choice means choice, dammit. respect it.

I just read a critique, by Juliet Gorman of Etsy, of a new book that I have not read: Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity, by Emily Matchar.. Remember: I have not read the book. Nonetheless, I shall state my piece about what I've read, and support the rebuttal... 

Matchar also wrote an article for The Atlantic last year: "Think Twice Before Quitting Your Job to Sell Homemade Jam." Here is a part of her argument:

"Small business" has always been embraced by politicians, the phrase a lazy stand-in for "good, hard-working, salt-of-the-earth Americans." 

But now, in many progressive communities (Austin, Brooklyn, Portland, my hometown of Chapel Hill, NC ), small—very small—businesses have gained a new, distinctly groovy luster. In these parts, people speak of an "artisan economy" of "hyper-local" businesses selling "handmade" goods. In this new artisan economy, running a teeny-tiny business is not just fulfilling, it's morally good. Not only are you pursuing your creative goals and rejecting the rat race, you're also striking a blow against corporate behemoths and all they represent—greed, environmental destruction, the homogenization of culture.

I've heard this since the feminism of the late sixties and seventies; I've also **rejected** defining entrepreneurism as false or flawed ambition. 

No one gets to define "ambition" for me, or for any other person, male or female. No one gets to tell me what I should do, what should or should not be fulfilling. No one can tell me that making useful or decorative items is less, somehow, than being an accountant or (as I was), a librarian. If there's anything that feminism should have given all of us, it's respect for individual choice.

This, quoted by Gorman from Matchar's book, is particularly irksome:

"If women cut back on their ambitions en masse, institutional change will never happen and the glass ceiling will lower. We need to be [in the workplace] to demand the equal pay, mandatory maternity leave, more humane hours.”

Yes: Those are worthy goals. BUT- they will be accomplished by society as a whole, not only by those in the larger workplace. Wherever we work - or don't - inside or outside of the house - we can choose which goods to buy, which businesses to support, and which leaders to vote for. That's how change will occur: step by step, person by person.

As I said, I don't plan to read the book. Really, I've read enough...