Feminist Author Betty Friedan Dies at 85

AP via Yahoo! News ^ | 02/04/2006

[GeneD]

WASHINGTON - Betty Friedan, whose manifesto "The Feminine Mystique" became a best seller in the 1960s and laid the groundwork for the modern feminist movement, died Saturday, her birthday. She was 85.

Friedan died at her home of congestive heart failure, according to a cousin, Emily Bazelon.

Friedan's assertion in her 1963 best seller that having a husband and babies was not everything and that women should aspire to separate identities as individuals, was highly unusual, if not revolutionary, just after the baby and suburban booms of the Eisenhower era.

The feminine mystique, she said, was a phony bill of goods society sold to women that left them unfulfilled, suffering from "the problem that has no name" and seeking a solution in tranquilizers and psychoanalysis.

"A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, `Who am I, and what do I want out of life?' She mustn't feel selfish and neurotic if she wants goals of her own, outside of husband and children," Friedan said.

In the racial, political and sexual conflicts of the 1960s and '70s, Friedan's was one of the most commanding voices and recognizable presences in the women's movement.

As a founder and first president of the National Organization for Women in 1966, she staked out positions that seemed extreme at the time on such issues as abortion, sex-neutral help-wanted ads, equal pay, promotion opportunities and maternity leave.

[Buck W.]

Compared to Helen Thomas, she's almost cute.

If Helen Thomas and Betty Friedan were laid end-to-end--AARRGGHHHHHHH!

[darkangel82]

Get thee gone, troll.

[rollo tomasi]

I am not happy someone died.

It's a shame a person would promote such a repulsive ideology as Betty did. Sorry, I hope she repented and accepted the Risen Lord.

Is this the kind of response you wanted or are you some hack who signed up today just so you could say "taliban Christians!"

[Tall_Texan]

The idea that women who stay home with their children are "wasting" their education is one of feminisms greatest and dirtiest lies. What are children, chopped liver?

I don't disagree but it's not for everyone. I've met some women who were horrible mothers. It just wasn't in their nature. It didn't make them worthless though. Their talents lay elsewhere.

Many men are good carpenters. I am not. But if society expected me to be a carpenter all day, I'd be unhappy and feel my strengths were wasted. It doesn't mean carpentry is a waste or a bad thing. It just means I know my limitations.

[Mobile Vulgus]

right about now, Jesus is saying..."SO. Ya don't need MEN, eh?"

[Yankee]

Betty Friedan just became a good feminist and a good Democrat when she assumed room temperature.

[small voice in the wilderness]

I know. I cried when I found out Hitler died. And I asked myself "why are people happy? A man died today. They must be Taliban Christians. Shame on them." It's always sad when people who are committed to the destruction of culture and society bite the dust.

puh-leaze.

[EverOnward]

"She was right and she was wrong."

Those of us who opposed her did not necessarily disagree with the problems and inequities that needed to be addressed. There are those who desire to SOLVE problems and those who EXPLOIT problems. She poured gasoline on flames. She feigned caring about women; when in fact, she and her fellow cohorts from hell cared for nothing more than self-gratification, power and every other negative self-serving attribute you can think of.

[Yankee]

Oh yeah, and the human race just got better looking too.........

[Moonman62]

Meow...

[Angus MacGregor]

If Helen Thomas and Betty Friedan were laid end-to-end--AARRGGHHHHHHH!

As you wish...

[Moonman62]

She looks like a young Helen Thomas.

Helen was born old.

[GretchenM]

How odd to die on one's birthday.

[Guenevere]

...and you joined today to say this???....

...folks, I think we have a .....troll!

[Angus MacGregor]

The Taliban Christians don't need any help with their reputation! They are giving ALL Christians, including those that follow Jesus (remember him?) a bad name. They need to go back and read the Gospels. Jesus came to teach us that we are to love each other, even our enemies, and He went on further to let the Pharisees, the church leaders of the day, know that they were HYPOCRITES. We now have a new generation of "pharisees"; the fundamentalist hypocrites!

[Tim Long]

See You In He-e-e-ell!

[ElTianti]

Mmmmmm.... Hottie.

[timydnuc]

No, no. She made her niche in this world, and she may have helped people. Respect for the dead is appropriate. God bless her, and God keep her. Her journey is over and she will see the truth.

[Angus MacGregor]

You know nothing about the gospels.

Betty Friedan and her followers are the enemies of Christ, I shed no tears for her.