In the reading “ The politics of housework” by pat Minardi, a liberated woman is described as having a lot of sex without being married and pleasing men. Many times, women like this respect themselves and know they’re worth it. They understand that it is just a pleasure until they choose to settle. Sex isn’t the only thing they do. Liberated women usually also have careers/ jobs outside of their sex life. Mainardi stated, “ has sex a-lot and has a career, preferably something that can be fitted in with the household chores- like dancing, pottery, or painting. This is also why liberated women are important to women’s liberation and helpful. Especially once they realize the oppression they face while being a housewife.

Liberated women may be necessary for women’s liberation because it helps them understand that being a housewife isn’t the only thing. From the very beginning, men grow up taught that housework is a women’s job, no one else’s. Both husband and wife could have jobs, but when it comes to the house, the wife is expected to come home to shop for groceries, cook, and clean before she can rest. As liberal women, they understand the oppression of being a housewife, which is why they take a different path. For women’s liberation, the liberated women can be seen as a beacon for change, away from the imbalance in a household; this is why the liberated women are important to the women’s liberation. 

In the piece “ the politics of the housework,” Mainardi gives us an example of a pyramid, stating that men have always been placed at the top and the bottom by women. For man, oppression is built into the system for him to receive the benefits. Since man has always been dependent on help from others, once personal becomes political, men become fearful. “He is losing some leisure, and you (women) are gaining it,” Mainardi says. “ The measure of your oppression is his resistance” it is traumatizing when you begin to lose something you are accustomed to. These are the ways Mainardi shows that the person can be or is political. The Oppression and imbalance in the relationship of men and women and the effects they would have if changed.

I really liked the readings this week I learned new things. As for the concept of a liberated woman, for me she is a very empowered woman, who knows what she wants, likes her freedom without limits, who has her own reasons and knows that she is more than any stereotype created in society because she knows and knows her body does not let anything limit it. However in “The Politics of Housework” she argues “The liberated woman has a lot of sex and has a career, preferably something that can fit in with housework, like dancing, pottery or painting”. This shows that they have a very different idea because It is mentioned that a liberated woman is one who has a career, a very active sexual life, putting women in the sense that this would be bad, they all have the right, just as men do all that women can because both genders have to have the same value.
A liberated woman brings many good things to society, for example, a liberated woman transmits that security to other women, further empowering feminism.

On the other hand, in the article “The Politics of Housework” it is argued “the reason why many parents would prefer to be the ‘fixer’ of the house than to wash the dishes”. In this quote it is observed how it does not only happen in a family but in millions, since the child begins to grow up he is told that “When your wife cooks for you” it is never mentioned “when you cook with your wife or help her to to cook”. It is always about the woman being the one who has to do all that when she is not like that and many men even seeing that the woman is taking care of the children she can see dirty dishes and still she does not do it.
About “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm” it is observed “the personal is political” shows how many men are unaware of the subject as a woman feels and when she reaches orgasm this is because the man mostly only focuses on himself

Discussion bored 9

A liberated woman refers to a feminist who pushes for more equality for women. In the 1960s, a wave of liberated women fought sexism in culture and politics and tried to change expectations of what women should be both inside and outside the home. We are an emerging division where excellence is a habit and allegiance to quality is a pledge. One suggestion was that a liberated woman was ‘one who worked her way through and out of the psychological, social, emotional and intellectual limitations stamped on her by false role definitions and indifferent education.’1The movement’s maxim of the ‘personal is political’ brought the social and emotional into view, while the emotional effects of oppression were summoned as evidence of the need for radical social change; their transformation was both a process during and a product. Although the origin of the phrase “the personal is political” is uncertain, it became popular following the publication in 1970 of an essay of the same name by American feminist Carol Hanisch, who argued that many personal experiences (particularly those of women) can be traced to one’s location within a system of power relationships.

