Hmmph: the fact that you are trying to make this personal, when I’ve made clear that my concerns aren’t about me, suggests that it’s not worth engaging as you seem uninterested in actually doing that. You’ve created a strawwoman and are having a good time setting her on fire, and I’m all about women having fun so go for it.

Octogalore is making a broad generalization: Third Wave Feminism hates money and thus hurts women by leading them ignore their own need for financial security.

Which is a bunch of right wing poppycock.

You naming it as “right wing poppycock” says more about your own partisan perspectives than the validity or lack thereof of the OP.

My only disagreement with the OP here is that this is not only a problem with TWF, but is a widespread problem among many in the progressive left.

Her experiences are believable to me as I’ve observed the exact same types of behavior with radical-left progressive classmates….most of whom were unabashed Marxists and Maoists at my radical progressive-left leaning undergrad campus.

It was one reason many classmates who were planning on becoming a “capitalist tool” by majoring in economics or some other “mercenary” field and/or planning on a lucrative career in law, medicine, or business did their best to avoid bringing it up with anyone except extremely close friends.

I was fortunate to have had family members whose recounted experience in living under a Maoist regime during its excesses as it has facilitated my being inoculated against some of the browbeating and intimidation BS they attempted to pull on me and a minute handful of other classmates who had the temerity to openly disagree with them in and out of class. As such, I saw it for what it was…silencing tactics and thus used real-life stories from family and historical examples all backed up by the historical records to deflect those tactics and then to rip apart their weak assertions/arguments.

What’s more interesting was that after graduation and some years spent traveling, working for various causes, and more….nearly all of them ended up in the very corporate careers they used to criticize others for desiring.

In other words rational progressives, like any reasonable person, have complex reactions to the entire person, not just their job title.

Octogalore is making a broad generalization: Third Wave Feminism hates money and thus hurts women by leading them ignore their own need for financial security.

Which is a bunch of right wing poppycock.

Third Wave Feminism being all about saying women are equal in many lucrative skills. Third Wave Feminism is all about changing the law, which requires money and lawyers, etc. Third Wave Feminism is all about ensuring women have MORE financial protections in divorce and health care. Third wave feminism is about changing society so a teacher gets paid as much as a corporate human resources specialist.

Octo seems to think disagreeing with the current state of capitalism is the same as hating money.

Just like any large group of people, there are judgmental jerks in Third Wave Feminism. That doesn’t justify saying TWF hurts women by being anti-money. No more than guys who use their own divorce to damn the entire women’s movement.

Octo’s anecdote doesn’t even prove lefties hate money, because she hid in the bathroom and just assumed the others would be hostile. She’s doing the very thing she doesn’t like: acting on her own presumptions rather than giving people a chance.

I would suggest that if she’s having problems with progressive hostility, it’s not about her job. It’s probably because she uses such condescending and dubious generalizations about “the left” in her conversation. Now that I’ve read some of her other posts I can say it’s not about the money, it’s about you.

A key factor for most rational social justice types isn’t just money, but how you make money,…

You’ve just underscored part of the OP’s point…..and one of the reasons I’ve viewed the shaming of those who pursued more lucrative and “less noble” careers as problematic. Especially when it is done by those who are racially and socially privileged with wealthy parents and/or trust funds towards those who were not as privileged as it frequently occurred at my undergrad campus.
Remember….not everyone has the socio-economic privilege and the luxury to pick and choose their job/profession.

Educational debts, attempting to establish oneself financially from scratch, and other onerous financial obligations are such that financial necessity forces those who are not as socio-economically privileged to choose to work for morally dubious institutions…or facing a lifetime of financial penury.

This factor….along with the rank disrespect of the profession in American society is one reason every high school classmate including myself has refused to consider teaching public or private K-12 as a career.

Speaking of which, the quote:

Some even find a teachers salary is more than enough for feminist economic security.

varies greatly depending on geographic region.

Maybe in some wealthier suburban districts with high property taxes to fund the local public schools at a decent level…..but not if one is living in an expensive urban area such as LA, Boston, or NYC. I have known several working/middle-class idealistic college classmates who taught in Boston/NYC who ended up leaving the teaching profession after three or less years due to the extreme low salaries relative to living expenses, the widespread disrespect and even dangers of physical violence from students, and the lack of support/political machinations from higher-level educational bureaucrats meant that they ended up being both financially and psychologically burned out.

Your comment that a teacher’s salary, especially at the beginning can provide financial security of any kind would most likely be met by bitter laughter by those classmates based on their own teaching experiences…

As I told another commenter, giving examples would require getting specific about many people I like and admire. I think many or even most commenters understand the phenomenon I’m discussing without that.

In your need for me to have a “need to apologize,” you seem to ignore the fact that I have not, in fact, apologized. Nor have I expressed any discomfort with my job, politics, or money. I’ll direct you to the last three paragraphs, which I think effectively sum up why this essay isn’t about my attempting to get third wave approval. In fact, I’m surprised I got as much positive response as I did.

And for the record, I don’t work at Haliburton.