stepford wives
http://kritikfeminis2005.blogdrive.com/archive/7.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/24/american-dreams-the-stepford-wives-by-ira-levin.html THE STEPFORD WIVES by IRA LEVIN
Copyright @ 1972 by Ira Levin
"Today the combat takes a different shape; instead of wishing to put man in
a prison, woman endeavors to escape from one; she no longer seeks to drag
him into the realms of immanence but to emerge, herself, into the light of
transcendence. Now the attitude of the males creates a new conflict: it is
with a bad grace that the an lets her go."
-Simone de Beauvoir The Second Sex
THE WELCOME WAGON LADY,
sixty if she was a day but working at youth and vivacity (ginger hair, red
lips, a sunshine-yellow dress), twinkled her eyes and teeth at Joanna and
said, "You're really going to like it here! It's a nice town with nice
people! You couldn't have made a better choice!" Her brown leather
shoulderbag was enormous, old and scuffed; from it she dealt Joanna packets
of powdered breakfast drink and soup mix, a toy-size box of non-polluting
detergent, a booklet of discount slips good at twenty-two local shops, two
cakes of soap, a folder of deodorant pads-
"Enough, enough," Joanna said, standing in the doorway with both hands
full. "Hold. Halt. Thank you."
The Welcome Wagon lady put a vial of cologne on top of the other things,
and then searched in her bag-"No, really," Joanna said-and brought out
pink-framed eyeglasses and a small embroidered notebook. "I do the 'Notes
on Newcomers,"' she said, smiling and putting on the glasses. "For the
Chronicle." She dug at the bag's bottom and came up with a pen, clicking
its top with a red-nailed thumb.
Joanna told her where she and Walter had moved from; what Walter did and
with which firm; Pete's and Kim's names and ages; what she had done before
Copyright @ 1972 by Ira Levin
"Today the combat takes a different shape; instead of wishing to put man in
a prison, woman endeavors to escape from one; she no longer seeks to drag
him into the realms of immanence but to emerge, herself, into the light of
transcendence. Now the attitude of the males creates a new conflict: it is
with a bad grace that the an lets her go."
-Simone de Beauvoir The Second Sex
THE WELCOME WAGON LADY,
sixty if she was a day but working at youth and vivacity (ginger hair, red
lips, a sunshine-yellow dress), twinkled her eyes and teeth at Joanna and
said, "You're really going to like it here! It's a nice town with nice
people! You couldn't have made a better choice!" Her brown leather
shoulderbag was enormous, old and scuffed; from it she dealt Joanna packets
of powdered breakfast drink and soup mix, a toy-size box of non-polluting
detergent, a booklet of discount slips good at twenty-two local shops, two
cakes of soap, a folder of deodorant pads-
"Enough, enough," Joanna said, standing in the doorway with both hands
full. "Hold. Halt. Thank you."
The Welcome Wagon lady put a vial of cologne on top of the other things,
and then searched in her bag-"No, really," Joanna said-and brought out
pink-framed eyeglasses and a small embroidered notebook. "I do the 'Notes
on Newcomers,"' she said, smiling and putting on the glasses. "For the
Chronicle." She dug at the bag's bottom and came up with a pen, clicking
its top with a red-nailed thumb.
Joanna told her where she and Walter had moved from; what Walter did and
with which firm; Pete's and Kim's names and ages; what she had done before