Betty Friedan
Booknotes, Sunday, November 28, 1993
Betty Friedan discusses The Fountain of Age.
Ms. Friedan explained that her new book, The Fountain of Age, published by Simon and Schuster, describes "a period of human life that most people didn't even used to have." Ms. Friedan took an Outward Bound wilderness course for persons over 55 years of age. The course became a metaphor for searching for the "fountain of age," rather than the fountain of youth. Through research and hundreds of interviews, she came to describe the "older years" as a new period of life for most men and women, not a time of deterioration. She found in these people a willingness to take risks, and a desire to keep learning. She said that in the U.S., the negative images of old age are even "more pernicious and more pervasive" than negative images of women. Ms. Friedan's previous book, The Feminine Mystique, has sold millions of copies. (timspalding)… (more)
Ms. Friedan explained that her new book, The Fountain of Age, published by Simon and Schuster, describes "a period of human life that most people didn't even used to have." Ms. Friedan took an Outward Bound wilderness course for persons over 55 years of age. The course became a metaphor for searching for the "fountain of age," rather than the fountain of youth. Through research and hundreds of interviews, she came to describe the "older years" as a new period of life for most men and women, not a time of deterioration. She found in these people a willingness to take risks, and a desire to keep learning. She said that in the U.S., the negative images of old age are even "more pernicious and more pervasive" than negative images of women. Ms. Friedan's previous book, The Feminine Mystique, has sold millions of copies. (timspalding)… (more)
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