In Pat Mainardi’s, “The Politics of Housework”, Mainardi presents a plethora of assumed responses or excuses that a man or partner with a “stronger personality” would present to express why they are dominant and must not be the one to take on tedious housework tasks along with their hidden and honest meanings. Anne Koedt’s, “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm”, presents the Freudian ideas that a woman must reach their orgasm through the vagina and penetration only and if one does not, there is a psychological issue that must be addressed as soon as possible. The excerpt from Betty Friedan’s, “The Feminine Mystique”, addresses the concept of what a man would expect the perfect woman to be like, to define her purpose and limitations in life. I noticed something that these texts shared in common and that is the fact that many things that a woman does and is affected by has been established by men and yet these men are not familiar with the female body or psyche and fail to ask women what their needs and wants are, thus keeping women categorized and treated as second class citizens, dismissing everything that women have to say for themselves in their defense or comfort simply because a man has established these behaviors as society’s norms. I believe MeiQi Chen’s snapshot depicts the expectation of a woman, the feminime mystique very well. The color pink being dominant expresses just how feminine society expects women to be and how she should not have any interests in the interests of male activities. Her many arms depict the many mundane tasks she must take on and only worry about these activities, although it can but assumed that the cigarette is something she took up as her only leisure to decompress. Although she seems grounded in her position and peaceful, she does not seem as if she willingly wants to be there but rather was placed there as it seems that she may be frowning.

I believe there still is a major failure to truly ask and listen to women’s needs as these texts also express the idea that men share when women speak up on their liberation which is to “beware of the double whammy. He won’t do the little things he always did because you’re now a “Liberated Woman,” right? Of course he won’t do anything else either.” (Mainardi, 6). Women have been expected to contribute to a man’s success by taking care of basic housework, which is work that anyone can and should do for themselves but this would take time to unlearn the behavior of catering specifically for men and learning to put one’s priorities first, especially in today’s time. Despite there being a time when women may have felt comfortable in achieving the feminine mystique for the sake of the male gaze and men’s success, women have decided to achieve bigger dreams with or without the support of men. There is also nothing wrong with finding happiness in being a housewife as long as one does not contribute to self sabotage and falls back on the ideas put in place by men to oppress women.