What great readings, both were familiar but shined light on these topics in greater detail for me.

I didn’t know the difference between the women’s liberation movement and a liberated woman. I also found it very interesting in “The Politics of Housework”, by Pat Mainardi, the explanations of the psychological reactions men have to taking on household duties. That in reality, they do suck, and they are not wrong to be able to identify that. But that as women, we totally have it engrained in us to try to “whistle while we work”. I do think there is some benefit to that mind set, because it is nice to be able to find peace in taking care of yourself and the things around you. However, not to the extent of brain washing ourselves into not noticing or caring that one half of society is not taking part.

Also, how it is broken down in this reading that the success of men requires the oppression of women. Men would never be where they are now if they had to do housework. That is so true, and I really relate, because there have been times in my life where I was in positions that I noticed these inequalities myself. Being in a relationship and sharing the household duties with a man who is programmed in the way this article outlines men’s reactions.

I would end up, just doing the work because it was easier than the constant pushing and prodding to get them to do it. As a result I did not have time to be reading, enjoying, developing my career in more dynamic ways, because I had to come home and clean.

Women are really pinned into a corner with the housework. This article goes really deep on it. Translating men’s disdain towards housework into a very manipulative tactic to keep power. 

I also found a similar thread in “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm”, by Anne Koedt. How men made sex about their pleasure. To the extent of developing an entire psychological theory around it, Freud made the woman wrong for not functioning in a way that works for men to have their needs met without having to do any extra leg work.

The idea that the woman should be able to orgasm in a way that happens simultaneously and in support of a man orgasming, gives the man another opportunity to do no work at all. If a woman can not achieve this, and expects to be pleasured outside the actions of the male orgasms functions, she is deemed a failure and mentally unwell. As it says in the article, “we have been defined sexually in terms of what pleases men”. Women have pretty much been gaslit for a very long time.

This is where the liberated woman and the women’s lib movement have cross over: We must discard the “normal”  concepts of sex and redefine it with new concepts that take into account enjoyment for both men and women. “While this is liberally applauded, it is not followed. We need to break down the standards: the positions and the ideas of how sex should look.”

Pretty much, it is going to take time, work, and loss of power for some. Privileges and comforts need to be adjusted, and that requires a time of discomfort for the 50% of the population that has had a privileged experience. Most of this work is for the men to do, which is where the crux in the system lies.