OPINION: Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
The freedom to choose has long been painted as the finish line for women, but what good is that freedom if every choice invites a verdict? A woman who stays home to raise her children is mocked online as antifeminist. A woman who out-earns her husband is scorned for emasculating him. On the surface, the choices these women make couldn’t appear more different. Underneath, though, they face the same barrage of criticism. The internet has given them labels and pitted them against each other. Except neither woman ever really wins. The message has become increasingly clear: women are free to choose, as long as they choose correctly. Consider what each woman hears. The stay-at-home mother is told she wasted her education, set feminism back and left herself one divorce away from financial ruin. The breadwinner is told she is emasculating her husband, handing her kids off to someone else and…
