“We’re taking The Argument to San Francisco! On May 13, Kelsey Piper and Jerusalem Demsas are debating a question that feels unavoidable right now: Is AI actually changing how science gets done, or are we in the middle of a very expensive illusion? Jerusalem is bullish; Kelsey is skeptical.
And you won’t just be watching. You’ll get to join in on the argument, too.
Join us May 13 at The Chapel from 7 to 10 p.m. Come argue with us! RSVP here.
Betty Friedan thought Korean POWs were dying in captivity because their mothers were housewives. She thought boy moms were making their sons gay. She wrote a whole chapter comparing suburban kitchens to concentration camps — in 1963, while America was still processing what concentration camps actually were.
The Feminine Mystique is one of those important books that everyone “knows” but no one has actually read. Fair enough; until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t either.
For today’s episode of The Argument podcast, Matthew Yglesias and I read the book that kicked off second-wave feminism.
Stripped of its most… bizarre elements, Friedan’s core argument — that women in postwar America were depressed, and society’s conventional prescription was to “housewife harder” — is one of the most successful arguments of the 20th century.
Friedan blamed women’s magazines, Freudian psychoanalysts, and university curricula for suppressing women’s aspirations. Instead, she said women should strive for a career — but not just any career. To Friedan, the only people who are truly fulfilled are those who live the life of the mind, are college-educated, and have a specific set of middle-class values.
In short, she was the original #girlboss.
Watch or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
The Argument. Libbing out.
The transcript will be after the paywall in this post for paying subscribers.
Time stamps:
0:00 - Introduction to The Feminine Mystique
9:02 - Psychotherapy, Mad Men, and Marxist origins
20:02 - The true drivers of social change
30:52 - Famous books with massive effects
35:07 - The most insane parts of The Feminine Mystique
47:33 - The female happiness paradox
51:34 - Rating the book’s success
56:54 - Peer Review: Health benefits of WWII-era sugar rationing
New episodes post every Thursday.
For an ad-free version and full transcript, subscribe at TheArgumentMag.com.
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket Casts
Show notes:
The Feminine Mystique, 1963 book by Betty Friedan that serves as the main focus of this episode: Goodreads page, Amazon page
Articles critiquing The Feminine Mystique for centering white upper class women:
“4 Big Problems With The Feminine Mystique”: The Atlantic article
“A Critical Look at The Feminist Mystique”: The Stranger article
Information on Betty Friedan founding the National Organization for Women (NOW): NOW page
“Shoot the messenger,” article by Jerusalem Demsas about how the people who drive the discourse forward often disproportionately center their own experiences: The Argument article
Information on Radcliffe College presidents: Harvard page
A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s, book by Stephanie Coontz that details some of the impacts created by The Feminine Mystique, which contains the quote (referenced by Jerusalem), “Books don’t become best sellers because they are ahead of their time”: Goodreads page, Amazon page
“Books as Bombs,” article by Louis Menand about the impact of The Feminine Mystique: The New Yorker article
Silent Spring, book by Rachel Carson often credited with kicking off much of the environmentalist movement: Goodreads page, Amazon page
Unsafe at Any Speed, book by Ralph Nader that led to many consumer protection regulations: Goodreads page, Amazon page
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, book by Jane Jacobs that critiqued 20th-century urban planning and large-scale renewal projects: Goodreads page, Amazon page
Capital in the Twenty-First Century, book by Thomas Piketty that proposed several novel economic policies to advance income compression: Goodreads page, Amazon page
The Anxious Generation, book by Jonathan Haidt that contains arguments against helicopter parenting: Goodreads page, Amazon page
Don’t Blame Us: Suburban Liberals and the Transformation of the Democratic Party, book by Lily Geismer about how NIMBY activism in the Boston suburbs was developed by highly educated women who didn’t have full-time careers outside the home: Goodreads page, Amazon page
Explanation of the section of morning Jewish prayers in which traditional Jewish men praise God who, among other things, “has not made me a woman.” The Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Reform movements have opted to substitute that language with alternatives: My Jewish Learning article
Coverage of the campaign against mandatory retirement ages and other discriminatory practices for stewardesses: The New York Times archive, ACLU commentary, PBS article
“The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness,” paper by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers about why self-reported happiness among women has gone down even as their material well-being and rights have empirically increased: American Economic Journal: Economic Policy article
“Karine Jean-Pierre is not a #GirlBoss,” article by Jerusalem Demsas: The Argument article
“In defense of the ‘girlboss’,” article by Matt Yglesias: Slow Boring article
Peer Review: “Early-Life Sugar Restrictions Reduce Genetic Disparities in Adult Adiposity,” article by Tadeja Gracner, Claire Boone, Patrick Turley, and Paul Gertler using data from U.K. sugar rationing in World War II to show the effect lack of sugar had on individuals with high genetic risk for obesity: NBER working paper
Coverage of people getting “excommunicated” from psych fields for contradicting Freud: Freud Museum London article, Janet Malcolm book
(Illustration by The Argument, image by Harold M. Lambert via Getty)
Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Argument to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
