By: Caroline Crandall
My understanding about The Problem That Has No Name by Betty Friedan is that the problem is the fact that women in the 1950’s and early 60’s had no say in how they wanted to live out their lives. The purpose of a woman’s being then was to get married, have children and then do all housing tasks. They really had no choice and if they did begin to question why their life was the way that it was or if that was what they really wanted, they would be frowned upon. The article stated that in that time period, if a woman was feeling unhappy with her life, it was commonly thought that there must have been problems in her marriage or that she had something wrong with her. This caused Women to feel confused and alone, even though there was a large number of women who felt the exact same way. People who were against these ideas of women being something other than a house wife tried to come up with excuses as to why women could be having these “ridiculous” anti-housewife thoughts. The article said that women being educating was causing ideas to be put in their head. It also said, “ the problem was dismissed by telling the house wife how luck she is-her own boss, no time clock, no junior executive gunning for her job. “ First of all, she is not her own boss because she has to take commands form her husband and cater to her children. Second, she does have to follow a time clock because she has a time schedule to get all her daily house chores done. And third, she doesn’t have a junior executive gunning for her job, because no one else wants to have her job!
I enjoyed this quote that I found that pretty much sums up this problem that has no name.
“It is simply the fact that American women are kept from growing to their full human capacities - is taking a far greater toll on the physical and mental health of our country than any known disease.”
I love that link you posted. I watched this movie when I was only a child and of course, you don't really understand it. And as time progresses, you start to realize what the movie is about when you're older. I find it pretty ridiculous that instead of wandering for food himself, he wanders for his wife to reach his food. The time period strongly represents the ideal place of a woman, which is in the kitchen. He firmly believes that it is his wife's job to make him dinner and cater to him as much as possible. And this is why I really agree with you when you said she is not her own boss because she has to live with the demands of her husband. The shift of women entering the workforce or breaking her daily cycle and giving herself some quality time is uncommon and an "illness" to others because it is not an expected role. In the Pleasantville clip, he is starting to question not only "where's my dinner?" but "where's my wife and what did you do to her?" It becomes a powerful movement from that point on.
ReplyDeleteThe problem that has no name reminded me of a movie called “Revolutionary Road” (2008). It is about a married couple who live in 1955. They want to be different than the others and to live their dreams. Actually they want to break out of the system that a woman has to stay home taking care of the family and the man goes to work and comes back in the evening. The wife graduated school but ended up as a housewife. She doesn’t feel comfortable and her husband knows that. They are honest to each other. The husband seems comprehensive but at the end he is not able to get out of the system and to leave the country to start all over in Paris. He promised that to his wife because he knew that she could live different there and fulfill her dreams. He decides following his job offer and not to take care of what his wife wants. At the end she commits suicide because she can’t bear this anymore and she realizes that her husband is caught in the system and is not going to revolutionize against it. She is too disappointed and feels alone. I attach to quotes from the movie.
ReplyDeleteAnother man says to the husband: "I wouldn't be surprised, if you knocked her up on purpose, just so you could spend the rest of your life hiding behind that maternity dress."
The wife said to her husband: ”I saw a whole other future. I can't stop seeing it.”, “Just because you've got me safe in this little trap, you think you can bully me into feeling whatever you want me to feel!”
“husband: Well I support you, don't I? I work ten hours a day at a job I can't stand!
wife: You don't have to!
husband: But I have the backbone not to run away from my responsibilities!
Wife: Look at us. We're just like everyone else. We've bought into the same, ridiculous delusion.”
Wife: “And you know what's so good about the truth? Everyone knows what it is, no matter how long they've lived without it.”
-Annika W.
"The Problem That Has No Name" pointed out something huge to me that I was completely unaware of - that the few women that dared voice there feelings at the time were labeled as "psychotic" and didn't realize how "lucky" they are that they have a man to take care of them. The June Cleaver image has always been the image of women of the 50's and 60's in my head but I never took the time to realize that some of the women felt entrapment and really couldn't do anything about it. Comparing to women in America today, it has come a long way with the amount of women in the professional world. Taking our school for example, we have a majority of not only students but also faculty being women.
ReplyDeleteI loved reading the problem that has no name because it reminded me of most women in my family. I saw this happening while I grew up because my family was very "traditional". My mom is one of these woman feeling these thoughts probably as I am typing. Men don't realize yes they feel the need to be a provider, but women also need to feel like they have some sort of identity otherwise they'll get lost within themselves. All they'll ever get to know is that they were a good wife and mother, but their is much more to life than just that.
ReplyDelete-Starr Torres