I really enjoyed doing this week’s readings. They were both speaking about different topics but all tied back to Liberated Woman and Woman Liberation. The reason in which I enjoyed the article called The Politics of Housework is because of the way it was structured. I like how the writer made it so you would have what the man would say followed by what it could actually really mean. ” “We have different standards, and why should I have to work to your standards? That’s unfair.” MEANING: If I begin to get bugged by the dirt and crap I will say, “This place sure is a sty” or “How can anyone live like this?” and wait for your reaction. I know that all women have a sore called “Guilt over a messy house” or “Household work is ultimately my responsibility.” I know that men have caused that sore-if anyone visits and the place is a sty–they’re not going to leave and say, “He sure is a lousy housekeeper.” You’ll take the rap in any case. I can outwait you. ALSO MEANING: I can provoke innumerable scenes over the housework
issue. Eventually doing all the housework yourself will be less painful to you than
trying to get me to do half. Or I’ll suggest we get a maid. She will do my share of
the work. You will do yours. It’s women’s work”(Pg3). These few lines made me realize how although so much time has passed by, to this day there are women who are told that housework is only their job. That a man simply can’t do the housework around and if a man can’t do it then they’ll just hire a woman to do it for them. It makes me think about how some boys are still being taught that their role is much different from a girls role and there are things that are ‘meant’ to be done by females and things that are ‘meant’ to be done by males. However, housework isn’t simply a females thing to do. On the contrary, housework is for both men and women because it all comes down to cleaning and maintaining your place clean and tidy. Why should there be roles assigned to gender to clean?

The myth of the vaginal regarding the fact that women cannot attain orgasm or by the cause of their frigidity is very stagnant in society. It is discussed in schools, social media but how is the false information rather prevailing. Women are seen to have psychological issue if they make it known or voice out the fact that they are unable to have orgasm. In cases like this, the scientific aspect is ignored and social part of life advances. I think this including the many reasons why women do not speak their minds about relating matters, also why women resulting to other solutions to get what they want. 

            Pat Mainardi’s, “The Politics of Housework” dives deep and transverses about how women had to always tend to house related work and whilst men went to work and did their respective duties as well. The author also furtherly explains that in circumstances relating to that, men preferred women with whom they could control, women who would fold and were easily submissive. Bett Friedan gives an insight to what the aftermath of married life was like in her article “The Feminine Mystique”. These two articles really correlate in terms of men and women’s case of responsibility. For women was to stay home, constantly attending to her families’ troubles, having no other or expected to not wish for anything else. I feel that it was indeed a very intense time to be alive. The very difficult tendency to make your opinions known and freely say what you feel and even better take actions to make the situation better.

After careful analyzation of the both readings it’s evident that In some ways, it appears like we haven’t made much progress. Women continue to fight for sovereignty over their bodies and reproductive systems, and we continue to have to explain consent to a significant portion of the population. Even though I know it’s harmful for my mental health, I find it tough to disengage from this ‘battle.’ Because it feels like my lived experiences are under attack, and my acts and inactions are considered to be part of the discourse regardless, the struggle is such an integral part. The characters’ relationships with their identities, as well as their interactions with society, are intertwined with human emotions such as love, caring, abandonment, and loneliness. Conversations tend to get tense and defensive when it comes to tackling those personal politics and examining the power conflicts that they elicit.

I sort of enjoyed both readings that we had for this week they were interesting, to say the least. I learned a lot about how sex has been used for the satisfaction of the male counterpart. In no way does a woman feel satisfied because men lack knowledge of female anatomy. 

I feel like this is all because of patriotic values. Men are only satisfied when it comes to sex and sometimes don’t even bother giving the same satisfaction to their female partners. 

The first reading was eye-opening but also filled with a lot of knowledge and viewpoints from a woman. I agree with what the article has to say about how men aren’t obligated to clean and do housework like the way women are. Men tend to complain a lot about these chores and it makes it seem like men can’t survive without women. Men are always being taken care of by women. These gender roles are engraved in our heads since the day we were born. From kitchen toys to race car toys. A lot of these roles are fueled by society. 