Discussion 9

Pat Mainardi stated that there is a difference between liberated women and women’s liberation. A liberated woman is a woman who is okay with sex before marriage and she is absolutely well educated and oriented. These types of women have a very strong character and don’t settle for less than what they think they deserve. Therefore, they will always end up with husbands who understand their mentality and their cozy lifestyle. On the other hand, there is women’s liberation which is an example of many women who are just kept in the house for cleaning and cooking purposes. The conversation between married couples about housework could go very bad anytime. Men have always been feeling entitled since they were babies. They have had always someone who takes care of them which is their mother in addition to the media and shows they have been watching which always misrepresent the image of a woman. Men’s brains were super washed by those kinds of ideas and images been represented. As Pat Mainardi said in her article: “The list could go on but sheer necessities are bad enough. , which explains the struggle these women have to deal with in their home. Not only the list of housework is long and hard , but also engaging in a healthy conversation about it with your husband is something that is hard to accomplish. These types of personal problems during the marriage are always related to political issues in our society. If we want to make a change in our society, we need to start with educating our kids and applying democracy at home. As we have read in the past articles, society will be always looking for a problem in order o degrade women in our society. Frigidity is another example of that. Women were being taught that being frigid is a psychological problem and psychiatrists are the ones who can solve that, while in reality, having an orgasm has nothing to do with the vigina. Anne Koedt stated in his article: “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm” that achieving orgasm is related to the “Clitoris” which is the center of sexual sensitivity and the vigina. The biology back then in 1970 was not been well studied and analyzed which led to so many false statements that caused women to have depression and psychological problems. These last two weeks of reading were so important and full of knowledge. I really enjoyed reading all the articles and watching the videos. I hope everyone does feel the same.

From Mainardi’s text I read the liberated woman to be one who has awareness of and actively tries to battle against their oppression, specifically that from men. They are able to analyze and identify different aspects on a micro- and macro- level of society that are enabling the oppression of women (i.e. politically, health/medically, personally, interpersonally and societally.)
The Liberated Woman is essential to women’s liberation. I think that it has been and always will be important and absolutely necessary for the voices of the oppressed to be heard AND highlighted in a movement. While it is important for the oppressed to be the leaders of the movement, it is more important for those who are benefitting from whatever system of oppression is being addressed to utilize both their voices and privilege to aid the fight for liberation. A good example of this in our current day and age is the Black Lives Matter movement was founded by a black woman. Black women are in more danger than black men, due to the added layer of oppression that comes with sexism.
Both pieces show that “the personal is political” by highlighting the systemic root of female oppression. It is societally taught to ignore the voices of women, and view them as quite useless beyond housework and motherhood. This is highlighted in Mainardi’s piece, “The Politics of Housework.” To this day, our society chooses to ignore or will degrade women’s sexuality. We still lack sexual education today. I have heard many statistics on the percentage of women who have even been able to experience orgasm; usually focused on heterosexual relationships because men are much more likely to be ignorant on the female orgasm and their sexual anatomy. In “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm”, Anne Koedt, says “It has also been known that women need no anesthesia inside the vagina during surgery, thus pointing to the fact that the vagina is in fact not a highly sensitive area.” Many old misconceptions during her time period said that the clitoris or vaginal canal lacked the ability to feel sensation like a penis would, and therefore there was no need for thinking about anyone’s pleasure but the man himself.  In reality, the clitoris is the “female equivalent” of the (head of the) penis. They are equally sensitive and stimulation is necessary for orgasm. Because of our obscene lack of sexual education in this country, we still have this problem today where the majority of men are ignorant about female sexuality, and only think about and care about their own pleasure. This leaves women unsatisfied and once again, left to solve that problem for themselves.

A liberated woman is a woman that has her own opinion and her own philosphy system. She can stand for herself and she won’t be persuaded easily by what the society said or other people/men said. She knows the points of the topic and she can see things clearly and get the point well. There are some opinions look nice as a poison wrapped with fancy candy paper so that they are accepted by most people but a liberated woman can tell they are still poision easily and she would tear the candy paper and proof that how toxic it is.

Liberated woman belongs to women so that she is one of them and she can understand what women suffering or what the society put on them or try to brainwash them like assume keeping the home clean and tidy is women’s duty. Like raising and educate kids well is the great honor for being a mother. In fact there are nice saying or “honor” to make women work for the patriarchy system. A liberated woman know what is the trick and what is the real respect, so that she knows what kind of deal would be best for women and what is the liberation for them.

