Presidents are judged largely according to their economic and military stewardship of the nation. And that may be in part because, while American culture openly celebrates happiness-and while, indeed, the pursuit of happiness was written, awkwardly, into the nation’s founding vision-American politics has generally had much less to say about it. In the United States, the British journalist Ruth Whippman has noted, happiness has become “the overachiever’s ultimate trophy.”īut it is, in that, a prize that is too rarely rewarded. You may be rich, you may be successful, but if you’re not happy, what’s the point? You have not yet won. Happiness can be found anywhere, because happiness, in some sense, can be found everywhere: There it is on Facebook, there it is on TV, there it is in the news, there it is in the ads-presented not merely as a gift, but also as the product of a particularly cheerful strain of Darwinism. Work hard, play hard, and, if you possibly can-here is Americans’ optimism bias at its most granular-extract a nourishing moment from the removal of mildew. Here, she provides an outline for a feminist movement we all need and a blueprint for how policy, laws, and society can deliver on the promise of the pursuit of happiness for all.How America Fractured Into Four Parts George PackerĬontentment via Clorox: These are, indeed, boom times for aspirational enjoyment.
If our laws and policies made women's happiness and fulfillment a goal in and of itself, Filipovic contends, many of our country's most contentious political issues - from reproductive rights to equal pay to welfare spending - would swiftly be resolved.įilipovic argues that it is more important than ever to prioritize women's happiness-and that doing so will make men's lives better, too. And never before have the requirements for being a "good mother" been so extreme. Never before have the standards of feminine perfection been so high. Never before have women at every economic level had to work so much (whether it's to be an accomplished white-collar employee or just make ends meet). In this world of unfinished feminism, men have long been able to "have it all" because of free female labor, while the bar of achievement for women has only gotten higher. In The H-Spot, Filipovic argues that the main obstacle standing in-between women and happiness is a rigged system. What do women want? The same thing men were promised in the Declaration of Independence: happiness, or at least the freedom to pursue it.įor women, though, pursuing happiness is a complicated endeavor, and if you head out into America and talk to women one-on-one, as Jill Filipovic has done, you'll see that happiness is indelibly shaped by the constraints of gender, the expectations of feminine sacrifice, and the myriad ways that womanhood itself differs along lines of race, class, location, and identity.
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