The Feministing Community’s Woman’s Movement Aftermath Project: Mommy and Me, or why I can’t stand Nutjobs and Nonsense.

Mom and me often have our ups and downs since I was little (it’s not easy to raise a strong-willed daughter with Aspbergers and not easy to live with two parents with stricter standards than most American-born parents). I’m glad to say I’ve inherited some characteristics: stubbornness, inability to put up with bull, brains, goals, and great culinary skills. One day, me and mom were taking a ride in the car when I asked her if she could participate in this next round of interviews, here goes…
Warning: May not be PC and this is my Mother, okay?
ME: What were you doing in the 1970s?
MOM: Working, going to school, and meeting friends. I used to live in Lamont, California and before that, Jalisco. I was working at 13.
ME: How would you describe yourself at the time?
MOM: In what sense? My character…shy and hard-working, and ummm…a go-getter. I would strive to get what I want.
ME: What did you expect to do with your life?
MOM: I wanted to go to school, get a degree. I wanted to be a lawyer or doctor. I don’t know what else.
ME: What stopped you?
MOM: My family, my uncle told my mom not to let us go to school, because we were to just meet boys and get married (my grandfather died when Mom was 5, his brother became like the patriarch and grandma isn’t one to stand up for herself).
ME: Just the girls?
MOM: Yeah.
ME: How did you feel at the time?
MOM: I hated it, I was angry. It gave me two choices, to continue working and go to night school.

ME: Successful in that?
MOM: Yes.
ME: Sorry for asking you dumb questions.
MOM: It’s alright.
ME: How did you come across the Women’s Movement?
MOM: I thought it was great, something we needed, [it] benefits families, not just women even the husbands. We were to have the chance to be successful and have good paying jobs, to be recognized, to be leaders, not followers.
ME: Did you come across it on TV?
MOM: Yeah, TV.
ME: What was your first impression at the time?
MOM: I think it was like a click.
ME: Did the movement get you to see your life as it was?
MOM: In what sense?
ME: Did it get you to say “What the hell?”
MOM: Yeah.
ME: Noticing the Double Standard?
MOM: Yeah, my girlfriends had sex, didn’t bode well. I and my sisters weren’t allowed to even go out with friends a lot, because my mom was afraid that people would think we were sluts. My brothers got away with a lot.
ME: Did the movement change your life?
MOM: It helped. But not changed my life completely. I was given more opportunities.
ME: How do you look back on that time?
MOM: I wished I knew more and I could’ve argued to stay in school.
ME: How have you changed since then?
MOM: I think I became smarter and I worked towards what I wanted. I didn’t let anyone stop me, not marriage or kids, from my goal at a degree from a university (I was twelve!).
ME: What are your hopes for this generation of young women?
MOM: To succeed, not to be afraid of knowledge and I guess, not to get shadowed by men. To be leaders and to work towards what they want and show people that women are more powerful than men because, when have you seen a man have a baby and work, clean house and have all the kids?
ME: Okay Mom, time to have some fun. How would you describe Rush Limbaugh?
MOM: Fatass, stupid, ummm…hateful, cheeseball, also prejudiced.
ME: Did you know he got married?
MOM: Really?
ME: Yeah.
MOM: Poor girl.
Okay, here’s a novela both me and Mom love.