Welcome to Litsy!

Braved the cold in Memphis today to check out South Main Book Juggler and I‘m glad I did. I found a copy of the tagged book and the owner was kind enough to recommend The Book Club for Troublesome Women to me. She shared with me that she‘s currently reading the books in tandem and I thought that sounded like a wonderful idea myself.

Oh Betty. When you‘re wrong, you‘re REALLY wrong. I so wish she had been right about this.

I should have read this book ages ago, but better late than never! I see the drawbacks of Friedan‘s approach, how she focuses on a very narrow subset of women for her work, but I do think it‘s full of important criticism. I saw myself in these pages, much more than I‘d like. Definitely worth a read.

(Inset from Rollo May, “Contributions of Existential Psychotherapy)

Friedan uses this in her argument against housewives “adjusting” to their limited existence, but it really struck me how this applies to LGBTQ+

Here are the #Roll100 books I‘ll be choosing from in November. I‘ve already started The Feminine Mystique even though it‘s still October. I‘m still reading but struggling to express myself or concentrate with the brain fog caused my chronic illness relapse. I find myself staring at the TV, not even following programs. Just normalizing struggling! I‘m sorry if anyone else is rn, too! 💕💕💕

#WondrousWednesday on a Friday, I've had a busy week 🙃

(1) The Feminine Mystique
(2) About 4 months (War and Peace), if we don't count the books that I tried to pick up several times and ended up bailing on
(3) 18 years (and counting) in teaching

Thanks for the tag @Eggs 💕

Last night, we went to see “Once Upon A One More Time” - a new Broadway musical where all the songs are Britney Spears hits. The plot centered around Cinderella, Snow White, & other princesses attempting to write their own happy ever after after reading Friedan‘s book (not kidding). Cindy‘s Fairy Godmother was Betty herself. A fever dream but incredibly fun! 💖😂✨🫶🏻🪩🧚🏻‍♀️

Both these items were sold at the merch booth. 🙌🏻 💪🏻

It‘s February ! I just open my Christmas gift for this month 😊

I'm glad I read this book. It was a long one, some parts were a bit outdated, some were a little weird (the comparisons to the Holocaust, for example), but many were very interesting and valuable. I loved Friedan's critique of Freud.
Also, though the situation was very different in Hungary in the 1960s, the book is eerily relevant in my country today, with the current government's family policy.

Though I‘d never actually read this book that influenced my mother‘s generation so intensely, I knew the basic thesis and the general praise and criticism it receives. Initially everything I read validated the ideas I already had about this, but a few things did surprise me along the way, so I‘m glad I took the time to actually read this piece of our history. #BBRCAdultControversial @LibrarianRyan

Read it in a history class and it was really enjoyable

I just watched the first Ep if this series on Hulu - it‘s so good! About the feminist movement and the STOP ERA movements in the 70‘s & 80‘s. Expert level casting choices.

I enjoyed this book because it really presented women‘s sexuality in an open and acceptable light in stark comparison to the prudish matronly types typically portrayed in the time the book was written. I appreciated how much easier we have it today but I can see clearly how far we‘ve yet to go. In this current administration and the resurfacing of open misogyny and women‘s reproductive rights being questioned, it as important as ever to read this.

I only read the extracts from 'The Problem that has No Name' - but what I read here was powerful and succinct. This is not an area I expected to be drawn to, and how wrong I was.

I think this is a problem across the board now!

"It was as if no reality remained for man except his sexual perversions"

Just got the other book I ordered, as inspired from my women‘s history page-a-day calendar. I think it‘s the original edition. I love old books!

So flippin‘ excited to start all of these! Which one first?!

Being back in Connecticut means a visit to Book Barn and epic book hauls. #bookbarn #bookhaul #smallbusinesssaturday

It took me way too long to read this “book”. The Feminine Mystique is a very long thesis about “the problem that has no name”. It has a name, it‘s just that during this time period it wasn‘t proper for American housewifes to name it. I understand the importance of this dissertation when it was published because the leading occupation for women was housewife. These women felt like they had no identity outside of being wives and mothers. Cont'd.....

Remarkable: The Other America, Silent Spring, The Feminine Mystique, and Unsafe at Any Speed were published in a span of three years (1962-1965)

Great way to get an introduction and history of what started the feminist movement.

