Liberal Author Says the Family Unit is ‘A Terrible Way to Satisfy … Love and Care,’ Calls to Abolish It – The Pros and Cons of Her View
Well, I am a conservative, and I am not “anti Nuclear Family,” so I cannot say I agree with the idea of abolishing The Nuclear Family.
On the other hand, as I’ve stated numerous times on this blog, married couples have been shown in studies to be too self-absorbed (they meet all the needs of their spouse and kids while not extending help or care to those outside their nuclear family, and the Bible itself notes in 1 Corinthians 7 that married people are more concerned with meeting the needs of their spouse than in doing God’s work).
Too many conservatives place too much emphasis on the Nuclear Family, especially religious persons. The Bible simply does not command people to marry – sorry, but the one call to widows to re-marry does not establish that marriage for the never-married is a requirement, or that the command is timeless for all people – and the Bible does not say that marriage or The Family Unit will save or rescue a society.
The Bible says the problem with a nation is that each individual is a sinner before God, and the only solution to that is for the individual to put saving faith in Jesus. The Bible does not prescribe marriage and establishing the Nuclear Family as a solution.
An un-due emphasis on the “family” unnecessarily marginalizes single adults, widows, the divorced, the infertile among us – the Bible says the purest religion is to help the widow and the orphan (see James 1:27), not to minister to The Nuclear Family.
There are problems with the Nuclear Family, with conservatives turning it into a deity that they worship and place an unhealthy fixation upon (among other issues), but I also do not support communism, marxism, or eliminating the Nuclear Family.
I do not support abortion – that topic is raised below. The woman discussed below who is arguing against the Nuclear Family supports abortion; I do not.
(Link): Author Sophie Lewis’ forthcoming book is titled ‘Abolish the Family’
In a forthcoming book titled “Abolish the Family,” the author “makes the case for family abolition,” according to a book description that calls author Sophie Lewis a “leading feminist critic.”
I have additional commentary and resources below this link and report:
(Link): Liberal author says the family unit is ‘a terrible way to satisfy… love & care,’ calls to abolish it
Excerpts:
Sophie Lewis previously called for women to embrace abortion as justified killing
Sept 25, 2022
By Lindsay Kornick | Fox News
Feminist theorist and author Sophie Lewis was the subject of an article on Friday in the UK’s The New Statesman website publication following her new book “Abolish the Family.”
Historian Erin Magalaque discussed Lewis’ book which described the family unit as “a terrible way to satisfy all of our desires for love, care, nourishment” and was highly critical of suggestions otherwise.
“The family isn’t actually any good at creating intimacy, Lewis argues; the family creates, in fact, a dearth of care, with shreds and scraps of intimacy fought out between overworked parents and totally dependent kids, hidden behind the locked doors of private property,” Magalaque wrote.
Magalaque complimented Lewis’ efforts to mock what she called “inevitable knee-jerk” reactions to calls to abolish the family unit.
“Lewis is clear-eyed and witty about the inevitable knee-jerk reaction to calls for family abolition. (‘So! The left is trying to take grandma away, now, and confiscate the kids, and this is supposed to be progressive? What the f**k?’) And it’s true that family abolition, like other abolitionist movements, presents certain discomforts. Maybe you love your family! Or maybe you just like cooking in your own kitchen. Lewis acknowledges these discomforts, and asks us to imagine beyond them,” Magalaque wrote.
Magalaque noted the feminists like Lewis also frame the family unit through a communistic lens, referring to families as the “narrowly bourgeois love of biological parenthood” and communal relationships as a red love, a social love.
“The family, Lewis and other abolitionists and feminists argue, privatises care. The legal and economic structure of the nuclear household warps love and intimacy into abuse, ownership, scarcity. Children are private property, legally owned and fully economically dependent on their parents. The hard work of care – looking after children, cooking and cleaning – is hidden away and devalued, performed for free by women or for scandalously low pay by domestic workers,” she said.
Although the article had some criticisms against Lewis’ arguments, Magalaque suggested that the “revolutionary” ideas she posed could be necessary following the economic issues today.
“Burned out from pandemic parenting, facing immense childcare shortages and costs, women are leaving the workforce in record numbers, and in the U.S., forced birth and baby formula shortages are making crisis-parenting the rule, not the exception. The call for a revolutionary way of reconfiguring how we care for each other is more essential than ever, and Lewis’s manifesto is an irrepressible spark to our very tired imaginations,” Magalaque described.
The New Statesman promoted this article on its Twitter account on Saturday, leading to backlash from social media users.
Conservative columnist Chad Felix Greene tweeted, “They tell you exactly what they believe.”
…Lewis previously published an article on The Nation following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade that women should embrace the fact that abortion is the justified killing of an unborn life.
— end excerpts —
To re-state my position, I am not “anti-family,” so I do not support progressive views and arguments that seek to totally abolish the family unit, or liberals or progressives that try to argue women out of marrying and having children.
