Editing Nancy Friday (section)

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Short description|American author (1933–2017)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Nancy Friday
| birth_name = Nancy Colbert Friday
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1933|08|27}}
| birth_place = [[Pittsburgh]], Pennsylvania, U.S.
| death_date ={{Death date and age|2017|11|5|1933|08|27}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| alma_mater = [[Wellesley College]]
| spouse = {{ubl|{{marriage|Bill Manville|1967|1986|end = divorced}}|{{marriage|[[Norman Pearlstine]]|1988|2005|end = divorced}}}}
| genre = <!-- or: | genres = -->
| subjects = [[Female sexuality]] and liberation
}}

'''Nancy Colbert Friday''' (August 27, 1933 – November 5, 2017) was an American author who wrote on the topics of [[Human female sexuality|female sexuality]] and liberation.<ref name="NYT">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/obituaries/nancy-friday-84-best-selling-student-of-gender-politics-dies.html |title = Nancy Friday, 84, Author On Women's Sexuality, But Not a Feminist, Dies |last=Gates |first=Anita |date=November 5, 2017 |website=The New York Times |language=en-US |access-date=November 5, 2017|page = D7|url-access = limited}}</ref> Her writings argue that women have often been reared under an ideal of womanhood, which was outdated and restrictive, and largely unrepresentative of many women's true inner lives, and that openness about women's hidden lives could help free women to truly feel able to enjoy being themselves. She asserts that this is not due to deliberate malice, but due to [[Group dynamics|social expectation]], and that for women's and men's benefit alike it is healthier that both be able to be equally open, participatory and free to be accepted for who and what they are.