#Betty Friedan

[movietonight]

I'm starting a charity specialised in reaching out to "stay-at-home-girlfriends" and "tradwife" influencers and sending them copies of Betty Friedan's work under the guise of paid sponsorship

[lets-get-lit]

The only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own. 

- Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique

[60sfactorygirl]

Happy International Women’s Day! Today we celebrate all the amazing women around the world and the women who paved the way for gender equality and future generations!

Pauline Boty, 1962

Gloria Steinem with Maya Angelou on their way to the March on Washington, 1983.

Angela Davis enters a courtroom in San Rafael for a pre-trial hearing.

Gloria Steinem, 1966

Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan urge followers to sign telegrams in favor of ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment.

Aretha Franklin photographed by Michael Ochs.

Joan Didion and her daughter Quintana photographed by Julian Wasser, 1968.

Marianne Faithfull, 1970s.

Jane Fonda in Rome supporting Italian feminists, 1972.

Marie Curie in Paris, 1925.

Keep in mind this is just a small fraction of women who rock. There are so many more women fighting for their rights. For example the women in Iran and the girls fighting for their right to education in Afghanistan.

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Betty Friedan - The Feminine Mystique - Penguin - 1965

[veryslowreader]

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

10 Things I Hate About You  

[bitememattyhealy]

femininomenon by chappell roan is the modern day feminine mystique by betty friedan. in this essay i will

[tenderbittersweet]

November 25, 2023 • I’m doing a feminist critique of gothic literature for my Gothic Fiction final.

[thehappyspaceman]

Putting a woman on the $20 bill!

The Falsies introduce "Hunnies on 20s" and talk about some female candidates for the $20 bill!

[roysexton]

“When I found out the patriarchy wasn’t about horses, I just lost interest anyway.” Barbie the Movie

Kudos to Barbie helmer and co-screenwriter Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, Little Women), Hollywood’s first woman director (and likely NOT the last) to earn $1 billion at the international box office for a film. In just two weeks no less. I was reflecting on that milestone on the way home from seeing the fab film this morning. Why? What is it about this movie that has captured the zeitgeist so?…

[movietonight]

Betty Friedan was a pick me and hated lesbians.

Betty Friedan's position on lesbians is unfortunate but absolutely irrelevant to the point I was trying to make in my post.

The "trend" of "stay-at-home-girlfriend" and "tradwife" influencers on social media (as well as all that "girl math" and "girl dinner" and "explanation for the girlies" bullshit) is a revival of a second wave feminism era problem that requires a revisit of second wave feminism texts.

I, jokingly, suggested that these influencers should be tricked into reading Friedan's "feminine mystique" so they can be exposed to the dangers of the "problem that has no name". I don't think any contemporary feminist literature would speak to them because they chose to live like 1950s housewives, with the dangers of 1950s housewives, and thus should read about 1950s housewives.

[higherentity]

[bellebookncamera]

so excited about this mini feminist philosophy haul. i started the second sex a few weeks ago and i’m already so in awe☺️

[aliteraryprincess]

May Wrap Up

Time just keeps flying! I’m officially on summer break now (yay!), but that doesn’t mean I get to relax. I’m busy reading for my exams and doing last minute preparations for my wedding. I kind of just want June to before so I can take a moment to breathe. 

Books Read: 7

This was another great reading month. My favorite was Heartstopper Vol. 4, closely followed by Phoebe, Junior. I don’t think I really have a least favorite. I actually had way more fun with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland than I thought I would, so that was nice. I was convinced it would be a one star read since I hated it so much as a kid. 

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - 3 stars

Heartstopper Vol. 4 by Alice Oseman - 5 stars

A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft - 3 stars

Edging Women Out: Victorian Novelists, Publishers and Social Change by Gaye Tuchman - 3 stars

Phoebe, Junior by Margaret Oliphant - 4.5 stars

Little Rabbit by Alyssa Songsiridej - 4.5 stars

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan - 4.5 stars

On Tumblr:

Okay, there’s not much here. But at least there’s a few things, right?

