Local writer quoted in WP saying that she "plays dumb" around SAHMs

[Anonymous]

Hanna really likes to stir the pot, perhaps she is hoping to get on the Today Show again...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hanna really likes to stir the pot, perhaps she is hoping to get on the Today Show again...

Who is she? Never heard of her before this kerfuffle.

[Anonymous]

Google her. Especially google the uproar she caused with her piece on breastfeeding.

[Anonymous]

oh jeez, I didn't realize she was the same woman that wrote that Atlantic Monthly article. so she is a professional shit-stirrer, and not worth getting agitated about.

[Anonymous]

She used to be a serious journalist, writing on things like the religious right for the Washington Post.

I personally can't stand "Double X" and stopped reading it when she posted a video waxing the arm hair off her co-editors with a homemade formula. All of the writers were quite respected and I think that Double X is an embrassment, a mommy ghetto as it were, with lots of space to fill with garbage that would never be deemed "worthy" of male journalists. The more sensational the better of course, I'm sure this latest moltov cocktail will drive a lot of blog traffic and perhaps result in some additional TV time. Not sure if these folks are very large in their own minds or desperately insecure or if it's just about the ad revenue. For example, she wrote a screed against the benefits of breastfeeding but just in case, was still bfeeding her own 3rd child. I think the Mommy Wars are a media creation.

[Anonymous]

It's a stupid, offensive comment, but I think it's pretty obvious that she does it out of insecurity, as the latter part of her comment reveals.

As a sidenote, I am a SAHM and I'm sure I talk about things I see on Oprah sometimes. I watched Oprah when I worked too, so that's nothing new. (And when my babies' naptimes permitted, sometimes I even watched The View!) You can watch Oprah, and admit it, and still be smart and well-informed... those things are not mutually exclusive. As far as small talk with acquaintances go, it's usually a lot safer to talk about things like television than many current events, which often are politically charged.

[Anonymous]

This was not a cool public statement to make, especially in a town this small.

[Anonymous]

The funny thing is, I believe that she is a WAHM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can kind of understand it. When I go to the playground, all the Mom's talk about is what they saw on the View or Oprah that day. When the ladies of the View or Oprah say something, apparently to them, it is fact. That, or they gossip...I have yet to get any further than that with any of them.

Don't get me wrong, I am sure there are other SAHMs who don't talk about that stuff...I have just yet to meet them where we go to play.

Where do you live? I see comments like this frequently on DCUM and find it so surprising. In my four years as a SAHM, I have NEVER heard any other mom talk about Oprah or the View but lots of talk about politics, books, community, travel, culture, etc. Maybe my corner of the DC metro area is unusual. (Hyattsville/Mt. Rainier/Greenbelt/College Park)

I would say it's the area that's unusual. It's one of those things that really make this area of PG county so great.

[Anonymous]

When I SAH during maternity leave, I NEVER read the paper and I felt bad about it.

But I get what the author is saying, and I don't think when she said, "dumb" she meant "stupid" -- I think she meant that she didn't want to give away that she was a WOHM.

Once (during maternity leave) a group of SAHMs asked me out for a girl's night out. Things were moving along swimmingly, until I revealed that I would be heading back to work soon. The change in demeanor was instantaneous. Nobody ever asked me out again, and when I even took off work to take my child to play groups, I was virtually ignored. So if I were to do it all again, I might have "played dumb" as well.

[Anonymous]

Based on a cross section of Hanna Rosin's (and not just the infamous case against breastfeeding piece), I think she's got a lot of self-loathing that she's trying to work out through her writing efforts, and which she thinly disguises with a thin veneer of odd snobbery (The self-loathing was very evident in the breastfeeding piece, and the insecurity is clear with this one. People who need to compliment themselves by comparing others unfavorably to themselves (I read a paper every day, SAHMs don't!) is a pretty embarrassingly obvious sign of insecurity.

I also think she's a shock journalist. It's hard to fault her -- people want shock. My problem with her is that, for all her self-aggrandizing statements, her writing is for shite. Ironically, the only time I ever had enough time to waste on reading her self-indulgent drivel was when I was home on maternity leave with a napping baby.

Despite Rosin's nastiness and the mommy wars that flare up on this website all too often, I think MOST people avoid those kinds of immature statements and don't draw such sophmoric conclusions about people based on their occupation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on a cross section of Hanna Rosin's (and not just the infamous case against breastfeeding piece), I think she's got a lot of self-loathing that she's trying to work out through her writing efforts, and which she thinly disguises with a thin veneer of odd snobbery (The self-loathing was very evident in the breastfeeding piece, and the insecurity is clear with this one. People who need to compliment themselves by comparing others unfavorably to themselves (I read a paper every day, SAHMs don't!) is a pretty embarrassingly obvious sign of insecurity.

I also think she's a shock journalist. It's hard to fault her -- people want shock. My problem with her is that, for all her self-aggrandizing statements, her writing is for shite. Ironically, the only time I ever had enough time to waste on reading her self-indulgent drivel was when I was home on maternity leave with a napping baby.

Despite Rosin's nastiness and the mommy wars that flare up on this website all too often, I think MOST people avoid those kinds of immature statements and don't draw such sophmoric conclusions about people based on their occupation.

ha---PP here, rereading my post. Filled with enough nonsequiturs and mismatched sentences to be a Rosin piece! Excuse typos / lack of proofreading.

[Anonymous]

"Professional shit stirrer"

LOVE it !

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can kind of understand it. When I go to the playground, all the Mom's talk about is what they saw on the View or Oprah that day. When the ladies of the View or Oprah say something, apparently to them, it is fact. That, or they gossip...I have yet to get any further than that with any of them.

Don't get me wrong, I am sure there are other SAHMs who don't talk about that stuff...I have just yet to meet them where we go to play.

Where do you live? I see comments like this frequently on DCUM and find it so surprising. In my four years as a SAHM, I have NEVER heard any other mom talk about Oprah or the View but lots of talk about politics, books, community, travel, culture, etc. Maybe my corner of the DC metro area is unusual. (Hyattsville/Mt. Rainier/Greenbelt/College Park)

Suburban Montgomery County. The other day I saw a Mom, her kids and the Nanny at the park. The Nanny watched and played with the kids while the Mom was on the phone most of the time. Then, she would play with the kids for a minute, the phone would ring and she would walk away and talk again.

Of course I expect small talk when first meeting someone. I however am talking about after the small talk. Either way, that is usually how it is when I see the SAHM Moms there. The rest of the time it's the Nannies and I actually have pretty decent conversations with them.

I guess it all depends on where you are and where you are taking the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hanna really likes to stir the pot, perhaps she is hoping to get on the Today Show again...

Totally. She will argue the world is flat if it will get her attention.