Warning: Lightening rod ahead.
The topic? Feminism.
If you haven’t read Elizabeth Gilbert’s love-and-travelogue, “Eat, Pray Love,” you might not know that she vows, after a nasty divorce (the impetus for her seek and ye shall find tale) never to get married again.
And you you know what they say about never saying never.
So, yes, right in her new book, “Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage,” you can pretty much figure out, that, of course, she does get married again. Therein lies the problem, says Charlotte Hays in Wall Street Journal editorial, suggesting that as a symbol of feminist independence, Gilbert is actually letting her devoted sisterhood down.
But is she? And, as Jezebel points out in a piece (basically defending Gilbert’s choice), isn’t this old paradigm of “you must hate men to be a feminist” just that–really old, and, also, not really applicable to the times?
At the end of the day, it’s about how her search for self resonated with so many people–both women and men– and that the destination, whether that’s the alter or the monastery, isn’t nearly as important as the journey.
WSJ piece here.
Jezebel’s take here.