The Feminine Mystique And Shooting An Elephant

In this chapter of The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan denounces a fundamental notion of the mystique: The role for women in the home is equal to the role of men in society. To further explain this notion, she makes use of several different rhetorical devices such as antithesis, when she establishes a connection between the dreadful physical and mental health of full time housewives plus men working on assembly lines, and she does so in order to accentuate the hidden problems of “alcoholism, obesity, chronic fatigue, and lack of interest in sex” due to preconceived ideas about gender roles. Moreover, she makes use of logos, when she provides her readers with statistics about how “Women constituted nearly half of the professional workforce;

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.

Which in one word is femininity. Now, the dream is of an American woman behind the stove, not behind a desk. The women stuck at home “all shared the same problem, the problem that has no name” (Friedan 19). Friedan gives these women a vocabulary for their dissatisfaction, the feminine mystique. There is no other way for a woman to be a woman of admirable exploits unless she is a housewife.

Friedan, however, was no ordinary housewife. Before starting her family, she had worked as a newspaper reporter; even after her children came, she wrote regularly for the major women 's magazines. By 1957 she was fed up with the endless stories about breast-feeding, the preparation of gourmet chip dips, and similar domestic fare that was the staple of ‘Redbook‘, ‘McCall 's‘, and ‘Ladies ' Home Journal‘. She had noticed many women like herself who worked outside the home and felt guilty because their jobs threatened their husbands ' roles as providers or took time away from their children. Thus Friedan began to wonder not only about herself as a woman, a wife, and a mother, but also about the role society had shaped women to play.

A renowned novelist and former imperial policeman, George Orwell, in his essay, Shooting an Elephant (1936), addresses the problems of imperialism. He argues that imperializing others, specifically Burma, will force the colonists to lose their own conscience and freedom. Orwell utilizes a variety of rhetorical elements throughout his essay to help bolster his claim. Firstly, Orwell uses first person perspective to showcase his experiences in order to establish his credibility. He then uses word choice to indicate his imperialistic sentiments and emotions. Lastly, he uses imagery to portray the pressure and emotions that were elicited while shooting the elephant. The purpose of Orwell’s essay Shooting an Elephant is to inform the reader about the inherent struggles that are engendered by imperialism. Orwell adopts a critical, subjective tone for his audience, the readers of his essay, anti-imperialists, and scholars studying imperialism.

Some counterarguments that could be made against The Feminine Mystique are that it focuses on what was not a universal female problem but rather a problem endured only by white, upper- and middle-class mothers and wives. Friedan's phrase, "the problem that has no name,”(15) could actually refer to the plight of a select group of college-educated, middle- and upper-class, married white women or housewives bored with leisure, with the home, with children, with buying products, who want more out of life. Friedan concludes her first chapter by stating: "We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: 'I want something more than my husband and my children and my house.’”(32) That "more"

After conducting a survey of her Smith classmates at a 15-year reunion, Friedan found that most of them were, like she was, dissatisfied suburban housewives. After five more years of researching history, psychology, sociology and economics, and conducting interviews with women across the country, Friedan charted American middle-class women’s metamorphosis from the independent,

In 1963 there was the second wave of the women’s movement when Betty Friedan published her book The Feminine Mystique, which sole purpose was to point out the, “problem that has no name” (understanding feminism by peta Bowden). The context of the book described that women were being forced to live under their true

The wife is at home with the kids and the husband goes to work. Women are the ones who were seen to cook, clean, and take care of everyone else. Did anyone ever wonder if women were truly happy being a housewife 24/7? That idea was one of the factors that lead for Betty Friedan to write “The Feminine Mystique”. The book was was published in 1963. She talks about how women were unsatisfied with their daily lives. In the book, she states, “Sometimes a woman would say "I feel empty somehow ... incomplete." Or she would say, "I feel as if I don't exist." The problem was that many women felt they had more to offer besides being a housewife. Women were so into their families that they don’t have time to truly think about their happiness. So where did she get this information to write the book? In the article , “Betty Friedan” by Mario Kaplan from the Jewish Women’s Archive website, it states , “In 1957, she surveyed two hundred of her Smith College classmates and found that many of them suffered from “the problem that has no name.” Betty Friedan was also a psychology student at Smith College. She was one of the first women to actually speak and write about “ the problem with no name”. She wrote an article in Good Housekeeping with the title “ Women

The Feminine Mystique is described as a women’s unhappiness as “the problem that has no name.” Women felt this sense of sadness because they were forced to be subservient to men financially, mentally, physically, and intellectually. The feminine “mystique” was the idealized image to which women tried to conform despite their lack of fulfillment (Napikoski,1). The suburban-homemaker was an idea featured prominently on television just like Samantha. When women were showed on television and in media they were portrayed as constantly being happy housewives.

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 singles out women to be the invisible minority in America. The invisible women in the American society

Betty Friedan wrote that "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." The message here is that women need more than just a husband, children, and a home to feel fulfilled; women need independence and creative outlets, unrestrained by the pressures of society. Throughout much of history, women have struggled with the limited roles society imposed on them. The belief that women were intellectually inferior, physically weaker, and overemotional has reinforced stereotypes throughout history. In the 1960s, however, women challenged their roles as "the happy little homemakers." Their story is the story of the Women's Liberation

The era of the housewife usually paints a rosy mental picture; a white picket fence, a large house with a big yard, a beautiful family, and homemade goods. However, as seen in Betty Friedan’s article “The Problem That Has No Name”, describes the turmoil experienced by housewives of the 1960s. The problem was described and become popularized in a variety of ways by media outlets, such as ungrateful housewives that had too much education to realize “how lucky she is” (52). The women who experienced the problem described the feelings of inadequacy and frustration such as “I feel empty some how” or “I feel as if I don’t exist” (50). Although Friedan does not clearly state what the exact problem is it is apperant that these women want more from