Although only 3,000 copies were printed in the first edition of The Myth of Women, it quickly became a surging feminist bible, with astronomical sales of 600,000 hardcover copies and 2 million paperback copies.
Taking to the streets seems to be the only way for all ideological movements in the 1960s, and so does Friedan. 1966, she led the establishment of the American (now) national women's organization and took to the streets to protest with the slogan "Women, unite!" We urge women to "join the mainstream immediately", and at the same time demand that Congress legislate to end all discriminatory practices against women and strive for equal employment, equal pay for equal work, free abortion and women's participation in politics.
The most impressive appearance now is the "Women's Strike for Equality" held in new york on August 26th, 1970, with the slogan "Don't cook dinner-let the house mice starve to death today!" In addition, Friedan also helped to set up the short-lived "first women's bank and trust company" in 1973, with the aim of making women economically independent.
China women who were detached from the world in the 1960s obviously missed the Friedan-style women's liberation movement, perhaps forever. In China, she is still little known. Even if her works are occasionally translated into Chinese, they only stay in a narrow theoretical level and have no influence on ordinary women at all.
On the surface, she bid farewell to the demands of "housewives", which will not be new to China women who are confident that they hold up half the sky. In fact, even in the United States, her "female myth" was regarded as outdated by later feminists. At that time, Cain Friedan's request has become the norm in today's society-the revolution has ended.
But is the revolution really over? Ms Friedan was born short, but she has amazing vitality. She has a pair of big watery eyes, bright and clear, full of enthusiasm. Until her death, she took it as her duty to liberate women all over the world. Although people from within the camp also complain about her impatience and arbitrariness, compared with the endless radical feminists in the future, her feminist proposition can be described as "gentleness", although she once compared women's housework to animal life.
Her real name is Betty Naomi Goldstein, 192 1 was born in Pioria, Illinois on February 4th. My mother used to be the editor-in-chief of the women's section of the local newspaper. She was good at all the talents that women were allowed to do at that time: golf, tennis, bridge, mahjong and shopping. She was ruled by her husband at home-Friedan called her mother's frustration a kind of "powerless anger". When someone asked her why she wanted to join the women's movement in the future, Friedan replied that she didn't remember any cases of gender discrimination in her early years, but she knew exactly how her mother wasted her talent.
She studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and worked for left-wing and union newspapers. She married drama director Carl Friedan in 1947, and was dismissed by the newspaper when she was pregnant with a second child in 1952. 1957, she attended an alumni gathering, during which she sent a questionnaire to female students. The answer is consistent with her own feelings: something is missing in their lives. So on this basis, coupled with the subsequent investigation, the landmark "Female Myth" was finally published. The "nameless problem" written in the book, like simone de beauvoir's "second sex" in 1949, has become a symbolic term of the feminist movement.
In 2000, Simon and Schuster published her memoir "Life Up to Now", in which she revealed that her husband had hit her, which made her eyes Qing Wu, and she had to cover it with heavy makeup when she was on TV. However, her ex-husband died in February, and 1999 denied the accusation, saying that Ms. Friedan had made irresponsible remarks. "I am an innocent passer-by, knocked down by a violent driver, who savagely aimed at all men." He said.
Betty friedan had three children and divorced Carl Friedan on 1969. From the late 1960s to the 1970s, the feminist movement experienced a period of great development, and its influence has penetrated into the political, social, cultural and artistic fields. The movement itself is full of camps, and it has split into so-called liberal feminism, radical feminism, Marxist feminism, socialist feminism and so on, which is dazzling.
In June, 1998, Time magazine published an article entitled "Is feminism dead? On June 5438+065438+ 10, 2005, Phyllis Chesler, another famous feminist fighter, simply published the book Death of Women's Rights: The Next Step of Women's Freedom Struggle, which directly announced this movement. She said that feminism has reached a dead end, and there is no place for free thinkers who oppose party lines. If you want to be a feminist, you must be anti-capitalist, anti-war and regard religion as the embodiment of patriarchy. In short, the feminist movement has become autocratic and repressive.
In this situation, the idea of "choice feminism" began to appear, claiming that returning to the family and caring for each other is also one of feminists' choices. In this regard, feminist scholar Linda Gershman published an article entitled "The Way Home" in American Outlook on February 20th, 2004, calling this argument a perfect satire on betty friedan's radical appeal. She quoted Mark Twain as mocking "selective feminism": "A person who chooses not to read is as ignorant as a person who can't read."
In the smoke of this series of debates, betty friedan was forced to explain his position again and again. "Some people think I said:' Women of the world, unite-all you have lost is your man'." In 1963, she told Life magazine, "This is not right. All you have lost is your vacuum cleaner. "