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

Betty Friedans The Feminine Mystique and Sue Kaufmans daybook of a Mad HousewifeBettina Balser, the narrator of Sue Kaufmans Diary of a Mad Housewife, is an attractive, intelligent woman living in an affluent community of New York City with her successful husband and her two charming children. She is in addition on the verge of insanity. Her various mental disorders, her wavering physical health, and her sexual promiscuity permeate her diary entries, and are interwoven among descriptions of the seemingly normal and lax routine of a housewife. Betty Friedan, in writing the Feminine Mystique, describes the plight of millions of American women directly parallel to that of Bettinas. Through her exhaustive research and interviews, Friedan documents ex 10sive evidence of the untoward effects of Occupation Housewife. The women she speaks with are all like Bettina they lead desirable, 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 not 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 have the life of which millions of women can only dream. She begins her diary with a long catalogue of all of the things she should, in all reason, be grateful forShall I say the obvious, the thing Ive told myself every day for weeks- that I know Im a in truth Lucky Girl, and really must be crazy to get into the state Im in these days, when I have everything A Girl Could hope? 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 marriage in the inhumanly confining role as a housewife because sh e was able to hold on to ideas that made her Bettina Balser instead of just a housewife. Bettina is an outstanding woman when compared to the millions of women described by Friedan whose creativity and individuality was wasted on living solely as a wife and mother. However, Bettina also embodies the inglorious 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.