Hanna, I hadn’t seen your insightful post about the welcome end of the expectations laid on the last generation of Kennedy women when I posted on how not being expected to be president was probably beneficial to Kennedy females. When I think of the Kennedy women who were able to escape the family pathology, I was looking at the current generation: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Maria Shriver, Rory Kennedy, etc. This generation of Kennedy females has not suffered from the drug abuse, in particular, that has dogged so many of their male counterparts. But you are absolutely right about saying good riddance to the ethos that women were expected to look good, shoot out endless streams of babies, and silently endure their husband’s flagrant infidelities. Kim , I love your girlhood memory of wanting to be Jackie Kennedy. But I bet Jackie was happiest in her life toward the end, when she was working as an editor and living with a nice Jewish guy .
Photograph of Jacqueline Kennedy with her brother-in-law and children in 1992.
