Greer and the Satirical Housewife

In regard to Monday’s class, it is worth considering the connection between Germaine Greer and Mary Tyler Moore’s depiction of a housewife in the 1960s. Greer’s novel The Female Eunuch, takes its title from the writings of Betty Freidan’s The Feminine Mystique, She is commenting on the de-sexualization of women by men in the sense that Freud’s argument does not give women their own sexual identity, but makes them a kind of not man, a kind of Eunuch. Their sense of identity is then geared towards men.

Moore’s character in the one episode of the Dick Van Dyke show we watched is a woman through one character’s eyes. We see her when he gets home, and when he awakes, but not at any other time. Not without Dick Van Dyke in the same screen. Either she is trying to immaculate him by doing manly chores or by making him do feminine chores, or she is working for his approval (by ssaving time to work on her appearance). Whereas Dick Van Dyke has a world and life outside of his wife (a job, friends), Moore’s identity seems much more geared to her husband. It is funny when she does the masculine jobs, like fixing the toaster, or gets out of doing housework somehow. In his dream, she does not want to kiss him because she is too tired and dirty, and this is what scares him the most when he awakes. It seems like Moore needs to be in a position where she wants to please her husband, but Dick Van Dyke does not have to do the same for his wife. She is not on equal footing as him. This brings to mind the inequality of relationships that Greer discusses.

Concerning the readings, I wonder if city official have succeeded in governing the city? What changed about how we think about city residents and minorities? Has anything changed?

-Rachel Smalle