These two pieces are very personal and they show the most daily scenarios and also happen frequency. Battles can be everywhere every time, but what the most important battles would be what related to our lives the most. Housework is a burden and especially if the wives are also responsible for their husbands’ housework. If she can’t even set herself free from her daily duty so how could she can set herself free from these traditional toxic thoughts and opinions? Housework occupies her time also her body, so that how could she still have energy to fight? From another aspect, fighting by women are not enough because people who around you and people who care about you should stand with women and should fight with you too. If the husbands/partners are not trying to help you about housework then he is accomplice of patriarchy. He knows what benefits him by this system and his caring or support is fake if he can not really help with the daily housework he is also responsible for. That is why personal is political because the personal ones are happening daily or every second. Movements don’t have to be big, it can be small and consistent like what happening around daily life chores. If we can win these personal tiny movements, we can make a big movement.

The liberated woman is a woman who is self-aware and doesn’t follow the rules society has put in place when it comes to her freedom. A liberated woman fights for her own equal rights and those of other women as well. They fight sexism and the stereotypes society has created and fight to eliminate the expectations placed on women inside and outside their homes. In The Politics of Housework, by Pat Mainardi, it is stated that liberated women are very different from Women’s Liberation. “The first signals all kinds of goodies, to warm the hearts (not to mention other parts) of the most radical men…On the other hand is Women’s Liberation-and housework” (pg.1). In a household where both the man and woman have careers to manage, the woman is still expected to be the one to maintain the house. And do all the housework, how is that fair? Men are known to have a passive resistance when it comes to chores and cleaning, and they believe women are born to do that kind of work.

“The personal is political” is a common belief among feminists that their personal experiences result from gender inequality. In The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm by Anne Koedt, she states, “men have chosen to define women only in terms of how they benefited men’s lives. Sexually, a woman was not seen as an individual wanting to share equally in the sexual act, any more than she was seen as a person with independent desires when she did anything else in society.” (pg.8-9). It’s so infuriating that women were fooled into believing that there was something wrong with their bodies. All in favor of men. A woman’s body being treated like a man’s property is terrible enough. Still, it’s extremely damaging for women to blame themselves for a literal fake problem and think there is something medically wrong with their bodies. Imagine the mental and emotional torture that must have been brought upon these women. Mainardi writes, “Women’s liberation isn’t really a political movement.” MEANING: The revolution is coming too close to home. ALSO MEANING: I am only interested in
how I am oppressed, not how I oppress others. Therefore the war, the draft, and the university are political. Women’s liberation is not.” (pg. 3). The fact that women do not have equal rights in politics and other ways outside of their home plays a factor in their rights at home. A liberal woman will only accept the respect and rights she deserves, but the way the man treats her reflects gender inequality. Which is a reason many men believe cleaning and housework are only meant for women, even if they claim that women deserve the same rights they have.

The concept of having to be nurtured and dedicated to serving your household all your life was the “pride” and heavy duly responsibility betrothed to female to engage for their whole lives.  Betty Friedan in her article, “The Feminine Mystique” brings closure to the aspect during a time, thus the fifteenth century, when women had no desires except for wanting to be housewives. Or at least, they were not expected to have any other desire except for one that was seen as a “befitting role”. The article having to be in close relation with the article “The Politics of Housework”, which all advance and explore lives of women in a severe time. The sole purposes of women during the time were to cook, clean, do the laundry, make sure all needs of the kids are tended to, serve her husband and just to cater things that was needed around the house. 

It was a usual thing for people to go through that routine, women equal the house whilst the men went out to work, meet partners, and do what they felt needed to do, going ahead to “prove” the matters of subordination insisting that men had a higher place in society that women. Also considering “the problem that has no name”, a confusing era after the second world war, with the animosity which indirectly implies that women have no use or are worth little to nothing. Housework is in fact a very energy draining and hard work, it needs focus, and strategic planning, however it seems like an involving activity that is degraded, and then passed onto women as a befitting work. Women do not mind doing house chores, but their dreams are not and should not be limited to that. It may have been portrayed that they were content but, in all honesty, wanted to have good careers and they what they loved instead of just sitting at home all day and attending to the needs of their families. 

