Is it not detrimental, as Laqueur interprets it, to regard the "factual" connection of a mother as stronger and more concrete than the "ideational" connection of a father? Would arguments such as Chesler's not legitimize paternal negligence and even absence?
This reading got me thinking about the new policies that are being passed that require males to have paternal leave shortly after their child is born just as a mother gets maternal leave. Does this not seem like an unfair relative loss of something only for women? The emotional upheaval that happens post-pregnancy for women and the physical recuperation often are given in the sense of maternal leave, but what do fathers need it for? I understand the argument of bonding (just as Laquer says he does with his daughter because he was the domestic Stay at Home Dad of his family) but doesn't it seem somewhat of an extension of the emergence of paternalism that is excessive to be demanded as a "right"?
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