Bluebird: Women and the New Psychology of Happiness »

ARIEL GORE is the author of numerous books on parenting, the novel The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show, the memoir Atlas of the Human Heart, and the guidebook How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead.

CAN A WOMAN BE SMART, EMPOWERED, AND HAPPY ?

Happiness has become a serious business. Where twentiethcentury psychology focused on depression and illness, in the new millennium scientists have begun focusing on “positive psychology”—the study of happiness. Ariel Gore first became intrigued by this subject when she discovered that Positive Psychology was the most popular course on the Harvard campus. As she read deeper into the topic, she noticed something disturbing: everyone in this happy land was a man. Worse still, some of these new “experts” seemed hell-bent on proving that women with traditional values and breadwinning husbands—those who had made “an effort to expect less,” according to one sociologist—were more content than women with feminist values. The more she read the more she wondered: Can a woman be smart, empowered, and happy? Determined to find out, Gore began her own “study in living”— a journey into the feminine history, science, and experience of happiness. Her results, chronicled with humor and curiosity in Bluebird, are by turns fascinating and enriching. A woman’s happiness may not come easy, and it may not take the forms prescribed by popular culture. But, as Gore discovers, it is not only possible but necessary. Bluebird is a smart, no-nonsense, uplifting study of the real secret of joy, and whether it’s truly at odds with the goals of modern women.

The Washington Post - Elizabeth Chang

…[Gore's] research is absorbing, her idea of happiness as a dynamic force is appealing, and her conclusions seem sensible.

Introduction 3

Smile Pretty: A Cultural History of Women and Happiness

The Truth We Are Trying Not to Know 17

Creating Reality 25

The First Question 33

A Pretty Girl Is a Girl with a Smile on Her Face 36

Welcome to the Nation of Can-Do Optimists 44

The Second Question 55

Prescriptions for Contentment 58

Grumpy Nuns Die Young: Women and the Science of Joy

Happiness Is a Potato 73

The Third Question 81

Toward a General Theory of Positive Emotions 84

When the Smiley Scientists Meet 94

The Fourth Question 108

If You're Hokey and You Know It

Clap Your Hands 112

Drudge and Flow 121

The Fifth Question 132

Extreme Motherhood 135

A Life of One's Own: What We Mean by Happiness

Choose Your Own Diagnosis 149

The Sixth Question 157

Money Magnetism 160

One Day While I Was Doing the Laundry 168

The Seventh Question 177

Imperfectly 180

Listen 188

Sources 191

Acknowledgments 195