Book Review: _To Hell with All That_
BOOK REVIEW:
To Hell with All That (Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife)
by Caitlin Flanagan
2006 - Little, Brown & Co.
ISBN: 0316736872
I first heard about this book in the July 1 issue of World Magazine, in which there was a brief description of the book along with an interview with the author. I was intrigued by the interview, as I find the fallout from feminism to be quite the interesting topic, historically, culturally, and theologically.
Flanagan brings a very interesting perspective to her examination of “the central concerns of women’s private lives — weddings, sex, nannies, housekeeping, marriage, children…” There seems to be a growing movement among 2nd/3rd generation “feminists” that the old-guard/1st-generation feminists seem to find increasingly distressing - i.e., that sometimes home & hearth can be the best & most attractive choice, and that perhaps traditional roles actually did serve a useful purpose.
The chapters on modern weddings, housekeeping, marital sex, and “executive” children are the most compelling, as they deal head-on with many of the issues that trouble families & society today. I found the chapters that dealt with the author’s personal issues - e.g., nannies & “mother” issues - to be somewhat less compelling. While they were somewhat illustrative of the larger points (better) made in other chapters, they struck me as a bit too self-indulgent & not quite as compellingly well-written as the rest of the book.
Flanagan writes from a self-professed “Evangelical Christian” worldview that is refreshingly consistent throughout the whole book. This, however, should not be taken to mean that there’s a whole lot of theological depth anchoring the book. Rather, it would be more accurate to say that a reasonably conservative (if not wholly/obviously orthodox) Christian faith informs this book’s foundational points. For example, while many of the points made in the book are quite illustrative of, say, a Lutheran view of the Order of Creation, there was never an explicit statement acknowledging the Order of Creation’s primacy in properly defining & managing male-female roles. IOW, while Christianity was mentioned rather regularly, the overall tone of the book struck me as more political/sociological than theological. That said, it was still on more solid theological ground than most of the dreck that’s available at the local Barnes & Noble.
All things considered, this is a useful and worthwhile book. I can easily recommend To Hell with All That as a book that is worth the time/effort to find & read.
-ghp
[Note: This review has now been cross-posted over at Luther Library. Please take the time to check out Luther Library for cogent & well-informed reviews (present company excepted, of course!)]
The latest tempest
Check out this news report, complete with accompanying video coverage.
It seems that a Baptist Church in Watertown, NY has “fired” a Sunday School teacher who has been serving for 54+ years. Why? Well, the controversy is stemming from the slant that it’s because she’s a woman. It seems that the “firing” letter quoted 1 Timothy 2:11-14. The press has now gotten ahold of this, and the general tenor of the coverage, as well as the reaction (as can be seen at digg.com), is to paint this as just another way that “fundamentalists” are “misinterpreting” a “book of fiction” in order to “subjugate” women.
Frankly, what offends me the most, theologically speaking, is the misinformed position that is at the heart of giving the pastor in question the 8th Commandment benefit of the doubt. If he truly had her removed from teaching SS because of what’s stated in 1 Tim 2:11-14, then I would have to say that he is wrong — but not for the reasons that are being given in all of the controversial coverage & reaction.
If the “wronged” woman was teaching children in SS, then she was working under the authority of the parents - i.e., a 4th Commandment thing. This is all well and good. There’s nothing wrong with women teaching children — it doesn’t run afoul of the authority issue explained by St. Paul. (We’ll just set aside, for the time being, the fact that SS as it is currently “done” in most Lutheran Churches is doing our children a grave disservice, as this Methodistic innovation actually undermines good, solid, Lutheran catechesis…)
If, however, she was teaching adults (and more specifically, adult males), then it is a problem, as that type of teaching is part of the authority vested in the pastoral office - i.e., (IIRC) a 1st Commandment thing. This, then, is in direct opposition to that outlined by St. Paul.
Vocation is a powerful doctrine, and it’s one that is woefully misunderstood because it’s been woefully under-taught. A proper understanding of vocation would yield many “controversies” (such as this one) moot.
I’d be willing to wager that the vast majority of folks who are offended by this “injustice” are in such a state for all the wrong reasons. And that’s a terrible thing in and of itself…
-ghp
Men and women. Women and men.
Great rivers of words have been written on the subject of men, women, and how they differ in doing things. I’ve just started reading a book that is based firmly in that subject area, with an emphasis on the female perspective. I found out about To Hell with All That {Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife} by Caitlin Flanagan by reading an interview with her in the July 1, 2006 issue of World Magazine. So far, this is an interesting and well thought-out book on an interesting subject. If all goes according to plan, a more complete review of it will be my (no doubt long awaited) first contribution to The Luther Library.
In anticipation of that full review, I’ll drop this nugget in the form of a quote from Chapter 2:
“What we’ve learned during this thirty-year grand experiment [i.e., feminism] is that men can be cajoled into doing all sorts of household tasks, but they will not do them the way a woman would. They will bathe the children, but they will not straighten the bath mat and wring out the washcloths. They will drip a toddler off at nursery school, but they won’t spend ten minutes chatting with the teacher and collecting the art projects. They will, in other words, do what man have always done: reduce a job to its simplest essentials and utterly ignore the fillips and niceties that women tend to regard as equally essential. And a lot of women feel cheated and angry and even — bless their hearts — surprised about this.[p. 30]
I find this to be tremendously insightful. Undeniably obvious, of course, but still insightful. I’ve lived it, lo these last 16.5 years with the God-given blessing that is my beloved wife. I’m not sure what, if anything, I can do to change it mind you, but it’s nice to see someone else mention it.
While the author doesn’t seem to bring an overt theological POV to the book (at least as far as I’ve read…), it’s easily inferred from the Word Magazine interview that she’s a Christian, most likely “conservative” if not even orthodox, doctrinally-speaking.
I’m looking forward to the rest of the book!
-ghp
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