Settled For Cluelessness

Linda Hirshman, writing for the Washington Post, implies that most women, particularly married-with-kids ones, are politically clueless. Hell, essentially culturally clueless from what I can tell from this piece.

Way out here in Mommy Land, I can tell you -- she's right. I can't think of but a very few mom-women I know who are "up on" much of anything other than Brangelina, sales, food items, costuming, PTA, vaccinate or not, putting things in cutesy flower pots, American Idol, and whether their kids prefer Beefaroni or sushi. It's pitiful and sad, but true. I can't say I've discussed "what the hell is wrong with McCain" with any other moms. Should I even try? They'll just change the subject to stroller brands, or "have to run go get my kids" all of a sudden.

On the other hand, political astuteness isn't necessarily what I'm seeking from my friendships and alliances with other moms. That's what having super-smart and savvy men-friends is for, right? Here's a taste of what's bound to get any gender going:

A 36-year-old former financial sales executive considers herself an independent, reads only the Style and Weekend sections of The Post and the Marketplace and Personal Journal sections of the Wall Street Journal, and also counts on her husband, a Republican, to tell her what's interesting in the rest of the paper.

A former human rights activist told me that she still reads the New York Times, skims the Economist, and gathers political information from PBS's "News Hour," a local broadcast from the BBC and from her church.

Neither the former teacher nor the retired television reporter read any newspapers at all.

There are some constants. Most of the women read People and Real Simple magazines. They all listen to news on the car radio, mostly National Public Radio. And almost all their full-time working husbands consume immeasurably more political information than they do ("He reads 10 times what I do," one told me), reading news magazines and political Web sites and bringing home political information from their jobs. The women gather little information from their almost exclusively female society of other stay-at-home moms.

Full article here. They oughtta at least make time to scan the SGR, eh? But as one mom told me most gleefully the other day on the playground, as I was no doubt boring her to wandering-eye distraction with my own "something I read on a blog the other day" tales of deadly-boring astuteness (basic response of other moms: "what's a blog?"), "I just learned to cut and paste last week!" I had to turn my face away lest she saw my look of undiluted disgust.

So does this mean that the only reason I absorb politics is because I'm divorced and have no man around the house to tell me how to "feel" about it all? I'm going to go hurl now, because this reminds me of how I loath going out with married couples. (T&C not included!) It's always "we this" and "we that." There simply isn't individual thinking or feeling going on for much of anything - least not publicly, the little liars.