Feminists Clash Over Old Age

   The American writer Betty Friedan supposedly loved old age. The French writer Simone de Beauvoir hated growing old. So here were two of the most well-known feminist writers of the 20th century, holding very different views about ageing.
    De Beauvoir  finished writing 'The Second Sex' a pathbreaking book about women's oppression in 1955. About eight years later, in 1963 Friedan published 'The Feminine Mystique' which paved the way for the second wave of  American feminism.
   Then both women got old. Their bones started to creak, their hearts slowed down, their vision dimmed, their hair greyed, their skin drooped and they
 looked back on their lives. But they both stayed active.
     De Beauvoir wrote another massive book, a huge intellectual work, the verbal equivalent of the great cathedral  Notre Dame in Paris. She called her book  'La Veillesse'which in English translates into 'Old Age'
     But in Canada and the U.S. the book wasn't called that. It was titled "The Coming of Age'
     Canadians and Americans you see don't like to refer to themselves as 'old 'even if they're into their 70's. They call themselves instead 'seniors' . But I don't like that name. Why not call a spade a spade?
    "I'm an old man," I tell people. "In  a few years I'll be gone. I'm  70 going on 71." So on this issue I'm in de Beauvoir's corner, and not supporting mainstream North American public opinion. De Beauvoir by the way hated old age. She insisted it was a horrible stage of life. And sometimes while reading the book you do get the idea that she'd rather be dead than old.So what was Friedan's opinion on ageing? Tune in to my next blog to find out.