Not to beat a dead horse, but why would "The Talk" try to make it seem as if anyone who lets her kid even walk to the bus stop should expect the child to be killed and it's all her fault? As you may recall, the panelists were appalled at Utah's Free-Range Parenting bill that says it is NOT negligence to let kids walk and play outside unsupervised. And they immediately brought up the story (and photo) of a child murdered almost 40 years ago as evidence of what happens when a parent doesn't helicopter.

Reader Joe Greene, who describes himself as a "semiretired engineer and part-time crank," thinks the reason is as obvious as the old Lifetime movies. The message is that women doing anything other than dedicating every single second to mothering are bad, and will be punished. Or, as he puts it:

For me this is an easy political question.... These social propaganda campaigns [against Let Grow / Free-Range Kids] actually are an affront to women's rights. This is a feminist issue! The "collateral damage" from programming like that show is to put women in danger of shaming, arrest, and even incarceration for exercising their human right to responsibly parent their children. It's hardly revolutionary that the propaganda machine consists of "woman-targeted" television programming such as "The Talk." I think the proper approach is to attack those talk show hosts for promoting discrimination against and persecution of women -- even jailing them for their parenting choices. Although men are often enough victims of this, women -- it can be argued -- are far more often victims. Same with "Lifetime, Television for Women." For years, most of the programs on that network had basically the same, morality play script. It goes like this: (1) Woman meets Prince Charming; (2) Storybook romance follows; (3) They marry; (4) Woman starts having nagging thoughts; (5) Woman discovers Prince actually is a serial murderer. The moral always was the same: If you're lucky, just wait -- you'll be screwed in the end for being so stupid. "Television for Women" is so often about DIS-empowering women. "The Talk" is no exception.

Indeed. It is no longer politically correct to say, "Women shouldn't work," or have full lives. So instead, the message is delivered as a SAFETY concern. "If you're doing anything for yourself, your marriage, or your career instead of parenting 24/7 you will be sorry."

And the ladies at The Talk will be ready to pounce. - L

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