There is a problem, but no one can quite put their finger on it

In The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan focuses her argument on a specific problem that has no name. The problem is quite common among women, but no one can seem to put it into words. The problem is women being dissatisfied with being only a housewife and a mother. It can't be put into words because women cannot figure out why they are dissatisfied and on top of that, if it had a name, then people would have to acknowledge it as a real problem.

The feminine mystique is the idea that women should be completely fulfilled in the role of femininity. This should include doing everything your husband and children demand while taking care of the household and all the while emitting femininity wherever you go. Advertisers promote the idea with campaigns especially after World War II, according to Friedan. Homemakers are the victims of the feminine mystique because they suffer in silence. They live like they are taught to as good wives, but are not allowed any other source of joy or fulfillment.

With Friedan being a reporter while simultaneously raising her children, she said she could relate to these women, not as a reporter, but first a woman. To make her argument more valid, Friedan quotes situations of actual women who experience this problem with no name. Each of the women come from very different backgrounds, one is even a minister's wife, but all report having the same dissatisfaction with their lives. They all feel that they should be content, because they have everything the world tells them too as women, but yet they still feel empty.

While feminism has made great strides towards gender equality, this does not apply to body image or women and beauty. If anything, we have shifted our focus away from gender equality and more towards the physical. Women are very much still held to the "beauty myth." Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth, proposes that this problem has gotten better since she first released the book, but that new beauty standards are being created all the time. Men are now pulled into this issue as more men have been held to their own "beauty myth" in the last decade.

Wolf proposes that women are still held to the "beauty myth" for economic reasons. To make society accept that women must be beautiful, society must then advertise that women need to be kept in their place as objects. America has done a good job of this by promoting the porn industry.

The third wave of feminism is not a united one because there is no one enemy. The word feminist has traditionally been used to describe ugly women, but according to advertising messages, those feminists need to conform to society's beauty standards. Then you have the backlash of feminists who scream "no!" Women need to accept their bodies in a way that they can be comfortable, and men need to be taught that the average woman is not a model and they come in all shapes in sizes. Then feminism can work more towards equality.