So I vowed to myself that I wouldn't write anything else about the so-called mommy wars but I read something over the weekend that begged me to address it. Wendy Sachs, author of How She Really Does It and a participant in the crazedparent five (remember those?), wrote a post last week about her almost appearance on Good Morning America. Apparently the producers contacted her to participate in an on-air debate about mommy wars based on the the new book. Wendy's definitely a slash/mom and absolutely supports moms who work outside the home. After a series of prep interviews, the producers decided not to include her in the debate...largely because they realized she was a freelancer and didn't leave her house to go to an office. Didn't have a "real" boss, no 401K, you get the drift.
Wendy writes:
"So I had narrowly passed their feminist litmus test but now I apparently wasn’t working hard or typically enough. As GMA staged a debate, they were looking for a stereotype, and I didn’t fit the image."
Most folks know that television debates are set up for confrontation and ratings - it's all about stirring the pot. But to have someone like Wendy Sachs get turned down from a discussion about stay at home moms versus working moms - to witness first hand GMA's attempts to blatantly create hostility, confrontation and disagreement between moms - is so terribly disturbing. Yet, it also thrills me to no end because it's concrete evidence of one simple thing: the portrayal of the mommy wars is an illusion.
