The Empire Of The Alpha Mom

And here I thought I wouldn’t read an article that would irritate me more than Neil Pollack's recent piece for Salon – "When Toddlers Get Fired". Of course, I took offense with Pollack’s actions, not Salon’s…

Continuing in the fine tradition of the media presenting unrealistic portraits of mothers, the New York magazine’s story “Empire Of The Alpha Mom” on Isabel Kallman’s new venture, Alpha Mom TV, allows her to paint herself as a supremely driven, frightening, wealthy, type-A Mom who sees baby as a business opportunity: “She had begun talking to Craig (her husband by this time; she liked his drive, too) about finding a new product, when the discussion somehow got knotted up with having a baby. It was soon decided that Isabel would take some time off, consider her career options, do the baby while she was at it.”

Product, eh? Clearly the article means to poke fun at Isabel, though the author never has to be obviously snarky because Kallman says such ridiculous, horrible things on her own. Turning the experience of having a kid into something marketable and/or useful is not a bad thing. But there is something disturbing about Isabel’s drive to encourage other women to be more perfect mothers and mistrust their instincts because there are better answers “out there” than what you have inside. Every discussion about her baby eerily lacks any kind of emotion.

But what’s offensive about the article is not the person it covers. It’s that a magazine would focus negative energy on Kallman, who I do not think is in any way typical of a workforce Mom. The Post continues to feed us tired images of women in the workforce who, as “business women”, are shitty Moms. Women who are "ball breakers" don’t care about their kids! They are rich bitches! They hire nannies! It’s easy to dislike Kallman – too easy. Women’s anger should be focused at Randall Patterson for presenting readers with an image that speaks very negatively of women who combine business & family.

Some thoughts via The Rage Diaries: http://schmeiser.typepad.com/the_rage_diaries/2005/06/i_have_no_idea_.html