What Women Want

It’s hard to remember now because we hear it all the time, but the term “family values,” in a political context, isn’t very old. An invention of the early ‘90s, it showed up with such force and has remained so convenient a buzz term, that it feels much, much older. The family values folk co-opted the moral high ground and anyone who didn’t fit the mold was subject to suspicion--no one more than Candice Bergen’s I-am-woman-hear-me-roar character “Murphy Brown.” When the liberated, self-actualized, newscasting feminist poster woman chose to raise a child alone, she took more heat than all the other targets combined. She was even held up to infamous ridicule by then-Vice President Dan Quayle. Yet despite that, or maybe because of it, Murphy Brown emerged as iconic rather than demonic, and smart, independent gals everywhere got a new mentor. Which was empowering for us and great for the ratings of “Murphy Brown.” Until all that success backfired a bit. The Murphy Brown character became so inextricably entwined with the worldview of career women trying to shatter the glass ceiling, that when she had a sweet moment singing “Natural Woman” to her new little baby, it created quite a stir. The feminist crowd felt betrayed by the perceived message that nothing could truly fulfill a woman but motherhood. But I had just had my first baby and I totally understood. In Susan Milord’s If I Could, a mama raccoon makes big promises to her beloved baby. Don’t we all?

http://www.amazon.com/If-I-Could-Mothers-Promise/dp/0763623482

http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/30235/Susan_Milord/index.aspx