This week’s reading and the short Youtube video were very interesting as all of the reading provided a lot of information about “Feminine”. In “ The Feminine Mystique” Friedan, begins her study of the lives of presumably white, middle-class women in suburban postwar America through her exploration of the problem that has no name. “The Feminine Mystique” explains that in post-World War II United States life, women were encouraged to be wives, mothers, and housewives and only wives, mothers, and housewives. This, Friedan says, was a failed social experiment. Relegating women to the “perfect” housewife or happy homemaker prevented much success and happiness, among the women and, consequently, their families. Friedan writes that housewives were asking themselves, “Is that all?” the widespread unhappiness of women in the 1950s and early 1960s. It discusses the lives of several housewives from around the United States who were unhappy despite living in material comfort and being married with children. It feels extremely sad to know how all of those women were feeling during those difficult times. The phrase “feminine mystique” was created by Friedan to describe the assumptions that women would be fulfilled from their housework, marriage, sexual lives, and children. It was said that women, who were actually feminine, should not have wanted to work, get an education, or have political opinions. Friedan wanted to prove that women were unsatisfied and could not voice their feelings.
In the article “ The Politics of housework” by Pat Mainardi, Marinardi brings up the issue that most men see housework as a woman’s job, in order to help liberate women housework must be seen as a group effort not simply as ‘women’s work’. She uses her own husband as an example and she transcripts the true meaning behind his statements against cleaning. In her postscript, she implements ways women can liberate themselves by changing the way chores are seen and done in the household. To me, It makes no rational sense that women should do more work than men at home, and take responsibility for the house. This system does latently perpetuate inequalities. I believe that women should have the right to their own choices.
In the last reading “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm” Anne Koedt, The article how there’s a misunderstanding of women’s sexuality and their desire. The goal of this response is to address both the myth of the vaginal orgasm create awareness and education for women and men about female sexual pleasure and counter previous thoughts about female orgasm. Koedt reflects in her writing, It was Freud’s feelings about women’s secondary and inferior relationship to men that formed the basis for his theories on female sexuality. Once having laid down the law about the nature of our sexuality, Freud not so strangely discovered a tremendous problem of frigidity in women. His recommended cure for a woman who was frigid was psychiatric care. She was suffering from failure to mentally adjust to her ‘natural’ role as a woman
My classmate Sadira Mohammed posted a snapshot that was really powerful to me because it says “I don’t need rights-I to have a Kitchen”. This is exactly how women’s felt in the 1950s and early 1960s as I have learned from “The Feminine Mystique”. My classmate Isabella’s snapshot was pretty much the same. Women were the only ones who would work in the house and take care of everything where men wouldn’t help at all in the house.
