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Betty Friedan

Betty Friedan Quotes

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Famous Betty Friedan Quotes

“American housewives have not had their brains shot away, nor are they schizophrenic in the clinical sense. But if ... the fundamental human drive is not the urge for pleasure or the satisfaction of biological needs, but the need to grow and to realize one's full potential, their comfortable, empty, purposeless days are indeed cause for a nameless terror.”

IfsNeedsHumansGrowsCausesRealizingPleasureBrainComfortableShotsEmptyFundamentalsTerrorSatisfactionUrgesHousewifeFull PotentialNamelessSchizophrenicClinicals
Book:The Feminine Mystique
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“There's no question that the black middle class has benefited greatly by the civil rights movement. But there is a large black underclass that does not have access to jobs. If there's no clear road to income and status except crime, we should expect social problems. You can't solve this problem without addressing the economic issues, and the same is true with gender.”

IfsShouldDoeProblemJobsSocialBlackClassIssuesClearRightsEconomicMiddleCrimeMovementGenderSolveAccessIncomeCivil RightsMiddle ClassCivil Rights MovementSocial ProblemsEconomic Issues
Author:Betty Friedan
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“I'm against suppression of pornography. If you suppress guns - yes; if you want to suppress poverty - yes. These are the obscenities, the real brutalization of people. I am almost more outraged by ads for blue jeans or cars that sort of blatantly depict women not only as sex objects, but women that look younger than the age of consent, looking like they've just been raped or asking to be raped-utterly passive sex objects.”

PeopleIfsWantLooksRealAgeSexPovertyCarObjectsGunAskingBlueAdsPassiveConsentJeansPornographySuppressionOutragedObscenityBlue JeansAge Of Consent
Author:Betty Friedan
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“The only kind of work which permits an able woman to realize her abilities fully, to achieve identity in society in a life plan that can encompass marriage and motherhood, is the kind that was forbidden by the feminine mystique, the lifelong commitment to an art or science, to politics or profession. If divorce has increased by one thousand percent, don't blame the women's movement. Blame the obsolete sex roles on which our marriages were based.”

IfsKindArtAbleSexRealizingAbilityRolesPlansAchieveMovementIdentityThousandPercentCommitmentBlameDivorceMotherhoodProfessionFemininePermitForbiddenLifelongObsoleteMystiqueFeminine Mystique
Author:Betty Friedan
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“Over and over again, stories in women's magazines insist that women can know fulfillment only at the moment of giving birth to a child. They deny the years when she can no longer look forward to giving birth, even if she repeats the act over and over again. In the feminine mystique, there is no other way for a woman to dream of creation or of the future. There is no other way she can even dream about herself, except as her children's mother, her husband's wife.”

IfsKnowsWayGivingYearsLooksChildrenMomentsStoriesDreamMotherWifeCreationBirthHusbandDenyMagazinesFulfillmentRepeatsFeminineGiving BirthMystiqueFeminine Mystique
Author:Betty Friedan
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“Aging is not 'lost youth,' but a new stage of opportunity and strength. It's a different stage of life, and if you are going to pretend it's youth, you are going to miss it. You are going to miss the surprises, the possibilities, and the evolution that we are just beginning to know about because there are no role models, no guideposts, and no signs.”

IfsKnowsDifferentOpportunityLostRolesStageMissingPossibilityYouthEvolutionModelsAgingSurpriseAssRole ModelsBad AssStages Of LifeLost Youth
Author:Betty Friedan
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