April Wrap Up

Book Quotes: Heartstopper Vol. 4 by Alice Oseman

Book Quotes: Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

On the Blog:

Yeah, there’s nothing here. Let’s not dwell on it...

On YouTube:

But I’m still going strong on YouTube! I’d really appreciate it if you checked me out over there if you haven’t already.  

Modern Classics Book Tag

The Philosophy of Reading Tag

April Wrap Up

Book Haul! - Barnes & Noble, Thrift Books, and Freebies

Book Haul...again!

May TBR - Exam Reading and ARCs

Currently Reading 5/24/22

Underrated Victorian Recommendations #2

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

From The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

[Transcript:

If it is true that the feminists were “disappointed women,” as their enemies said even then, it was because almost all women living under such conditions had reason to be disappointed. In one of the most moving speeches of her life, Lucy Stone said in 1855:

From the first years to which my memory stretches, I have been a disappointed woman. When, with my brothers, I reached forth after sources of knowledge, I was reproved with “It isn’t fit for you; it doesn’t belong to women” ... In education, in marriage, in religion, in everything, disappointment is the lot of woman. It shall be the business of my life to deepen this disappointment in every woman’s heart until she bows down to it no longer.]

[vamptoll]

'The feminine mystique says that the highest value and the only commitment for women is the fulfillment of their own femininity. It says the great mistake of western culture... has been the undervaluation of this femininity. it says this femininity is so mysterious and intuitive and close to the creation and origin of life that man-made science may never be able to understand it. But however special and different, it is in no way inferior to man; in may even in certain respects be superior. The mistake, says the mystique... Is that women envied men... Instead of accepting their own nature, which can find fulfillment in sexual passivity, male domination, and nurturing maternal love'

-The feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan

[postapocalyptic-cryptic]

Not to be a feminist on main, but reading the 1997 edition of The Feminine Mystique with all three of Betty Friedan’s forewords is really interesting. Reading from most recent foreword back to the original text in the beginning of the book is like a walk backwards through the decline of feminism. As time went on, Friedan became less and less radical and forceful in her thought.

This culminates in her statements in the 1997 foreword that feminism is now more of a united front between men and women and that issues like abortion are almost “obsolete” (paraphrasing because it’s early in the morning and I don’t want to dig for the quotes). She walks her determined radicalism back into a tame moderate liberalism.

This process, especially the statement about abortion, is particularly interesting because it represents a dream unfulfilled. Friedan, and other feminists, slowed down, perhaps becoming complacent, as the century ended, and now we live in an era of uncertain bodily autonomy, the rise of “men’s rights” (violently misogynist) movements, and the loss of the social awareness so hard-won just 30-50 years ago.

As I begin The Feminine Mystique, I’m just finishing Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pick-Up Artistis by Laura Bates (a 2020 book dealing with the online MGTOW, MRA, and incel movements). Unbeknownst to me when I started Men Who Hate Women at the beginning of the year, I think I’ve created a particularly enlightening reading order. It’s interesting to see Friedan, in her 1997 foreword, confidently announce the end of the sort of misogyny Bates investigates in her 2020 book.

All this is not to discredit the work that Friedan has done. She and her work were, and continue to be, revolutionary in their impact and genius in their craft. I’m still less than a quarter of the way through the original text of The Feminine Mystique and already I’ve been moved almost to tears thinking of my grandmother, who I have the incredible fortune to know very well. The Western world is changed (and improved) perhaps permanently by Friedan’s work, but it’s important to consider her walking back of feminist ideals near the end of her life when reading her work.

I plan on doing some more research into Friedan. This is the first work of hers I’ve read, and I’m only broadly and tangentially aware of her larger set of work and ideas, so if this turns out to be a gross misreading of the 1997 and 1973 forewords, I’ll come back to this and add on.