Another reviewer summed it up: this book's cover was misleading! I know that authors often have nothing to do with how their books are advertised, andAnother reviewer summed it up: this book's cover was misleading! I know that authors often have nothing to do with how their books are advertised, and perhaps I should have read the introduction before I bought it or something, but it *still* isn't fair that I wasted my money on a book chock-full of Jungian psychoanalysis when what is advertised and what I expected was a book about the literary and mythological archetype of the wild woman. What's worse, the book isn't so much about Jungian psychology in general as it is about the author's experience. I just get the feeling that this book was clearly written for the author, other woman just happen to become "empowered" by her writings on wild women. And honestly, I understand wanting to reclaim wildness and all, but making essentialist claims about all women-- even if they aren't "negative" (or turning a negative into a positive)-- is still annoying. I just wanted to scold, "No, not all women are 'robust'." And so is comparing women to (non-human) animals. These assertions and comparisons may be an attempt to reclaim or subvert sexist tenets about women, but Estes seems to forget that women have been compared to and thus treated like animals throughout history, and that this has negative consequences! I understand what she's attempting to do, I know she isn't ignorant of these facts, and I can appreciate the worth and need of a focus on women's psychology, but this just doesn't work for me. One thing I can laugh at is the fact that I would have adored this book during high school, when I was really into Jung, Freud, psychology and feminism in general and I suppose I could finish reading it out of embarrassed nostalgia. But who reads a 500+ page book out of pure nostalgia? Not I....more
There are several things to appreciate about this book--for instance, the fact that it exists. I'd be excited (and grateful!) to get recommendations fThere are several things to appreciate about this book--for instance, the fact that it exists. I'd be excited (and grateful!) to get recommendations for books that cover sexual violence (NOT Against Our Will, the person who wrote that needs to fully examine the implications of their thesis!-- in my humble opinion) as sensitively yet humorously as this book did. A second thing to appreciate is the diversity of perspectives and backgrounds. Related to this, the range of topics discussed is astounding-- I was extremely pleased, for example, at the essay "When Pregnancy is Outlawed only Outlaws Will Be Pregnant" with its examination of how low-income, addicted women of color are persecuted unfairly regarding the law. Another favorite contribution is an essay which focuses on the sexual assault of immigrant women, and how feminist solutions for rape, centered on our perspectives on sexuality and on individuality, cannot help these women. Another refreshing thing was the how personal this book was-- the personalities of the authors shined through in even the most academic writings, and I felt intimately connected with people who shared their experiences and thoughts. Finally, though people may think of this as a disadvantage, I really like the fact that I can find most of these essays online! It makes it easy to point friends in the direction of good writing without having to lend out my book (kind of possessive of my books...) and poor college students can read about important issues without breaking the bank!E-books and book-readers be damned, I can't snuggle up to my laptop at night.
And yet, while it's really difficult to want to criticize this work, I do have a few qualms. While Yes Means Yes lives up to its promise of demonstrating how sexual assault is connected with other oppressions, it offers little in the way of non-individualistic, real alternatives. This isn't to say that we should be telling other women to beg their senators to take rape seriously (we've been doing that for decades) but shouldn't we still be demanding sufficient sex ed (which is, thankfully, suggested) along with (more) public protections, like a guarantee that rape-kits will be tested, more publicly funded self-defense (which is not a solution, but until the revolution happens I'd like to know how to protect myself) along with officials declared AND demonstrating that ultimately the responsibility for rape belongs with rapists? It seems to me that politicians, in a non-superficial way, need to recognize that rape is a societal problem and needs to be tackled ways similar to how we (should) tackle other problems: with the involvement of a community, in a way not relegated to school curriculum (which can only be delivered to school-aged people-- an important population, but not the only population which needs to know these things). These issues do involve women, but the relegation of rape and violence against women into "women's issues" tackled only by women privately or in a very restricted public setting (unfairly, yes, but nevertheless) sort of renders the issues invisible. I understand that not having faith in politicians to understand and respond to "women's issues" is in itself a response to the failures of our political machine(ESPECIALLY when it comes to "women's issues") and a need for women, especially regarding these issues to lead this movement, but I don't think that means that these issues and their solutions should be a matter of sequestering them