Blog Three.

I just want to say before answering these questions that I really enjoyed both readings for this blog!

According to Friedan, the problem that has no name was the feeling of pointlessness or perhaps restlessness that housewives felt in the 1950s and 1960s. The women's lives revolved around their children and husband, women were not encouraged to pursue education or a career; the most important role for a woman to play was that of a housewife. So when women felt unsatisfied or unfulfilled with her life, she began to feel insecure about her abilities, and very alone. That was the problem that has no name.

It has no name because in most cases it wasn't spoken about. Friedan cites women's therapy sessions in which the problem is discussed, but even in such an open setting, women still verbally dismissed the problem, saying "There's nothing wrong" or thinking there was nothing wrong with them.

I think the feminine mystique is the idea that "feminine fulfillment" is attained through a husband and children. The image of a perfect and happy woman was that of a smiling suburban housewife who sent her children off to school, cleaned the house, cooked for her family, used brand new appliances, went to PTA meetings, and "pitied their poor frustrated mothers, who had dreamed of having a career."

OCCUPATION: HOUSEWIFE.

It is promoted by the media: television shows, commercials, women's magazines, print advertisement... the patriarchy! Women suffer for it. And men do as well because people deserve to be equals and be allowed to strive for the same goals; it's unfair for the beneficiaries of inequality too.

Friedan mentioned that she was raising three children while also working as a reporter.

Friedan's evidence includes magazine articles from the time period, quotes from therapy sessions, personal interviews with women, statistics about college enrollment and age of marriage.

I think that despite many of feminism's victories, women are still oppressed by the beauty myth. I have read an excerpt from this book before, in which Wolf presents the concept that as women gain more power (politically, in the workplace, etc) and therefore become symbolically larger, the more the patriarchy wants to reduce them to smallness. Wolf says that's why we are bombarded with images of very thin women. The "system" is threatened by women who are more than wives, mothers and secretaries; so it basically forces them to develop eating disorders and terrible body image.

Anyone can choose to overcome the beauty myth. Well, I actually don't think it's as easy as that sounds. Not even close. I am a feminist. I love my body. I know, logically and emotionally, that it's okay that I don't look like every girl in magazines or on television. I see beauty in myself and in others, despite what outside appearances are.

Yet I still feel self-conscious about my body hair, about my stomach, about my broad shoulders. I think my nose is too big. I compare myself to other women. I make fun of how other women look, if they are too fat or they wear too much makeup or have a bad haircut.

No one is untouched, no one is free. But we do have the power and the intelligence to recognize when the beauty myth is being inflicted upon us. And we have the power and the will to resist. It won't always be easy and it won't always work. Insecurities are a part of being human. But it is possible to change.