ON THE OTHER HAND, I also do NOT support secular or religious conservatives who go the opposite route, who have the tendency to turn The Family Unit into an idol, who shame single, childless adults for being single and childless and try to shame, pressure, guilt, or fear monger adults into marrying and/or having children if they don’t truly want to do one or the other.
Allow adults to make up their own minds on these issues! It’s not the place of either political side or any think tank or religion to pressure or shame an adult into major life choices like marriage vs. singleness, etc.
Both the left and the right are in error on these subjects.
I have more material on my blog by others pointing out the problems with The Nuclear Family or with how Christians “worship” the Nuclear Family under “Related” below.
Related:
(Link): Do Married Couples Slight Their Family Members as Well as Their Friends? / “Greedy Marriages”
(Link): The Nuclear Family Was A Mistake – by David Brooks – and Related Links
(Link): Billboards by Leftists Imploring that Everyone Should Stop Having Kids Start Popping Up
(Link): A Woman’s Fertility is Her Own Business, not Everyone Else’s by L. Bates
(Link): Jesus Christ Removed the Stigma, Shame From Being Single and Childless – by David Instone Brewer
(Link): If the Family Is Central, Christ Is Not
(Link): I Married Young. I Was Widowed Young. I Never Want A Long-Term Partner Again by R. Woolf
(Link): Fewer Americans Think Marriage is Needed To Create Strong Families, New Poll Suggest
(Link): Christmas Morning House Fire Leaves Father and Two Children Dead, Wife and Oldest Child Injured
(Link): Sex Education Book Instructs Parents To Let Their Young Children Watch Them Have Sex
(Link): ‘It’s a break from the kids’: Why parents cheat more than childless couples
(Link): Church Is a Family, Not an Event by K. Kandiah
(Link): Do You Rate Your Family Too High? (Christians Who Idolize the Family) (article)
(Link): Lies The Church Tells Single Women (by Sue Bohlin)
(Link): The Changing American Family (article)
(Link): Conservative Christianity Stuck in 1950s Leave it To Beaver-ville
(Link): Statistics Show Single Adults Now Outnumber Married Adults in the United States
(Link): Are Single Women – and specifically Never Married Women – More Likely To Be Victims of Abuse? Rebuttals to this view (advanced by W B Wilcox)
(Link): Family as “The” Backbone of Society? – It’s Not In The Bible
(Link): Please Stop Shaming Me for Being Single by J. Vadnal
(Link): Study: Couples Without Children Have Happier Marriages / Study: Having Kids Ruins Your Life
(Link): How the Dating Scene Became Stacked Against Women
(Link): Myths About Never Married Adults Over Age 40
(Link): The Stupid Advice We Give To Single Women Over 40 (from the Current Conscience Blog)
(Link): Singles Advocate DePaulo Responds to Right Wing, Conservative Critics of Singlehood, Who Blame Singles For Breakdown of The Family (reminder: I myself am right wing)
(Link): What Christians Really Think About the Church’s Relationship Advice by Anna Broadway
(Link): Following the Usual Advice Won’t Get You Dates or Married – Even Celebrities Have A Hard Time
(Link): Depressing Testimony: “I Was A Stripper but Jesus Sent Me A Great Christian Husband”
(Link): Five Things Single Women Hate to Hear
(Link): List of Christian Singlehood Annoyances, Part 1
(Link): How One Man Has Broken Up 4,000 Relationships and Caused 17 Divorces In Just 10 Days
(Link): Single People Aren’t Problems to Be Fixed or Threats to Be Neutralized By Ella Hickey
(Link): Pat Robertson’s Incredibly Insensitive Advice to Gail the Unmarried Woman
(Link): Christian Double Standard – Pray Earnestly For Anything & Everything – Except Marriage?
(Link): James the Single 40-Something Guy Asks 700 Club’s Pat Robertson Why Churches Don’t Help Singles
(Link): America’s Lost Boys by S. D. James (Why Men Are Not Marrying)
(Link): Why A Quarter of Millennials Will Never Get Married (from TIME magazine)
(Link): Why Are So Many Professional Millennial Women Unable To Find Dateable Men?
(Link): Why Are Marriage Rates Down? Study Blames Lack Of ‘Economically-Attractive’ Men
(Link): Should Churches Aid (In) Matchmaking For Lonely Singles? by John Stonestreet
(Link): Single Adults – Why They Stay and Why They Stray From Church – Book Excerpts
(Link): Are Single People the Lepers of Today’s Church? by Gina Dalfonzo
(Link): The Obligatory, “Oh, but if you’re single you can still benefit from my marriage sermon!” line
(Link): Another Christian Pro-Nuclear Family Marriage Idolator Married Father Caught By Ashley Madison Hack
(Link): ‘I Almost Drove My Car Off A Bridge Because Of The Strain of Having a Family’
(Link): One Third of British Men Say They Sometimes Hide In Their Bathrooms To Escape Family, Survey Claims
(Link): When You’re Married and Lonely by J. Slattery
(Link): Woman Commits Suicide After Boyfriend Forced Her to Have 14 Abortions in 8 Years
(Link): Supreme Court Overturns Roe Vs. Wade, Returns Abortion to the States
Christian Pundit 