Friedan’s arguments are about women in the 1940-60’s, that had to face a problem which cannot be classified in her time by doctors. Friedan called it, “the problem that has no name”. Women in her generation was told by the media to have kids and a husband, and also do meaningful labor like taking care of the household, the kids and satisfied the husband needs. The media wanted to tell the women to be more feminine and enjoyed its benefits. Things changed in Friedens’s time when women had more freedom, like going to college just like men did but most women refuse to college because of the media they saw. Examples of these media were a television show called, I Love Lucy, a housewife who would do less mediocre labor like cleaning and taking care of her husband. When women became more feminine, and had a family at an early aged. As years passed, women had showed years of symptoms of being depressed, and being depressed can cause a change in your immune symptoms, causing more symptoms of illness. As Friedan’s talked to other women who was depressed, she believe that women are depressed because they have goals of their own then taking care of their family. Woman are depressed because they were told to be feminine and as a result, their own dreams and ambition were crushed.
Betty Friedan uses the words, “The Feminist mystique?” in her book. Feminist, means the qualities and characteristic of a women, and “the mystique” is the higher interest or value of the person. In other words, Friedan is saying that woman’s have their own set of goals that differ from told them to do. Women in Friedan’s time are bound to the ideas that they don’t agree upon like being a housewife or even going to college.
The “Feminist Mystique” caused a lot of problem for women around the 40-60’s. Woman’s are depressed and ill in Freidan’s time, For example, Friedan interviews women’s who has a sign of depression. One woman in Freidan’s interview, a Long Island young wife, who has so much freedom in her house says that she doesn’t feel alive while using her time just to sleep. The young wife that could a great example of a feminine woman in Friedan’s time is unhappy, which is kind of ironic when the media are telling that having a feminine life makes you happy.
Friedan’s arguments of depressed woman in her time are very accurate and persuasive to the readers. She uses firsthand experiences by going to different parts of the states where house were unhappy, for instance the depress long island women. Friedan also uses statistics in her text to show facts why woman are so trapped and depressed.
