Fair enough, and point taken (wouldn't sexist be the appropriate refrain?) but true in my case. Grew up in poverty with a single mother most of my life as did my wife and most of my aquantensces. My mom was completely bipolar and incarcerated from when I was 14 to 32. Same is true or partly true for most everyone I know, family and friends (so much for social mobility, although I guess we may have one set of upper middleclass friends). So, I guess you could say we were raised by our matriarchs. Even the couples with kids I know, most of their fathers work 12 hour swing shifts rotating from days to nights and are absent even if they hold the marriage together. They have no other way to support their family and none of the people I'm referring to have a college degrees (including myself). They would absolutely take a better option if it was accessible. Of course some of our matriarchs who raised us live this life too. My wife's mother, an immigrant who worked 20 plus years in a meatpacking plant who recently retired after catching covid in 2020 and too afraid to file for SS despite being married to a US national and
having US citizens as children (sweetest woman in the world). Her father also like my father and most of the working poor was absent. Her's, a trucker with alcoholism whom her mom left early in her life. Not to go off, but I don't see the lie or the lie holds truth in my lived experience.
The comment about poor families being matriarchal plays into the absent father stereotype.
Fair enough, and point taken (wouldn't sexist be the appropriate refrain?) but true in my case. Grew up in poverty with a single mother most of my life as did my wife and most of my aquantensces. My mom was completely bipolar and incarcerated from when I was 14 to 32. Same is true or partly true for most everyone I know, family and friends (so much for social mobility, although I guess we may have one set of upper middleclass friends). So, I guess you could say we were raised by our matriarchs. Even the couples with kids I know, most of their fathers work 12 hour swing shifts rotating from days to nights and are absent even if they hold the marriage together. They have no other way to support their family and none of the people I'm referring to have a college degrees (including myself). They would absolutely take a better option if it was accessible. Of course some of our matriarchs who raised us live this life too. My wife's mother, an immigrant who worked 20 plus years in a meatpacking plant who recently retired after catching covid in 2020 and too afraid to file for SS despite being married to a US national and having US citizens as children (sweetest woman in the world). Her father also like my father and most of the working poor was absent. Her's, a trucker with alcoholism whom her mom left early in her life. Not to go off, but I don't see the lie or the lie holds truth in my lived experience.
This is clearly a description of class structure and what the different classes find valuable.
Honestly the lower class comes off sounding like kindly people I'd want to hang out with, while the wealthy are exclusionary pricks. Which they are.