The progressive disdain for traditional “gender norms” has yet again been rearing its ugly head as of late. While the world celebrates men leaving their wives to be with other men, like British TV host Philip Schofield, a woman who sacrifices modernity’s idea of what her life goals should be to care for their family is mocked and ridiculed on social media.
The latest victim of this scorning is the wife of Hollywood sound editor Donald Sylvester, Penny Shaw Sylvester. While accepting an Oscar for Best Sound editing last week at the Academy Awards for his work on the film “Ford v Ferrari,” Sylvester thanked Penny for sacrificing her own editing career to raise their children, saying, “I want to thank my wonderful wife of 34 years who gave up her editing career for me to pursue my career…”
Naturally, there was no applause from the audience despite what a touching moment this was. Any loving spouse can appreciate Penny’s love and support for her husband and children, and you’d think most women completely understand why Penny’s priorities were for her family.
Meanwhile, had Sylvester declared on that stage that he had just left his wife of 34 years because of his attraction to other men, the crowd would have erupted in supportive and celebratory applause, as we saw with Schofield.
As The Daily Wire reports, haters on social media dug into this poor woman:
Sylvester’s thank-you to his wife elicited a barrage of criticism on social media in addition to the silence from the audience, including these: “Brava women heroes, sacrificing careers so white men can do what they want & not raise the kids,” “If Donald Sylvester’s wife hadn’t given up her editing career for him, would she be on the Oscar stage tonight?” and “In the future we want lots of women onstage thanking their husbands for doing the same thing.”
The latter comment unwittingly exposes the obvious double-standard. While both members of a marriage are usually expected to make sacrifices for the sake of their family, whether that be spouse or children or both, we can apparently only celebrate it if it is a woman who leaves her husband at home to tend to the children while she single-handedly destroys the patriarchy.
This goes against the priorities that many strong, educated, and self-respecting mothers freely choose to do when they and their husbands make the very normal and adult decision that mom will stay at home and dad will earn the bread.
In the video of Sylvester accepting the Oscar, Penny can be seen smiling and lovingly looking on as her husband is honored. She certainly doesn’t look like the oppressed, victimized wife the progressive left wants her to be, but rather a proud and supportive wife who most likely greatly enjoyed raising her own children as billions upon billions of women throughout history have.
So she’s hitting back at the critics, telling Desert News the criticism of her husband is “ridiculous.”
“For anybody to criticize makes me extremely angry, because they know nothing about my life or my family and the choices we’ve had to make,” she said.
According to the outlet, “The couple, who live near Los Angeles, have two children, now ages 30 and 25, and Penny Shaw Sylvester decided to quit working full time when it became clear that one of the children had special needs and would require extra care.”
How idiotic do those critics sound now? This woman put the needs of her children above her own desire to be validated by a career and was blessed to have a husband with whom she could make this rational and compassionate decision.
Penny Sylvester continued, “I was paying someone to take care of my special-needs child and I realized they couldn’t do it as well as I could. Nobody knows a child as well as the parents do.” The Deseret News notes that she not only raised the children but also worked with special education in her local school district and ran a summer-school program.
How dare she give up her editing career for the benefit of her own children and others, right! She sounds like a lovely and sensible woman who very much made the right choice with her husband.
Of course, we shouldn’t expect any compassion for these special needs children or the value of motherhood from the same people who believe that it’s perfectly fine to murder babies in the womb to make room for a woman’s career.
Penny Sylvester concluded with an important distinction for her critics, “To say that I don’t work is absolutely ludicrous, but what I did do is leave the entertainment industry.” She added that she has “a very rich, fulfilled life. I love what I do, I love working with the schools, and I love helping children and helping our community, which I think is so much more productive than just cutting a film. I live in the real world. And I help real people.”
She praised her husband, saying, “My husband has been amazing. He’s been an incredible father, and so supportive of everything we’ve done. For some people, working is the correct choice; other people, life takes a turn, and you sometimes have to go with that turn.”
The left is so frenzied about tearing down “gender norms” that they have become blind to the fact that they are constructing their own. Isn’t telling women what they are “supposed” to do the entire basis for the whole “destroy the patriarchy” narrative? Liberal women just want to have their cake and eat it, too.
We applaud women like Penny Sylvester who made the choices necessary to give her children and her husband the best lives possible. She didn’t suffer or lose out on anything by taking a different turn, as she put it.
To all the strong, dedicated, loving wives and moms out there: keep setting positive examples for your families and being the true backbones of America. This country wouldn’t be anywhere near as successful as it has been without the selfless sacrifices of women.
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