issue.
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The Joyful Elizabeth
I thought Elizabeth Edwards was way off-base with her remarks about being more joyful than Hillary Clinton. It was a bitchy thing to say and Elizabeth, being a politician's wife and in the same political party as Hillary, should have kept her mouth shut. Her remarks certainly didn't harm Hillary. If anything, Elizabeth only hurt herself and maybe, even, her husband's campaign. If Elizabeth thinks it's okay to be snarky about other women, maybe she should look in the mirror and make the decision to shed about 30 pounds or more, before she hits the campaign trail again. And get a professional haircut. I am sure Senator Clinton would be happy to pass along the name of her hair-stylist.