THANK YOU. I read that post the other day and didn’t even know where to begin to comment on it.
Thank you especially for this: Lady Lydia, a living example of the kind of delicate femininity that can be yours if you have some kind of Victorian fetish and a husband and or community willing to help you indulge, which pegs her community’s mentality perfectly, and had me rolling with laughter.
By the way, to the commenter above me, you are not alone; I share your obsession. I think there are many of us, actually.
evilchemistry
And then crazy lady continues with the singular. That’s fucked up. I bet her family is more like the Peacocks.
mr skin
If you ever get a chance to, listen to the old audio recording of the original War of the Worlds. It’s pretty good, and people throught it was really happening when they heard it on the radio.
Antigone
Yeah, “Soap making” with pre-built kits don’t exactly include animal fat that you have to render, and the lye is in little bottles with a book telling you to wear gloves. Not really the same thing.
Anne
`You might like my post Dear Lady Lydia on the website whitewashedfeminist.com
Their teachings drive even many conservative Christians batty.
And thanks for this, it seriously cracked me up.
Molly
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for bringing some REAL history into the world of anti-feminist historical revisionism.
A former “lady-against-feminism,”
Kate
That first quote about the future daughter-in-law being in the kitchen with her (whichever LAF woman that was — Lydia?) was so full of self-absorbed snobbery! Talk about the future mother-in-law from hell!
So, THAT’S one way how so-called, modern-day hierarchalist, patriarchalists are made. For a while now I supposed it had more to do with peeniee envy only, and not just the neurosis of latent matriarchs with their lace collars buttoned up too tightly.
Loved the reference to the Allposters.com site I’ll have to be careful here, because I happen to really gravitate towards intelligent and pain-in-my-side-from-laughing-so-hard sarcasm. It’s addictive.
Iva Bigbody
Xenophobia is not just attached to the national folk religion that Lady Lydia follows but is also a consequence of the gender related effects of enmeshment that they manifest.
The women in Lydia’s cultic religious movement generally have a fantasy-based view of life as part of their “love you into loving yourself” mentality, their own reactions to their own upbringing. The men are detached and pathologically paternalistic, so they are a good yang to their partner’s yin.
Both types are Xenophobic, so the whole pious fear of contamination from other cultures and groups just becomes intensified by their gender-enmeshment traits.
They just read like the textbooks about dysfunctional (addicted) families, actually.
http://botkinsyndrome.blogspot.com/2008/07/roles-that-enmeshed-and-abandoned.html
Conservative one
Let’s not forget that ma had to go to work in the local hotel in order to provide.
If Lady Lydia learned “One thing I learned reading her books is that in those times there was a clear distinction between woman’s work and man’s work” … then she missed the point of the series.
Laura’s daughter ended up being a career woman … she was a journalist. Moreover, it is my understanding that Laura’s daughter was encouraged and supported to have a career by her parents & maternal grandparents.
I see that Lady Lydia conveniently ignores that most men could cook, sew, iron, manage a household, and more. Why? Several reasons …
• cowboys/trappers/hunters needed to perform these tasks consistently or risk losing their businesses (I am NOT saying there weren’t any cowgirls, trappers, hunters … e.g., Annie Oakley)
• a family could NOT afford to have women inside working all day … they needed EVERY body they could get out into the field to work … this was vital to the existence of the family
• when a woman was in labor men needed to perform these tasks to keep the family going
With respect to the statement: ““She did not like to see women working in the fields. Only foreigners did that. Ma and her girls were American, above doing men’s work”. (The Long Winter, 1st Harper Trophy ed., 1971, p. 4).”
That simply demonstrates that foreign women performed these tasks all the time. It demonstrates how nationalism was beginning to take root in the USA where American women felt that only the lowly European or Eastern European were fit to be in the fields. Even though this is a racist statement, it is beginning to demonstrate how American women were leaving the field for other paid endeavors (e.g., Ma Ingalls working as a teacher and working as a cook in the field, Laura Ingalls working for her own income, Laura’s daughter having a career as a journalist, etc.)
I of course very sweetle replied:
Lady Lydia:
It took me a long time to make the costume that you see on my blog. I wear it a little more often than a girl would wear her prom dress.
Soap kits are popular even amongst those of “your ilk”. Check out Michaels, JoAn Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, and many other places where craft products are available. Yes, in the year 2008. Imagine that. Making soap in the 21st century.
(Of course I didn't answer any of the questions they raised, but that my dear is successful diversionary tactics)
(My attempt at sarcasm)
Lady Lydia:
Maybe the punk rock culture today can guide young women into a safer, better lifestyle. Maybe Madonna is a better role model. Maybe.
