February 25, 2012

Dimwits and numbskulls

“The universal, yet unique experience of motherhood creates an immediate bond with other women, Cusk explains, and, paradoxically, an unchallenged platform from which to pass judgment, a contradiction she experienced at both a local and a professional level. ‘I didn’t know that that kind of cruelty and criticism you encounter among mothers at the toddler group could find its way into written media until my book came out,’ she says, with force. ‘Then suddenly, I have women like Gill Hornby and India Knight writing articles about me, in effect saying, “Well, I love my children and they’re the best thing that happened to me, I don’t know what’s wrong with you”. I’m not remotely afraid of what that kind of person thinks of me. I have no respect for them and I wouldn’t have given them a second thought had not motherhood grouped us all together in the Venn diagram, which is very big and full of all kind of dimwits and numbskulls.'”–from “Mum’s The Word”, Rachel Cusk Interviewed in 2003