After reading “The Politics of Housework” by Pat Mainardi and “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm” by Anne Koedt, I thing I might define a liberated woman as a woman who has freed herself of the strictures and labels that society has placed upon women. A woman defines her own wants and needs and does not subscribe to the oppressive notions thrust upon her. A liberated woman not only has autonomy of her body and actions ( be they day to day or larger aims of life and career) but actively seeks to define herself.

A liberated woman, in pushing against society’s mandates to shape herself, can forge new paths and set a new example of what is possible. Even if she herself does not seek to liberate other women, she illuminates aspects of life for others that they had perhaps never considered, allowing them to follow or fight for the liberation of others. She can challenge or question norms and custom just by existing in opposition to them. And enough women united in challenging the status quo can together inspire a movement.

There are few problems we face that are unique to our circumstance. Almost any trouble we have can be linked to a larger societal issue. In the examples of “The Politics of Housework” and “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm” show how personal circumstances of housework and the female orgasm relate to larger societal issues. In the case of housework, the tendency of women in heterosexual relationships to be responsible for housework is to say that women are deserving of this menial work, or that men are above it. It is something we universally recognize as undesirable, and the fact that housework is unending only adds insult to injury. But this personal issue of delineating housework in a relationship echoes society’s pattern of placing men on top. Men are consistently put ahead of women in promotions and leadership roles. Just as women are not seen as equals in the boardroom, they are not seen as equals in home. And those views play off of each other. How can you view a woman as equal to a man outside of the home but not in it. In the delegation of undesirable work, no one should be considered above it based on their sex. Similarly, a woman’s sexual pleasure is frequently secondary to that of a man. The idea that a woman should put a man’s desires above her own, be it alleviating him of housework to allow him his own pursuits or putting a man’s sexual needs before her own. And society has done an amazing job of gaslighting women to help maintain this line. I think the fact that we have stigmatized female desire speaks greatly to this in a addition to Koedt’s points of the medical establishment concocting explanations for female frigidity. A sexually liberated woman is synonymous with “slut” to some people. We have shamed women for there sexuality as a means to keep them oppressed. Again, this personal issue of prioritizing the male orgasm echoes society’s need to put men first.