We chose to examine and analyze an excerpt from Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, in addition to Lesley Gore’s song, “You Don’t Own Me,” because they both represent the empowerment and liberation of women. In the midst of an oppressive society that prevented women from reaching their fullest capabilities, these two texts helped to incite the second-wave of the feminist movement. Gore urges women to take control of their own lives, rather than be submissive to men. Similarly, Friedan dispels the belief that the exemplary woman desires nothing more than to remain in the household. Both Lesley Gore’s song, “You Don’t Own Me,” and the excerpt from Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, empower women by challenging the standard of male dominance, but Friedan’s work more thoroughly and provocatively explores the growing discontentment of American women in the 1960s.
Today, the word feminism brings along its own set of opinions and connotations, and is often considered to be a controversial topic. However, we believe that by examining the roots of the feminist movement, people can better understand its goals. Both The Feminine Mystique and “You Don’t Own Me” are timeless in their message that women should strive to achieve their fullest capabilities, despite hindrances such as a patriarchal system or simply oppressive male forces in their lives. Although there is less pressure for women to remain in the home today, many women still feel the need to choose between career and family, a decision that, as Friedan discussed, brings its own unique set of societal pressures. Additionally, Lesley Gore’s message that no women should accept treatment as property is still an empowering theme to women today. In fact, the song was released as a cover in 2015 by Grace Sewell and G-Eazy where is was at the top of the charts for weeks. In addition, the song has been recently used in various public service announcements for Planned Parenthood and advertisements encouraging women to vote.
To give our readers a
better understanding of the background and origin of “You Don’t Own Me” and
The Feminine Mystique, we first presented the kairos of the two texts. At
the same time, we provided the audience analyses to inform our readers of the
difference in targeted audience of the two texts. Next, we introduced the
stasis theories of both texts as a way of outlining the major arguments, in
hopes that readers would have a better understanding of the rhetorical
techniques used with the major claims in mind. Following stasis theory, we
meticulously discussed the pathos, ethos, and logos of the two texts. We wanted
to show our readers why pathos played a major role in these texts, but also how
important it was that both Lesley Gore and Betty Friedan were credible artists in
this particular topic. In addition, we intentionally chose the color pink for
our blog’s background as an ironic symbol of stereotypes against women.
After reading our blog,
we hope our readers come away with a better understanding of feminism in the 1960s
and the sense of empowerment that women achieved. For readers who consider
themselves “anti-feminists” or don’t consider themselves to have an opinion on
feminism, we hope our blog stimulates you to explore this topic through a
different lens. It’s important for our readers to understand the injustices
that women have endured during this time period, and we encourage our readers
to attempt to relate this back to women’s struggles in the present day.
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