Need to finish my post …

As for me personally, I keep waffling on whether to write about this in greater detail… but part of the reason why I don’t work freelance, or have a more “non-traditional” job that doesn’t necessarily guarantee a reliable paycheck every two weeks (but the type of job I see a lot of people romanticizing), is because stability is VERY important to me. I know what it’s like to live with uncertainty, not knowing when the next paycheck will come in or what you might do if it doesn’t.

I grew up w/ parents who didn’t have jobs that reliably produced a steady paycheck for a standard amount every week, two weeks, month, whatever. They worked hard, but it was not smooth sailing. We didn’t have health insurance. There was nothing romantic about it.

I know, some assumptions are better than others, right? And many of them tend to be around women and guilt.

We naturally default to guilt on a number of things, and many of them have to do with not playing our traditionally-mandated role as women. Lefty women have the additional burden of not only the guilt about working (not traditional for women) but the guilt about money (not hip for lefties to care about, unless they have penises and can pretend to care only because of family support obligations).

So it’s kind of WRONG to jump in and say anything when you hear about older well-off women, because hey, those greedy bitches deserve all they get!

But as you say, nobody knows what the OWW started off as. I wasn’t anyone’s idea of poor, but I lived month to month until 30, and since I wasn’t always successful at that, my credit cards at that time were up embarrassingly high, not to mention my school debt. And it sounds like you weren’t the poster child for privilege. WIth that kind of background, fighting for security is not something you want to have treated like a silver spoon, or something you’re using just for exotic vacations. And you’re right, it does seem tenuous.

But even apart from my own reaction, because let’s face it, once you do have the “privilege” (earned or otherwise) you do have the ability to not care. The part that gets me is that lefty women, like people in general, tend to go in for a certain amount of groupthink. If the prevailing, accepted wisdom is that OWW are corrupt “thems” then there is disincentive to emulate them — even those of them who are actually making real change happen. And that to me is depressing.

Especially because it’s not happening to men. No matter how liberal, it’s cool to have that penis/success combo, and little boys don’t get the countermessages.

Just one more obstacle in an already crowded course.

And now I’ve ranted on your blog! I’m sorry. Thanks for the good discussion.

Plus I just hate to keep people waiting around. And anyway, it’s Jill - not some random Editor, so I just emailed her and told the truth: that this time around, it’s not happening, but maybe later.

I prefer to write something for my blog first, where I feel safe, and then if I think it’s good enough, submit it to whoever. But I know it’s in me and I know it’ll come. It just can’t be forced.

For what it’s worth.