FAREWELL BETTY FRIEDAN

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Betty Friedan, philosopher of modern-day feminism, dies

Betty Friedan, whose manifesto The Feminine Mystique helped shatter the cozy suburban ideal of the post-World War II era and laid the groundwork for the modern feminist movement, died today, her birthday. She was 85.

Friedan died at her Washington, D.C., home of congestive heart failure, according to a cousin, Emily Bazelon.

Few books have so profoundly changed so many lives as did Friedan's 1963 best seller. Her assertion that a woman needed more than a husband and children was a radical break from the Eisenhower era, when the very idea of a wife doing any work outside of house work was fodder for gag writers, like an episode out of I Love Lucy.

Independence for women was no joke, Friedan wrote. The feminine mystique was a phony deal sold to women that left them unfulfilled, suffering from "the problem that has no name" and seeking a solution in tranquilizers and psychoanalysis.

Click here for the rest.

Betty Friedan would have been a hero to me simply for her work as a pioneering feminist--after all, she, like actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson, spoke out against establishment values pretty much by herself; feminists following Friedan did so within the overall context of the women's movement: Friedan was, at first, a feminist by herself, totally on her own. However, my love for her as a philosopher greatly grew when I realized that the concept of "the problem that has no name" could quickly and easily be generalized to include the majority of the American population. That is, the materialistic lifestyle and philosophy known as consumerism, and the ongoing reduction of the labor force to meaningless service work have created a similar situation for all Americans: as human beings, every individual has a great deal to offer society, but the social order in which we currently live simply does not allow that. We are to do as we are told while working at pointless, soul-sucking jobs, and personal fulfillment is to be found by amusing ourselves with television or buying shiny objects at the mall. I think many Americans are doing exactly what they think they're supposed to be doing with their lives but are miserable anyway, and have no idea why. The whole freakin' country is burdened by "the problem that has no name."

Farewell Betty Friedan. You did more with your life, I think, than most people realize.



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