Happy Martyr's Day!

Before I rant, let me say that I had a great Mother's Day weekend, with everything I wanted. My son and I got season passes to the local amusement park so we can spend the whole summer making ourselves sick on our beloved Tilt-A-Whirl, and my husband (the only person in our house capable of cooking anything edible) prepared a fantastic plate of eggs on toast, England-style, which was served to me in bed with some lovely flowers. Thanks, guys--I love you!

I don't hate Mother's Day; it's a nice thing.

What I do hate are the ghastly emails I get this time of year--you know the ones I mean, patronizing claptrap like "Here's to all the mothers" followed by a depressing list of dozens of "womanly" chores, celebrating the enslavement and martyrdom of women. They make me CRAZY, these emails. I don't live, thank the goddess, in an environment where duties are gender-specific or unfairly distributed, but I know plenty of women do, and the whole idea of normalizing inequity by praising the screwed for their sacrifice and inculcating them to self-identify as silent sufferers is vile to me.

And it's ALWAYS women who send this bullshit around to each other, like a tiny bandage for a gaping wound, a desperately, falsely cheerful "We may be leaving the best years of our lives behind working ourselves into early graves, but see how special and appreciated we are for it!" If we can't have political power at least we can harness the power of martyrdom and guilt? No.

I understand the spirit in which many women embrace these emails, sort of, but I can't agree with it. They're just another way of fetishizing us, and there's plenty of that to go around already, thanks.