Myra Mains’s Reviews > The Stepford Wives > Status Update

Woman with a rational fear is told she’s overreacting. Tale as old as time.

Credit where credit is due—“white liberal patronizing” is definitely a thing and I’m glad people were aware of it back in the 70s.

It’s not hard to see how women’s labor is treated in this book, especially with the references to Betty Friedan (who spoke on and wrote about women’s labor) and the way this labor prevents the women of Stepford from socializing with each other. It’s a way to keep the women isolated from support systems. The husbands are also taking this labor for granted, as shown in how Joanna is voluntold to record stuff.

I think the husband threw out the magazine

The story so far:

- Family running around doing mundane family stuff
- Dad, who’s a feminist, joins the Men’s Club and justifies it by saying he’ll change it from the inside to be more progressive
- Joanna does photography stuff and the cop is weird
- Joanna tries to start a Women’s Club but the success is debatable in a town full of June Cleavers