Feminine Mystique and Black boy Comparison Essay

Gender roles have been a hotly debated topic in the most recent years, especially the role of women in society. Women have had set expectations that they are believed to conform to, which is shown in many pieces of film and literature. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald describes the life of a man in the upper class in the 1920’s, as well as women in the 1920’s. The movie The Princess Bride, written by William Goldman, visually explains the treatment and expectations of women, and especially focuses on the “damsel in distress” stereotype.. Roxane Gay’s “Bad Feminist” explains the stereotypes against women and ways women can come together and fight these constraints. Based on these sources, societal expectations take away from each individual’s identity, forcing women to conform to society's standards. In order to fight against these expectations, women have banded together and formed movements against these standards.

In her essay “The Importance of Work,” from The Feminine Mystique published in 1963, Betty Friedan confronts American women’s search for identity. Throughout the novel, Betty Friedan broke new ground by seeking the idea of women discovering personal fulfillment away from their original roles. She ponders on the idea of the Feminine Mystique as the cause for the majority of women during that time period to feel confined by their occupations around the house, restricting them from discovering who they are as women. Friedan’s novel is well known for creating a different kind of feminism and rousing various women across the nation.

In her Feminine Mystique essay, “The Importance of Work”, writer Betty Friedan talks about how the identity crisis of American women beginning about a century ago. More and more of the work that was used by human abilities in which they could find self-realization that was taken from women. The identity crisis for women did not begin in America until the fire, strength, and ability of the pioneer women were no longer needed. Women today whom feel that they have no goal, purpose, or future will commit suicide. Betty Friedan attempts to explain the causes of women’s unhappiness as she tags it, “the problem that has no name”. (Friedan, pg.790, 1963) Friedan’s rhetoric in the essay is constructed and based upon three persuasive techniques, which are known as ethos, pathos, and logos. In her essay, her main goal was to bring about how successful her approach in determining the role of women in society. She did an excellent job at defending her argument with facts from history to back it up.

However, the methods they used to strive to change these ideals differed from those employed by ethnic minorities. Writers, such as Betty Friedan, voiced many of the views of the feminism movement that emerged in this decade. According to Friedan in her book, The Feminine Mystique, women in the 1960s realized the, “delusions of the feminine mystique” were their, “perception[s] of entrapment.” (Doc A) Friedan’s purpose in writing The Feminine Mystique is to convince women that their current status is unsatisfactory, thus sparking a new wave of women attempting to escape the trap they had fallen into and urging her audience to redefine the role of women. Her purpose is significant because it enables her to convey to a large audience that women, in their current state, were unable to achieve social equality with men. Additionally, the National Organization for Women (NOW) emphasized the necessity to redefine the democratic and social role of women from its inception in 1966. In its purpose statement, the NOW stated, “Working women are becoming increasingly—not less—concentrated on the bottom of the job ladder.” (Doc J) The purpose of this statement is to explain what the NOW seeks to accomplish and how it strives to do so. This purpose is significant because the NOW will not falsely represent what it intends to achieve and will employ facts supporting its intentions, even if slightly

Strong-willed, intelligent, and motivated are only some of the words we can use to describe Betty Friedan. Credited as being the mother of the second wave of feminism, Friedan was an influential women’s right activist during the twentieth century but her legacy has continued to strive well into the twenty-first century. Friedan is the author of a variety of books including The Feminine Mystique, which became a phenomenon because of its powerful message to women for self-exploration outside their traditional roles. This book helped to define Friedan’s role in the fight for women empowerment and equality. It evoked emotions in many women who agreed that they did not want to fulfil traditional roles, creating an atmosphere of change. She was also the cofounder of the National Organization for Women (NOW), serving as its first president and also helped to create the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws and the National Women’s Political Caucus. With these organizations, Friedan became the face of the women’s movement and encouraged women to take a stand against the pathological idealization of women by creating a sense of community

Betty Friedan believed that women should feel and be treated equal to men. Friedan fought for women to embody their power and worth. She was an activist for the women’s rights movement and a founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Her book, The Feminine Mystique, connected with her readers by illustrating the standards that women were put under for decades. In the 60’s, women were viewed as nothing but maids and child-bearers. Many women were hesitant to take a stand for this taboo subject; their own rights. Friedan took initiative when everyone else was afraid to. Betty Friedan’s contribution clearly advanced the progression of women’s equality. She accomplished this by writing her famous book, giving a debatable speech, and founding the National Organization for Women.

