I don’t mind criticism. If, from time to time, one is going to dish it out, then one must also be able to take it. I think that that any adult should learn to weather criticism gracefully, accept it for what it’s worth (which may or may not be much), and move right along.
While not minding criticism, I generally don’t get much in comments. This isn’t an overtly political blog, after all; my burgeoning theory that the work of one's hands is good for the soul doesn’t raise too many hackles.
But the other day I received a comment (via email) from someone who evidently feels that my personal is political. Something about my Valentine’s Day post flushed her exuberantly out of lurkerdom—could have been the pantyhose, could have been that I feed my family members, all of whom happen to be male. Who knows? Hard to tell. In any case, in the interest of “for what it’s worth”, here’s what a reader had to say:
For me, a critical visitor of your site (rather than of the "you're great" "great entry" etc. blah, blah, noncritical-typical reader of your site), this blog entry is a curious and well-written set-piece which beautifully typifies how the lives of women who opt-out! revolve around men. Amazing how a little boy's presence can redefine a stay-at-home's agenda. (The working model of the "sacrificing angel in the house"--she lives!) It's like visiting a 19th century woman's ethos weirdly displaced into 2005...is it satire, or "real"? I'm hoping it's satire, but I'm afraid it's not.... Your blog is a keen and exigent illustration of how so many apparently well-educated women have thrown themselves down a rabbit hole and, once arrived, are magically able to delude themselves into somehow believing they are [already] emancipated beings, or have arrived at equality, or that such a fight is a problem for others to deal with--while of course a quick and easy rhetorical analysis of blogs betrays only the same old cliches with new 2005-breath animating them--women serving men and boys--letting men and boys dicate, define or circumscribe woman's place. I'm not trying here to approximate your intent, but am giving you one educated women's critical response to your expositions, so you understand there are some who find this site caught in a weird time-warp which, intentionally or not, does next to nothing to promote woman as a healthy, vitally aware, culturally meaningful being in the world. I've gotta wonder--what is the point of you and others like you publishing your "gentlewomans' journals"? To encourage young women to opt out of working towards meaningful social change--to push women's desires back a century.
I find myself tempted to respond to this critique, since responsiveness is at the center of my nature; at the same time, I feel under no compulsion to justify my life—or what I might write on a particular day in my life.
All I will say for now is this: the whole notion of my having “opted out” of some grand career in order to revolve around a man is both erroneous and laughable. I opted out of academia long before there were any men on the scene in order to have a life of the mind that was my own, in a place I wanted to be.
11:38:17 PM 
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