It is utterly false and cruelly arbitrary to put all the play and learning into childhood, all the work into middle age, and all the regrets into old age.

The men 'primped' and spent their time decorating themselves while the women worked and were the practical ones — the opposite of how it seemed in early 20th century America. g. A frequent criticism of Freeman is that he regularly misrepresented Mead's research and views.

Her reports about the attitudes towards sex in South Pacific and Southeast Asian traditional cultures amply informed the 1960s sexual revolution. She earned her bachelor degree at Barnard College in New York City and her M. degrees from Columbia University.