TOW #8 - The Feminine Mystique (IRB)

Throughout my reading of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, I've been intrigued by how she pulls back -- and then tears apart -- the layers of sexism in 1960's America. In each chapter, Friedan covers a specific topic and brings in various devices to support her ideas (discussed in my previous IRB post). However, at the end of each chapter, Friedan seamlessly transitions into the next topic by raising questions about how certain sexist standards came to be and their effects on American women. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure if this device had a name, or if it even was a rhetorical device. Thanks to Mr. Mulherin, learned man of history and apparently rhetorical devices, I learned that this is called the Socratic method. (What is it with ancient Greek dudes and English class?)

Friedan discusses women's insatiable search for sex and love in a chapter titled "The Sex Seekers." She makes the claim that women endlessly search for affairs and secret trysts in order to fill a void, a void which is created by a lack of identity and challenge. Toward the end of the chapter, she utilizes the Socratic method by raising several questions, "The shadow of sex without self may be dispelled momentarily in a sunny suburban dream house. But what will these childlike mothers and immature fathers do to their children, in that phantasy paradise where the pursuit of pleasure and things hides the loosening links to complex modern reality? What kind of sons and daughters are raised by girls who become mothers before they have ever faced that reality, or sever their links to it by becoming mothers?" (335-336) These questions are resolved by Friedan in the following chapter discussing a growing passivity and infantilism in America's youth.

In writing The Feminine Mystique, Friedan mainly targeted housewives in 1960's America with the purpose of providing them solidarity and a justification for their frustrated feelings. However, Friedan was also aware that the entirety of America would be criticizing her book -- especially the college presidents, psychologists, and corporations whose sexist actions she calls out. By integrating the Socratic method, Friedan appeals to logos. She progresses from not just from one aspect of sexism to another, but from one layer to another. This shows the breadth and depth of the ways in which misogyny permeates everyday life. Furthermore, the logical progression keeps her skeptics reading in a time when they were all too ready to dismiss her theses.