Daddy’s Little Estate
Slate’s Bonnie Goldstein has an essay about the middle-aged career woman who’s financed her own life but still wishes that she could inherit a little somethin’ somethin’ from her fathers when he dies. I found the piece pretty alien for a few reasons:
- By wishing they would fork over the cash at their death bed, you essentially wish your poor, loving parents to a premature death. Not cool!
- Hasn’t the lack of sizable inheritance always been the fate of lower-to-middle-class individuals, female or otherwise? Is anyone really still holding out Dickensian-style for that olde tyme benefactor who will lift them above their lowly station*?
- While I generally like Slate’s female-specific stuff, I find the framing of this piece creepy. Goldstein may be speaking from experience when she hopes for her “daddy” to leave her the money he earned when he expires, but why the extension of the two gender roles, male bequeathing to female? This a) gives me the heebie jeebies, and b) totally cuts off a potential revenue stream: Mom.
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Photo by Jessica Shannon
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