Anne Koedt, in her article, “The myth of Vaginal Orgasm”, she condemns some already attained beliefs regarding women and their inability to achieve orgasm. She corrects the notion between the vagina and the clitoris. The vagina is the reproductive organ, while the clitoris is the in fact the main area for sexual sensitivity. There are different senses to sexual arousal in women. It may be physical stimulation or sexual fantasies. 

In my eyes, a liberated woman is someone who has established their own sense of femininity based on her own grounds and not by society’s oppressing standards. She is comfortable in her own skin and expressing herself in any form, she isn’t worried about her body hair or how sexually active (or unactive) she is. A liberated woman is educated, and lifts other women up and supports them. But based on The Politics of Housework, “the Liberated Woman, has sex a lot, and has a Career, preferably something that can be fitted in with household chores – like dancing, pottery or painting.” I take this quote to be half true and half satire, because I atleast agree with the first section of it.

The liberated woman is important for women’s liberation because these two things go hand in hand, you can’t have one without the other. It’s almost like the chicken and egg scenario, how would we have women’s liberation without the liberated woman backing it up and fighting for the cause?

The Politics of Housework shows that “the personal is political” because it shows us that “many American men are not accustomed to doing monotonous, repetitive work which never issues any lasting…achievement,” it then ties this point to the reason why many fathers (including my own) would rather be the house ‘repair-man’ than do the dishes. This quote alone blew my mind because it made me realize that wow, my dad is not the only man doing this, this is essentially a worldwide common issue in heterosexual relationships. I have no idea why so many men dread doing the dishes, I like doing the dishes! It’s a very short and simple task and makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something and been productive. But this isn’t about me.

The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm proves “the personal is political” because it delves into the issue that men (and even some women) are so uneducated about the anatomy of women that because of this lack of knowledge women are wrongly being labeled as frigid. This incorrect assumption about where women orgasms come from is so deeply rooted in society that there’s even a surgery that’s meant to ‘fix’ the women. This can all be applied to the personal is political because of Freuds theory being based off the assumption of female anataomy and how it caters to pleasure men. This problem is so common that it’s been deemed the ‘sex comedy’ “The vast majority of women who pretend vaginal orgasm to their men are faking it to ‘get the job’…So not to offend his ego, the woman will comply with the prescribed role and go through simulated ecstasy.”

When I hear the term Liberated Women I picture a woman who has broken free. A woman who broke free from the invisible chains that were placed on them by society. A woman who has given it their all and fought to be their own person rather than hide and be someone they aren’t. A woman who doesn’t become someone they aren’t simply because they are told they must be that way. When thinking back on history, it saddens me to think about how women were being treated. Back then, a woman didn’t have a say in much. The role that was given to a woman was to simply get married to a man, bare their children, and be a housewife. They didn’t necessarily have a voice. That was taken from them. A woman was deemed crazy or didn’t fit in if they didn’t simply follow what society decided they could do. Something that stood out to me was on the first page when the author wrote ” The first brings sex without marriage, sex before marriage, cozy housekeeping arrangements (“I’m living with this chick”) and the self-content of knowing that you’re not the kind of man who wants a doormat instead of a woman. That will come later. After all, who wants that old commodity anymore, the Standard American Housewife, all husband, home and kids? The New Commodity; the Liberated Woman, has sex a lot and has a Career, preferably something that can be fitted in with the household chores-like dancing, pottery, or painting”. This got me into thinking what makes a Liberated Woman and Woman Liberation different. At first glance I thought they were the same thing the only difference being what they are being called. However, Women’s Liberation is a movement toward combating sexual discrimination. Liberated women can benefit Womens Liberation because those women are fighting for the change that they want. They are fighting for more equality for women. They support and show other women that they aren’t alone and that they can all come together to demand change and fight for that change. These reading helped into showing that personal is political because we are all often taught certain things that make us have a different perspective on things. Some women might feel and want certain things to remain the same while others might want the opposite. (Example: some woman might want to be a stay at home wife while others might not want that). Personal is political because of the way one might respond to certain things.