We all know kids say the darndest things, but sometimes adults do, too. Somehow, though, it’s not as cute when it’s casually sexist and plays into cultural assumptions based on gender roles. If we’ve learned one thing as parents, it’s how to have a sense of humor about life’s lemons, and the genius behind @momlife_comics has been squeezing out a lot of lemonade for our pleasure on her Instagram account lately.
Mary Catherine Starr—who is known for putting familiar scenes of motherhood into cartoons that make you feel seen—has added illustrations to actual quotes from @thatdarnchat’s #casualsexism series. The familiar expressions that we’ve all heard—at work, from peers, and definitely from our own moms—are turned on their head: Instead of women saying them, Starr assigns the lines to men. Point. Taken.
In a post from January, Starr wrote, “This is not a dig at dads, it’s a dig at our society—a society that applauds dads for handling the most basic of parenting duties + expects nothing short of perfection from mothers (or even worse, shames them for every decision and/or move they make!).”
In addition to the solid gold that is her Instagram stack, Starr put out a call in her post for others to chime in with examples from their own lives. From the looks of the responses, Starr will have plenty of material to create a Part 2, and a Part 3, 4, 5, 6… of flipping the script on gender norms associated with families, parenting and motherhood. We can’t wait.
Among our favorite replies are: “Could you imagine if my husband’s friends said, “She does the LAUNDRY?! Like, ALL THE LAUNDRY?? Wow. You are so lucky.” Several responses focused on careers, like “You should feel lucky that your wife has a great paying job that allows you to work part time so you can deal with house stuff and kids.” And then there is the truly heartfelt appreciation for just. being. seen. “This is so incredibly true! Thank you! ❤️🙌 “
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