Book 11: The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

I first heard of this book when I was 16, mentioned in my history class. Like with Uncle Tom's Cabin, I was determined to read this historically significant book. TWO copies were in my mother's basement! Despite her complaints again that reading an old book in public "looked poor," I read it and hid the second copy in case she confiscated the first along with my Alanis Morissette CD's.

The Feminine Mystique was the major turning point for me. I'd already discovered the kind of Wicca books available at Borders Books a few years earlier, but this was the first time I encountered feminism applied to practical, mundane life. Although I read this 40 years after it was published, it was as though it'd been written specifically for me! My mother & childhood parish formed me to be a stereotypical 60's housewife and I was very depressed at that time since I was failing at it so badly. Although it would be a few years yet until I learned that marriage & children are optional, The Feminine Mystique showed me that I could pursue my dreams and be more than what my mother was pressuring me to be. 
I still don't know how 2 copies wound up in her basement. Even back then I thought she'd read it only to learn how to do the opposite of it's insights and lessons.

I reread it again in '12 and saw the flaws in the book. It is very white, very upper class, and has a very narrow scope. And it leaves out queerness and nuns (which seems like an odd exclusion to me now). Also, I DON'T CARE ABOUT FREUD!! The fact that The Feminine Mystique applied so much to me in high school shows the socioeconomic class I was in and was being forced to climb. Nevertheless, I was able to see the flaws of the book later BECAUSE I'd read it; I needed to grow through the book in order to understand it's limits. 

Now it seems even smaller in scope as I know even more about what was going on in the world at that time. But that's perhaps one of the things that made The Feminine Mystique so perfect for me when I was a sheltered 16 year old: I was spellbound but not overwhelmed. Thanks to this book, I was emboldened to go out and continue learning and having experiences.


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17573685-the-feminine-mystique

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