What is the worst thing that plagues American women today? I’ll give you a hint: it isn’t the job market, a bad economy, or national security. Women don’t worry about weighty stuff like that.

No, the worst thing to plague American women in today’s society is Good Housekeeping and bad photo-shopping.

First problem: there’s still a magazine called Good Housekeeping.

Magazines and newspapers are dying left and right, the whole publishing industry is imploding, yet Good Housekeeping lives on? It survives not only to give women crucial tips on vacuuming, ironing, or what Febreeze actually is, but to produce a commemorative “125th Anniversary Collector’s Issue” graced with the creepiest cover photo of Michelle Obama I’ve ever seen.

… Michelle Obama is a stunning woman in every way– why did Good Housekeeping transform her into a waxy, Stepford wife, lips and teeth bossed and glossed, hands clasped primly just under the appropriately wifey headline: “Keeping her marriage close, raising her girls and overcoming her biggest fear.”

I’m so tired of the media’s abuse of first ladies, forever handicapped by that prissy label. When a woman finally becomes president, I can guarantee her “spouse” will never be referred to as the “first gentleman” without irony.

Here’s the offending cover:

First of all, I don’t really see the big deal about the photo of Michelle Obama (but then again, I also don’t think Michelle is a “stunning woman in every way). Yeah, it’s obviously been photo-shopped, but every other magazine on the planet does it too. I thought the reason she looked so unrecognizable was because she was smiling. Seriously, how often do you see Michelle Obama beaming so broadly? It completely transforms her face.

And what is so bad about Michelle Obama wanting to keep her marriage close and raise her daughters well? I know, I know — this goes against all that feminists hold dear. Women shouldn’t care about their husbands and they should just abort their children. Most American women think otherwise, but feminists don’t speak for American women, do they? Personally, Barack and Michelle’s relationship is the one thing that I do approve of in the White House. I don’t like any of his policies as president, but they seem to have a strong, solid, loving marriage. That is to be commended. They don’t come across like Bill and Hillary, who always seemed to be faking any affection towards each other. They’re a good example of a loving family. That kind of marriage — that kind of family — takes work to sustain. Michelle Obama talking openly about that is supposed to be some kind of negative to feminists, though. I’ve never understood why feminists are so against the idea of a nuclear family, but nothing makes them more angry than the idea of a couple of children being raised by their married mother and father who love each other

Well, maybe there’s one thing that makes them angrier: the thought of a woman cleaning and cooking for her family. And this, of course, was the other thing that made Margot Magowan so angry.

Feminists may hate the idea of housework being done, and dinner being cooked, but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t need to be done. The way feminists carry on about dishes and vacuuming sure makes me scared to see what the inside of their houses or apartments look like. I hate cleaning as much as the next gal, but it still has to be done. And as much as feminists try to act as if all they want is for women to have the choice to lead their lives however they want to, it isn’t true. Why would they get so angry at the thought of women cooking and cleaning if they wanted women to be able to make their own choices? Feminists want to subvert the American family, they want men to be inferior. I guess it never crosses Magowan’s mind that housework needs to be done whether feminists like it or not, and that maybe Good Housekeeping might possibly have some good tips to make it faster and easier.

She ends with an outburst of anger directed towards the title of First Lady. It’s a respectful title, but what does that matter? As Warner Todd Huston puts it,

Now this cold feminist doesn’t even want us to respectfully call the president’s wife a “first lady”! What do we go with then? How about “da first bi_ch”?

Nothing pleases feminists, not even respect towards women. But then again, as I’ve pointed out time and time again, this is just what happens when liberal feminist extremists realize they have nothing left to fight for. Any real issues that women have to fight around the world feminists are strangely silent on, like the sexism and oppression women fight in the Middle East. Here in the US, all they can focus on is abortion and attacking traditional gender roles because they know there’s nothing left to make them relevant.

It would be entertaining if it wasn’t so harmful.

Cross-posted at The Green Room and Liberty Pundits.