Melissa Valle Discussion #9
Womens liberation is often thought of as a movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s, one that has been accomplished and is now a thing of the past. Womens liberation is still as impressive today and the women who participated in the movement are still making history. A liberated woman is an empowered woman. She is free to pursue her own interests, ambitions, and goals in her life. She is free to be herself and not be defined by her role as a wife or mother. She is free to be strong and speak her mind.
These two articles show that “the personal is political” because women were being portrayed as needing to have intimacy in their relationship. “The personal is political” is a phrase use during the 1960s and 1970s to express any kind of power in relations not just in government or elective officials. This is in the article where women must compromise to either fake an organism just not to make their partner feel any less by hurting their feelings.
In the article of The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm” another example that shows that liberated women are important and show the personal is political if women are not sexually attracted to men these men end up shaming or mentally abusing them. In my psychology class I read that Freud’s recommended the cure for women who were frigid was to put them in a mental institution because they were “suffering” within themselves and failed at being normal woman. This can be based on personal, politics because when a woman broke their roles of being a homemaker society believed that this was a mental illness that needed to be cured. I cannot even imagine living that life.
Hi Melissa! I very much agree with you about how many people think that the movement to liberate women is a thing of the past, when you can still witness, even anonymously, how women continue to be treated as people without rights, feelings or even as objects. Yes, this fully explains how the political can get into the personal, and how they continue to treat women as sexual objects without really caring about their own satisfaction. Even if men humiliate these women, there comes a time when the woman adapts so much to this toxic treatment that she accepts and enjoys what happens in the moment. To be honest, I did not know how Freud named women “frigid” and what they should do to cure this. It is completely sad to know that before being able to do this research, women were treated like patients because they could not feel satisfied with their sexual partner.
Hey Melissa, thanks for sharing. I agree with you that the liberation movement of the 1960s helped a woman to pursue their ambitions. The thought before the movement was far off, and women had to settle from just being a woman to marrying a man and doing nothing else. It is awe-inspiring to see a woman prevail and be in a high position, but with that, women need to encourage women to be better and do better, never leaving anyone behind.
Hello Melissa, I enjoyed reading your post. I completely agree that women were portrayed as needing intimacy. For example, the majority of movies or films have a man as a protagonist. If the protagonist is a woman, the movie usually is about the woman pursuing a man or emphasizing the romance part. Like in Legally Blonde, Ella went to law school to pursue a man, but I love that in the end she learned to love herself and she developed a true passion for law.
Hello Melissa,
Thank you for the information i did not Freud recommended them to be put in mental hospital. Your paragraphs were a great summary of this weeks readings. The information to back up your comments helped understand women more on why they would stay quiet back in the 60s and 70s.
Hi Melissa,
Thank you so much for sharing your response, I enjoyed reading it. I agree with you on your take on the liberated women; an empowered woman. That statement alone is powerful and embodies what it is to exactly be a liberated woman. I also took a Psychology class last semester and did learn about Freud and his techniques and practices. However, I did not specifically learn about his take on curing woman by putting them in mental institutions due to the idea that they were “suffering” with themselves and failed at being a normal woman. That alone is a great example to show how woman have not been truly heard or seen for what they feel as though they are but only from what others think they should be and how they should act.
Hello Melissa, thank you for sharing. I also shocked when reading The myth of the Vaginal orgasm in that it mentions how if a women wasn’t sexually attracted to men they would end up shaming them and abuse them. But also hearing Freuds say on women who were frigid. I mean I think a man doesn’t know what a women is going through and just assume that all women should be sexually attracted to men.