Something about this sign just irked me and was hilarious all at the same time. #...because

The introduction to this book details how much things have changed for American women since this was published in 1963 and I think this book helped to spark a change in the way women were perceived and expected to behave etc. Well analysed and detailed with research into eduction, marriage and psychology etc. but I think I‘ll stick to more recent non-fiction feminist books that are more relevant to our society today. #feministclassic #booked2018

#audiowalk into town and to the library and back. I‘m glad I‘m listening to this rather than reading it. It‘s a bit repetitive but I can see why it was groundbreaking at the time. #booked2018 #feministclassic

Even though most of the information is no longer pertinent its still relatable to problems that women have today. Although most of this reads as a textbook. Most of what is written is piggybacked off of research by Freud and Kinsey which is interesting. And most of the authors interviewees apparently conclude sexual problems as root of their unhappiness/empowerment.This is a good book to read as a historical text and I would recommend it as such.

Alright. Sorry, Betty! I got through 4 chapters before I realized why I was having so much trouble. What was revolutionary in the 1960s was literally learned at the breast by women who like me are now in their 30s. What WAS fascinating was the detailed look at the evolution of women's magazines through this same period and their cumulative effect on imagery of the American woman. So read it for that, not the feminist revelations.

I'm sure there's a message here....trying to make progress on Friedan while watching Trolls with the big girl while the baby sleeps. Just not sure what it is. I'm having #bookennui and trouble finishing anything this year. Any #advice, dearest Littens?

I seem constitutionally incapable this year of reading as many lightweight books as I'm used to. Must be something about the atmosphere. My mind keeps turning to heavier things. I want to see what I can gain from this classic.

This book is a major commitment, for two reasons: 1. It is long (550ish pages) 2. It is problematic. I mean, it's like the writer forgot (or chose to forget) that minority women existed and that they were in fact working alongside their husbands to make ends meet in the late 1900s. However, I'm glad I read it. I l learned so much. I'm going to try to read Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde to get a comprehensive view of this time period.

Trying to read some of the holes in my "important books" backlog. I'm actually glad I waiting until now to read it. I can think more critically about the ideas now that I'm actively making choices about what fulfills me and how to balance family and career.

I read this shortly after I graduated high school and I recently started re-reading this with my daughter who is graduating this spring. I had to slow down reading this . There're is so much to take in - it is such a different read now that I am the mother of an 18 year old. This has brought up some interesting discussions on what influences our identity. #thoughtprovoking #aprilbookshowers

#aprilbookshowers #publishedinthe1960s
Published in 1963, this work is often associated w/touching off the 2nd wave of American feminism. I'm discussing it in my US history survey class today, but I'll need to do a reread of it before I take over the Women's Leadership Project this fall. Friedan gave a voice to women who were previously afraid to admit that no, they didn't actually get great pleasure from vacuuming in heels and pearls. #feminist

Natasha: "This book is making me think about who I am as a woman. It was written in the 60s, but it's still relevant. Friedan gives you a historical perspective of people's opinion of women. I was surprised at how little Freud used to think of women. He wanted them to be like gentle dolls. I'm a nurse, so I have quite a typical feminine role. I didn't pick it because of that, but it makes me think about why women have come to be where we are now."

Really thought provoking and still relevant today.

This book is great, but it's pretty fucked up that the things Friedan called out as being regressive in the 1960s are things I was taught in the conservative religious south in the 1990s-2000s 😑

We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: "I want something more than my husband and my children and my home."

For a book written before my parents were born, this still feels incredibly relevant, considering the alarming frequency with which people assume I must be terribly unhappy about being single and that my big life goal must be to snag a man and start popping out babies. #nope

I didn't mean to buy any books today, but I work next door to a bookstore, and the weather is stormy, and I was drinking coffee, and I have a general lack self control, so here we are. #womanwriters #feminism

And now Mr. Darcy jumps in with his two cents. #feminism #prideandprejudice

Women today would blow Henry Bowman's mind. #feminism

Hey there, TBR pile. We're going to smash the patriarchy together.

My feminism is intersectional or it isn't feminism at all.

Added some classics to my feminist library this evening! Super excited to dive into these.

I think @BookishFeminist would be proud.

✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

Betty Friedan
“Each suburban wife struggles with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night- she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question-- 'Is this all?”

#womenwriters #wellbehavedwomenseldommakehistory

I've really been aching for intellectual engagement lately. The Feminine Mystique and a notebook seems like a good place to start.

"They were taught to pity the neurotic, unfeminine, unhappy women who wanted to be poets or physicists or presidents."

I think this might have just changed my life. It's a scary, bitter, confused, exhilarated kind of feeling.