Betty Friedans The Feminine Mystique and Sue Kaufmans Diary of a Mad

Betty Friedans The Feminine Mystique and Sue Kaufmans journal of a Mad HousewifeBettina Balser, the cashier of Sue Kaufmans daybook of a Mad Housewife, is an attractive, intelligent cleaning lady living in an affluent community of New York City with her thriving husband and her cardinal charming children. She is also on the verge of insanity. Her unhomogeneous mental disorders, her wavering physical health, and her sexual promiscuity permeate her journal entries, and are interwoven among descriptions of the seemingly normal and easy routine of a housewife. Betty Friedan, in writing the Feminine Mystique, describes the plight of millions of American women directly check to that of Bettinas. Through her exhaustive research and interviews, Friedan documents extensive evidence of the adverse effect of Occupation Housewife. The women she speaks with are all like Bettina they lead desir qualified, healthy lives on the surface, and yet they are slowly deteriorating inside. Friedan discusses the effects of the unnatural and illogical mirage of womanhood forced upon women, and analyzes why being just a housewife is non enough. Bettinas situation will be analyzed through Friedans theories on the feminine mystique. Despite her misery, Bettina Balser is quite aware of how blessed she is to construct the life of which millions of women can only dream. She begins her diary with a long scroll of all of the things she should, in all reason, be grateful forShall I scan the obvious, the thing Ive told myself every day for weeks- that I know Im a Very Lucky Girl, and really must be crazy to get into the state Im in these days, when I have everything A Girl Could Want? I have two bright, healthy, attractive children I have... ...e the nervous tics, the various phobias, the alcoholism, and the insomnia, Bettina survives through to the end of Diary of a Mad Housewife. Bettina made it through ten years of hymeneals in the inhumanly confining role as a housewife because she was able to hold on to ideas that made her Bettina Balser instead of just a housewife. Bettina is an slap-up woman when compared to the millions of women depict by Friedan whose creativity and individuality was wasted on living solely as a wife and mother. However, Bettina also embodies the grim effects that the feminine mystique debilitated American women with during the 1950s, as profoundly described by Betty Friedan in the Feminine Mystique. Works CitedFriedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York Norton, 1963.Kaufman, Sue. Diary of a Mad Housewife. New York Random House, 1967.