Neither The Feminine Mystique nor The Second Sex sits on my bookshelf. I have never watched an episode of Xena the Warrior Princess. I am not a card holding member of NOW. Nor do I have a bumper sticker on my car that says “God is coming and she is pissed.” I shave my armpits regularly and even watch pretty-boy football on occasion. Quite honestly, I delight in the company of men. So please do …showed first 75 words of 1725 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1725 total…from seeing the woman Steinbeck created, from seeing the gender bias in this reputedly liberal writer’s work. It is telling that this sort of condemnation and contempt is placed on a childless woman. Was this a story about an indecisive man, would we miss the blatant denunciation of this person? I think not. “The Chrysanthemums” is one of those times as readers that we prefer to read what’s not there to what is.