R.I.P. Betty Friedan

Hey, I love the pretty girls, no question about it, and Betty Friedan, who died Saturday, was not at all a pretty girl, by any standard definition of the word. But, with the publication of her book, ''The Feminine Mystique,'' she was a major player in the evolution that made it much easier and accepted for women to become more than just the dutiful little stay-at-home housewife that once was all they could hope to be.

As A.P says in its obit: “Few books have so profoundly changed so many lives as did Friedan's 1963 best seller. Her assertion that a woman needed more than a husband and children was a radical break from the Eisenhower era, when the very idea of a wife doing any work outside of house work was fodder for gag writers, like an episode out of ''I Love Lucy.''

I like pretty, but I also like smart and articulate and independent women, and Friedan played a huge role in making that the norm now, at least in much of the country. So even if some of the women enjoying that freedom don't appreciate where it came from (cough: Ann Coulter), peace out, Betty.