RUSH: Joyce in Pittsburgh. Hey, Joyce, great to have you on the program. Hi.
CALLER: Hi. Good afternoon, Rush, and Megadittos from a self-employed, screwed-by-the-health-insurance-increase-on-myself, CPA, tax-time dittos.
RUSH: (laughing) You didn’t stutter once during that. That’s great.
CALLER: Well, hey, I love you, so why would I be nervous? Anyway, what I wanted to talk about today is Mr. Snerdley and I had a bit of a chat. I love him. Anyway, I am a college graduate from the seventies. I went to a really conservative Christian school but still came out pretty much programmed to be a feminist. No matter where you were religiously, you came out of the schools in the eighties and the seventies programmed completely — from high school and on — to be a feminist. You were a woman —
RUSH: Define that. Wait a minute. I mean, you went to conservative Christian college?
CALLER: I went to Grove City. Are you familiar with Grove City College?
RUSH: Yeah, very well. Very much so. So you say you came out of there a feminist. What’s a Grove City feminist?
CALLER: Well, my sister’s the same way. She went to a school in Ohio. We both came out being women working in men’s professions, which were predominantly men’s professions in the seventies. She’s a pharmacist; I’m a CPA. We came out of there feeling that you had to have it all. You had to work, have kids, be married. You know, it was the supermom at the time.
RUSH: Well, now wait. I don’t mean to nitpick.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: I was in Pittsburgh in the seventies. I will never forget it. I’m probably still screwed up from those years.
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: Because I came of age at 20/21 when all that crap was happening. It has forever tainted me just in the way I deal with women. But my question is, back then getting married was not something you did. You did not derive happiness from a man or a relationship.
CALLER: Nope, you didn’t. That’s why you had to work full time. I don’t have children.
RUSH: Well, there was no marriage involved. I mean, that wasn’t in the cards. That wasn’t part of having it all.
CALLER: No, it wasn’t part of it. But if you did choose to get married, then you were expected to have the kids, have the job, and have the career. The kids went off to day care at the age of six weeks.
RUSH: Okay. Okay.
CALLER: I mean, that’s what they did.
RUSH: Yeah. Okay.
CALLER: And if you didn’t do that I mean, I actually found myself looking down my nose at women who chose to quit their jobs and stay home because it just seemed, why would you do that if you spent all that time in college and, you know, what a waste. And, you know, as you evolve professionally and maturity and your brain ceases to be mush, you know, as you talk about college youngsters, which is so true, you start to understand and you do normally temper and, you know, become a conservative through it. But the shame of it is, is just how much that has screwed up so many families, so many women, so many men. And I think no wonder folks were happier in the fifties and sixties because the roles were clearly defined. You know, you really did. I mean, my family was basically Ozzie and Harriet.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: We had a great life and Dad worked, you know, Mom stayed home with us and raised us.
RUSH: Well, you say the roles in the fifties and sixties were clearly defined. Who defined them back then?
CALLER: I think everybody was happy with the definitions. I mean, women were happy, you know, to stay home and raise their families. Society itself, I think the culture was just much more organized. I think there was far less stress in families. Men were allowed to be the provider and they were allowed to be strong and the disciplinarians of the kids and, you know, mothers were the nurturers and that’s the way it’s always been.
RUSH: Well, back in the fifties Beyonce would have not had to say, “Bow down.” Women just did it.
CALLER: Well, if they were in a happy marriage…
RUSH: I’m just kidding. I couldn’t resist.
CALLER: I know you couldn’t. That’s pretty funny.
RUSH: But look, I watch Madmen and Madmen takes place through the sixties and they’re touching on, it’s fairly realistic, in the mid sixties how women are starting to get a little bit upset at the role you just described, and it’s right. Because in the late sixties is when you’re talking.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: You said seventies for you.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Late sixties is when this new era started to manifest itself.
CALLER: It did. And I think, you know, and that of course is coming out of Vietnam and all the cultural things that, you know, you and I can recall.
RUSH: Joyce, what do you say to people who think, “You know what, Joyce? You’re just old fashioned. You’re stuck in the past. We can never go back to it. It wasn’t what it was. You’re so fuddy duddy and you’re going to have to modernize or society is going to leave you behind.” What’s your reaction to that?
CALLER: Well, my reaction to that is, haven’t we just done a great job of redefining the family unit. What’s the ratio of children being born, you know, out of wedlock right now. What’s the ratio of folks that are, you know, not happy. What’s the divorce rate? Perhaps we need to take a step back and think about what has all this progressiveness really done to our culture, and I think we know the answer to that.
RUSH: Well, yeah. No doubt. But it’s all based in love. Everybody loves each other and so whatever happens is fine.
CALLER: I guess I’m a little too cynical for that but, you know, you see that happening. You know, and every time you talk about the
RUSH: I love my sofa, and I sit on it every night. And it loves me back.
CALLER: What, your cellphone?
RUSH: Sofa, my sofa.
CALLER: Oh, your sofa.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: Yes, I love mine too, although I haven’t seen it in a few months because of tax season, but
RUSH: If I could marry my sofa, I might think about it.
CALLER: Well
RUSH: And maybe in a few years it could be possible. You never know.