When reading both of these texts I learned a lot about the liberated woman and the Women’s Liberation Movement. Even though I am a Hispanic woman in the United States, I never really learned or was interest in the idea of feminism growing up. I believe it was because most so called “feminists” had tainted the actual movement of Feminism and what these women were actually fighting for. They weren’t fighting to hate men, they were fighting to be respected and seen as equal to men. Which is what I learned a lot while being in this class. I found it interesting how Pat Mainardi’s essay “The Politics of Housework”, dissected the actual meaning behind what men say when you ask them to do something traditionally supposed to be done by women. Most times those men are insulted because they think “why would I stoop so low?”. In Anne Koedt’s “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm”, I noticed that most women when having sex with men, don’t reach the potential they should. Majority of the women fake an orgasm to not hurt the man’s ego, since most are so fragile and sensitive. “Once having laid down the law about the nature of our sexuality, Freud not so strangely discovered a tremendous problem of frigidity in women” (Koedt). Freud was one of the men who were quick to make bad assumptions on women. Women go through hormonal imbalances quite frequently considering our menstruation cycle. But once a woman doesn’t react the way a man wants her to, she’s crazy, or needs to be hospitalized. Which is ridiculous.

This week’s readings were interesting to read because of how relatable it was. When Mainardi explained how men do not truly see women, rather they criticize them if they do not fit their mold of what a woman should be whilst disregarding our existence. It’s interesting because I often hear men say that women have to deal with so much, regarding their menstrual cycle and giving childbirth but yet they still have a complex and mansplain women. Incidentally, I do believe that men could handle being a woman, I believe they would fold like a cheap suit. I also enjoyed reading about how men do not take the time to understand a women’s anatomy, they sort of just assume that our orgasm comes about the way theirs does, when in fact that female vagina is extremely complex. I found it comical when Koedt spoke about surgery to modify our female genitalia, as though it is impossible to take the time to understand but even more-so, as though it is us that are defective and not built appropriately.

Yet again, t’was a revelation reading BOTH pieces this week as well as letting it sink in that both were written in 1970. I found The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm by Anne Koedt to be so enlightening regarding this topic and it makes me feel ridiculous that this information is still essentially hidden away as I feel even in today’s age, women may not know that the vaginal orgasm does not exist. I find that week after week once I’m done reading, I just experience moments of utter shock with the knowledge I receive and then immediately wanting the whole world to make these changes already so I’m left to feel utterly overwhelmed. Why are things still like this?! It made me legitimately sad to see in writing how even in sexual pleasure, women are oppressed. In my 34 years of life, I’ve obviously gotten to know my self in this area of life and considered myself pretty knowledgeable especially on my preferences but there was still so much that hit home in reading things like the standard sexual positions in heterosexual intercourse is mainly for the mans pleasure and women’s needs are just ignored. It’s astounded me to realize that I’ve been participating in this because again, it was ingrained culturally and subliminally through society since I was born. It’s finally confirmed that I am not crazy for having my own realizations that the actual act of just vaginal sex is not a revelation at all but I’m annoyed that so many of us are still lost in the unknown and most likely feeling inadequate and dissatisfied. Pat Mainardi’s The Politics of Housework also posed as such an enlightening paper. I loved how it was written and how she made her points very clear as she gave such relatable “MEANINGS” to each of her examples of things that will come out of men’s mouths concerning housework.

I absolutely loved this week’s readings and definitely laughed a bunch throughout The Politics of Housework. I know the reading was meant to be serious regarding women’s feelings and how men completely disregard them, but Mainardi was able to perfectly explicate every response a man could have when asked to do what women have been burdened by for centuries. Her translations at the end of the text provided direct rebuttals to the ways in which men were taught to refrain from any forms of housework- unless it’s “manly work”. Even though these texts were written in the 70s, women were obviously very aware of the oppression they faced. I also really enjoyed The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm. Men are not taught the female anatomy in ways that help them understand how women can also achieve an orgasm. There is a very big assumption around women coming to an orgasm based on just penetration which is SO WRONG! I was frustrated to read that like many other things, psychiatric care was the solution or cure for not being able to orgasm by penetration. Koedt also mentions surgery as an option to change a woman’s anatomy in order for it to be “easier” for men to help a woman achieve an orgasm… without actually learning the inner workings of a woman’s body and the natural ways this can be done.