J’s Take on A Strange Stirring

A Strange Stirring by Stephanie Coontz looks at The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan and the effect it had.

It seemed like a good idea to actually read The Feminine Mystique first, so I did that. K and I also discussed it.

And, actually, a lot of what Coontz says are things I noticed about the book. It’s repetitive, check. It’s got a very limited audience, check. It’s very dated when it comes to autism and male homosexuality, check. Though it didn’t surprise me when she also said that Friedan was aware it was leaving out working class and non-white women. Friedan does make a small mention here and there that shows she’s aware of them.

It did surprise me some to hear that Friedan had actually been an activist in civil rights before writing this book. Coontz goes into some detail about how she hid some things, exaggerated other things, and downplayed still other things, and says part of the reason might’ve been McCarthyism. If you were too much on the left (or once walked into a coffee shop where someone on the left used to work), then you could be labelled a Communist and blacklisted, or arrested, or well, all those other fun things. Sidenote: while reshelving books in our library storage, I ran across a government publication from 1951 that listed all the organizations it suspected of being communist. Quite a list! I was kind of surprised the ALA wasn’t on there.

Coontz also confirmed for me that Friedan had no love for lesbians. Her main theme was that women becoming fuller people would help men and women love each other better and parent together better.

I did like hearing how different women, and some men, reacted to The Feminine Mystique. For some, it changed their lives. For some, it let them understand their mothers better. For others, it had very little effect at all. Which is all pretty much as I’d expect, but was still interesting.

Coontz also discussed the equal opportunity employment act and some of the reactions to the idea of women being allowed to apply for any job they wanted. Some of the quotes were quite amusing. Here’s one: “[…] the personnel officer of a major airline raised the horrifying prospect of what might happen ‘when a gal walks into our office, demands a job as an airline pilot and has the credentials to qualify.'”

Probably the most interesting chapter to me was the last one. It’s also the most depressing. I know women still aren’t equal in a number of ways, but she laid out quite a lot of ways I hadn’t even thought of. She explains different mystiques in play now. The “Hottie Mystique” where young girls want to dress and look hot. And the “Supermom Mystique”, which I think we’ve started to move past. At the very least, people are very aware of it and I feel like my generation is more laid-back in general. And the “Career Mystique” which affects men and women both. That career is more important than family. That you have to put in more than 40 hour workweeks or you’re not committed. And all sorts of other crap! Seriously. I need to move to Europe.

I kind of wish the last chapter was the start of another book entirely.

I’m not sad I read it, but I’m more than ready to go read something more fun. And very glad I read Beauty Queens by Libba Bray in between The Feminine Mystique and this. It was a great break, but still in theme. And you should totally read Beauty Queens. Srsly. Go read.