In Boys and Girls, the main character feels constantly restrained and restricted to what other people believe should be the way for things to be conducted, and in turn, how females should conduct themselves. In various ways, the girl attempts to free herself from these limitations that have been set by others, that creates her core identity, in order to pursue a version of herself that she believes truly represents her. Firstly, she often disobeys her mother so that she can have the opportunity to work for her father instead, “As soon as I was done, I ran out of the house, trying to get out of earshot before my mother thought of what she wanted me to do next” (p. 194). She exhibits behavior that indicates that she does not want any part of the draining, dreary housework that contains her inside a world that does not excite her - that is not “ritualistically important” to her. Secondly, at night she often dreams of other worlds - other situations that are not real and will never become reality, “...took place in a world that was recognizably mine, yet one that presented opportunities for courage, boldness, and self-sacrifice, as mine never did” (p. 191), because her dreams allow her the freedom during sleep to be the person she wants to be, and not who people need her to be. She can be brave, and be the hero, in contrast to how she goes about her day-to-day life - without enjoyment when she feels

However, before they began to labor for activism, there was a time when they decided to devote their lives to feminism. Only one moment was needed to change Anthony’s career and the world. When at a temperance meeting, Anthony rose to speak but was told she was not allowed to, solely because she was a woman. Due to this injustice, she decided to begin petitioning for women’s rights, as well as temperance and abolition, which she also labored for. Similarly, Friedan had a direct cause to begin feminism, but unlike Anthony, it was a period of several years that inspired her. For a long time, Friedan was a housewife, with three children in the suburbs. These years, torturous for Friedan, showed her how women were expected to give up their careers in favor of cleaning house, and worse, were expected to be happy not bored, sewing and vacuuming all day. In fact, Friedan herself had been a journalist, but she was fired for asking for maternal leave- fired for being a woman. Likewise, Anthony was fired from her job as a teacher, in part because she complained about the fact that she made five times less than men in the same position- again, fired for her sex. Another similarity between the paths of these women was that neither was respected at first. Anthony was a laughingstock for wearing the “Bloomer outfit”, pants that rolled at the calves, and after Friedan wrote her bestselling book on

In The Feminist Mystique, Betty Friedan combats the notion that women could only find fulfillment and be successful by having children and taking care of the home. This book sparked a re-emergence in the feminist movement and is widely attributed for converting more supporters for the cause. Her book describes the unhappy status of women in the ‘50s and 60’s and found her proof by holding interviews with women and also researching many topics. She discusses topics such as the fact that men wrote the women’s magazines, early feminists, female education and how it was changing, and the lack of fulfillment housewives felt in their everyday duties. The Feminist Mystique is reputed to be one of the most influential books in the 1960s.

The Feminine Mystique is a first person narrative about the struggles of feminism. It highlights the problems of women in the 1950s to the 1960s and challenges gender roles. The book includes several first person interviews and discusses the Second Wave of feminism. It introduces the idea of the sexulization of women being used in consumerism and the lack of sexual education in school during the time. The Feminine Mystique is a useful resource because it is considered the groundbreaking book about feminism and lists issues that women have had to deal with from the 1960s until now. The book could be used to argue the struggles that women have faced and continue to face.

The Feminine Mystique is the title of a book written by the late Betty Friedan

In the book The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan brings attention to what she calls the feminine mystique, or “the problem that has no name”. Through the use of anecdotal narratives, her own personal experiences as a journalist, editor, mother, and the interviews of many women from different backgrounds in order to unveil the truth about the women of the 1950’s. The problem which sparked the second wave of feminism in the United States is one that focuses on the inequality between men and women and the undervaluing of women in both the social and private spheres. The women of the time gave up pursuing their passions, such as getting an education or careers in science or business in order to fit the image of the stereotypical stay-at-home mom whose main goal in life is to raise her children while providing a safe and comforting home for her husband. The Feminine Mystique, as she called it, was the idea of widespread unhappiness of women, despite the preconceived notion that women were happiest when they have a family. Throughout her work, she dives into many of the problems associated with the feminine mystique and builds a powerful concept of what would eventually be labeled feminism.

Betty Friedan believes that self-fulfillment and self-realization only occurs when a person is doing “a human purpose larger than themselves.” (3, 4) In the case of women, this purpose is not the role

It is far easier to break the spirit of one human being than that of a united group of people. Betty Friedan’s "The Feminine Mystique", "Radicalesbians", and Susan Glaspell’s "Trifles" come to the same conclusion: isolation and separation caused women to be vulnerable to domination by male society. Social stigmatization by men, an inability to describe the situation, and a lack of personal identity kept women apart from one another.

Throughout the story we see the protagonist struggle with the gender roles placed upon her by her society; specifically the role she is supposed to play as