Casa Jonsson

I was incensed, it’s true. The quote that got me blogging today is from Her Majesty Teresa Heinz Kerry.

USA Today: You’d be different from Laura Bush?

Teresa Heinz Kerry: Well, you know, I don’t know Laura Bush. But she seems to be calm, and she has a sparkle in her eye, which is good. But I don’t know that she’s ever had a real job—I mean, since she’s been grown up.

Much has been said about the arrogance of this statement. The first and second levels of insensitivity have been commented upon most and are rather obvious, but no one seems to be talking about the third. Possibly this is because people writing are generally more affected by the first and second level of insult. Anyway, it’s surprising how out of touch with the modern American woman Heinz Kerry must be in order to make such a gaffe! Laura Bush hasn’t had a real job since she’s been grown up. Oh really.

Error #1: How can she have forgotten about Laura Bush’s well-known short stint as a librarian and a teacher? That’s about as tacky as President Bush’s not knowing Senator Kerry’s wife’s first name. It was short career, sure, but that’s her choice. Teresa apologized for not knowing this basic fact about her, but …

Error #2: … furthered her blunder by not acknowledging the other important real job that Laura Bush has had since then as wife, mother and volunteer. Heinz Kerry not-so-subtly revealed her view that only a paying job counts. It is fascinating to me that working royalty like Heinz Kerry continue to deprecate the women who don’t get paid to care for home, family and community. (Who else has time to laminate projects for the elementary school PTO, help the poor find jobs, etc?)

Error #3: The implications of this statement by a purported “liberal” are staggering. Heinz Kerry can’t win. If she meant that real jobs are jobs that pay, then mothers/wives are doing fairy-tale labor. If she meant that the work was too tedious to be considered a real job, then even the women who do get (under)paid to take care of the homes and families of women who choose to do other things do not have real jobs.

I love how Heinz Kerry (not a modern-day rags-to-riches kind of gal) feels she can decide what a real job is. I would assume her definition of a real job is one that has insurance and health benefits and contributes to social security. (One wonders if the Heinz Kerry household’s “help” is compensated in this way.) How can the working poor ever be anything but invisible with this kind of arrogance in leadership?

What I really loved though, was Laura Bush’s gracious response via her spokesman, Gordon Johndroe: “Mrs Bush knows it’s not always easy when your husband runs for president.”

Whatever I think of these women’s husbands, I’ll take Laura as First Lady over Teresa any day.

If you’re interested in this topic, I would urge you to read an article by Caitlin Flanagan in a recent issue of The Atlantic Monthly devoted to “the nanny wars.” The article alone is worth a subscription to the magazine. Flanagan scathingly surveys the way the enlightened, middle-class American feminist builds her empire on the backs of poor immigrant women who ostensibly don’t have “real jobs” since they only do what women who can’t find anything better to do must do for themselves.