"The Problem With No Name"

“The problem with no name” is an interesting reading that captured my attention on several aspects. As said in the reading females during that time period have a specific role, a role in which every female wanted to have. This was a role that was portrayed all throughout the media, and even psychologists like Freud. This role was to be feminine, and being feminine was to get married, have kids, and take care of kids and husband. They were just simply “housewives”. Having an education or dreaming about having a career was considered to be unfeminine, and those who have careers are said to be unhappy.

 Reading this made me realize how much things have changed, in this day and age. Females now are more interested in their careers; actually I believe they are interested in both their careers and in their families. Many females now believe they can take the role of a man. Females are more motivated to do things that are said to be only done by men, because of the stereotype that women cannot achieve anything I man can do, or the saying “this is a man job” No, I women can be anything she want to be, are women minorities yes, is it difficult to get to the top yes, but many females each and every day are making a change. There is no problem with being a housewife, matter of fact i believe there is alot of work to taking care of a family. I also believe that women need to have a career outside their homes. It is a way to experience other things, rather than stay in their homes, and most importantly gives them a sense of self-worth, and self-recognition. In the reading these females gave up their dreams to become a housewife, as mentioned before this was something that was seen as being the female role.

 As the reading continues many of these housewives went on to say “Is this it”.

 A mother of four mentions “I've tried everything women are supposed to do--hobbies, gardening, pickling, canning, being very social with my neighbors, joining committees, running PTA teas. I can do it all, and I like it, but it doesn't leave you anything to think about--any feeling of who you are. I never had any career ambitions. All I wanted was to get married and have four children. I love the kids and Bob and my home. There's no problem you can even put a name to. But I'm desperate. I begin to feel I have no personality. I'm a server of food and putter-on of pants and a bed maker, somebody who can be called on when you want something. But who am I?”

This proves what I said earlier. A lot of these housewives don’t know who they are, and feel as if they have no life outside their families. As I said before there is nothing wrong with that, but clearly these females felt they wanted to have more than a family and kids, they wanted to mean something to themselves and to the world. Now having a career is not the only thing that will make someone feel better bout themselves. It takes alot, but at the end of the day its what make you feel happy. In my opinion, i believe it is good to have both, career and family, and also have time to yourself to get away from certain things.

Roses,Dreams, and Diaphragms

I would have never thought that men also have problems somewhat similar to women. Things may have changed from the fifties till now. I only say that because I see men just willing to having sex with anybody at any time without any problem. I may be wrong but this is what I have heard and seen. In the fifties according to the reading “Roses, Dreams, and Diaphragms” the author stated that the fifties were mostly on romance and sophistication. The thing that caught me was that romance was so much bigger than sex. Wow something that people in this day and age don’t hear much of.

 “Romance was everywhere in New York, even if you couldn’t afford a nightclub cover charge.”

“At least some of our parents would have been reassured to know that much of our early New York life was heavy with romance and light on sex.”

As the story goes on, he explains his relationship and sexual experience with Emily, which did not go to well in the beginning of the reading. As I am reading it seems as though men were ready for a romantic life but didn’t know what to do when going all the way. This is a bit shocking because in society it seem as thou men are supposed to know what to do, but in this case they seem as clueless as the females in a previous reading “Sexual Puzzles” Because these men were not satisfied with their sexual behavior, in the reading it became a trend to go to a analyst or a psychiatrist to tell them their problems and dreams etc.

It seem like in the fifties sex was something that was all around the media and talked about by “jocks and cheerleaders etc”.But nobody really knew what to expect due to the lack of knowledge given to them. Many people actually had sex after college, but even waiting it seems as if they were still not ready. They could not perform as well as they would have wanted resulting to the therapist, hoping to fix their sexual problem. It is different how things were in the fifties, but this is what many had to deal with. It may be a bit weird now to hear because sex is such a popular thing now that anybody at even young ages is doing. I believe because now we are more educated about sex and sex is such an open topic that is discussed everywhere and at any age, and because of this many are in to it.

 Now because of this there are numerous pregnancies and abortions and etc, which in the fifties were look down upon. Women were doing illegal abortion which was harmful for them and many had fear of the law. Another thing that was looked down upon was the diaphragms which were given to females and they also were said to be “loose girls”. All in all after marriage was the time to have sex, and that was norm anything done before that as mentioned was looked down upon. This was in the 1950s, though things may have change somethings are the same.

Sexual puzzles

As I am reading this article, it reminds me of our present day. Things have not changed since the 1950s. Sex is something that is shown all throughout the world.  Something that seems everyone is interested in. As a female, at a young age we are taught many things about sex. Females are taught that sex is bad and you can only have sex when you are married. I mean you will hear this from everyone except your peers. In the reading it describes that there is division from the “good girls” and the” bad girls”. A good girls is described to be someone who is sexually pure, one who waits till marriage despite all the pressure in the society. As for the bad girl is said to be the opposite, one who goes all the way, who are looked as as a sex object.  But why is there a division. 
 Teens or females at a young age in general are told the rules about sex, but these rules can be confusing to many people, which is said to be the sexual puzzles. How can a teen know what to do when they have all these things promoting sex? Sex in the 50s and even now is said to be a free action but at the same times there are rules. Mass media; television, magazines, advertising etc. portrayed sex as something natural, that everybody does.
 Mass media wanted women to be desirable but still conservative, and this is what many girls looked at. It was hard to keep up with the image of being a good girl. Many people have sex and even hide it. Sex is something that is looked at as something wonderful. Many people according to the article can disagree, for example Cher describes her first intercourse and it she stated "is this it". So all this is pressure that people have to go through, and leads to the confusion of many girls. All  together this is what i understood from this article.