to sympathetic women's organizations which depend on donations or gratefully accept a pittance from governments. We should instead fight for our space in the political and personal realm and demand that rape be tackled not as some after-thought during the month of March, but as an issue as real and important as the economy, education, and healthcare-- it's certainly more real for more Americans than the threat of "terrorism" for instance, and in a real way, it IS a terror. How about we wage a "war" on rape? (Problems with waging a war against something which is ultimately violent aside, and assuming the it won't look anything like the war on drugs, that is...) How about politicos realize that wars often use rape as a tactic? While this was hinted at, it didn't come out as strong as I'd liked. In addition, essays, especially those near the end, often felt premature because they were finished too early. I mean, maybe in another life I was an English professor(and maybe this is why I have literary pretensions without actually knowing anything about literature!) but I really wanted to write EXPAND in red pen on a lot of these essays. Another thing that bothered me was the insistence that women declare that they want sex. Let me expand (:P): There is nothing in and of itself wrong with this message... except for the fact that women are told to want sex all of the time. Women are told THEY want sex, for themselves, all of the time. What's missing is the need for the desire to have sex to come, organically, from these women. And an equally important message to convey is, it's also perfectly fine and natural for you to not desire sex (with another). Yes, most people like to share things that feel good with others, asexuality is rare, and this message needs to be conveys carefully because women have often been rendered asexual, but it still needs to be conveyed. I just don't know if, "It is normal for women to desire sex and we should be able to act on that desire!" is the primary answer to this in a society that pressures and bombards women with images of (unhealthy) sexualities. This came out in some essays, too, but not nearly as much as I'd like.
Also, if you're going to attempt to mirror the whole hyperlinking thing in your book, you should probably actually, um, hyperlink (like, include the freaking PAGE NUMBER, and not just the essay title). Yes, this is a superficial criticism, and doesn't apply to my experience because I read the work cover-to-cover, but flipping back to the ToC to find the page number to an essay is not fun. The writers include a table indexed by topic with page numbers in the back of the work, but that is equally inconvenient!)
And er, this isn't really a criticism, and maybe this relates to the fact that this book focuses on rape which presumes two parties, but there was a surprising dearth of essays on masturbation and how it can be both healing and frustrating for women who have been assaulted. While this would be one of those individualistic solutions (which aren't bad in and of themselves, it just sucks when those are the majority of the solutions) it's still worth exploring (In depth! NOT merely mentioned!). After all, what is sexual liberation if you still depend on another person?...more
It's always a treat when authors enlighten you about things you've never given much thought to before, and when they connect that thing with another sIt's always a treat when authors enlighten you about things you've never given much thought to before, and when they connect that thing with another subject which, at first glance, seems to be many quanta away. I've thought about beauty before, but only in passing, and only in a very removed way, while trying to perusing though aesthetics. But while I never really got into that philosophical subject (probably because it seems so far removed from any sort of analysis that has anything to do with people and the oppressions they face) Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth connects notions of beauty with woman's fight for equality. According to her, for every step forward for women as a whole in history, there is a corresponding step backward regarding woman's body and social pressure to be beautiful. This analysis is particularly interesting because it helps to explain why and how eating disorders became epidemic during the 70's and 80's, the second wave of feminism, when, if anything, notions of the female body should have been less restrictive, not more, as demonstrated by the armies of women starving themselves to stay thin, women feeling pressured to have plastic surgery (which isn't always a bad thing, but it, like feeling pressured to diet as opposed to making the decision for your notion of what your healthy body should look like, can be a symptom of a problem), and both women and men falling prey to really damaging and crappy ideals of what people should look and act like at the expense of their self-esteem (among other things). In case you recognize her name, yes, Naomi Wolf is the woman who declared the Bush Administration "fascist." And unfortunately her penchant for making outrageous claims using a preponderance of tentatively rears its head, too, but a critical reader can sift though what little should be taken with a grain of salt, and her overall argument and most of the evidence it is situated upon is still valid, illuminating, and infuriating. Moreover, the work is well written, especially when Wolf details her own struggle with an eating disorder, and it features an amazing bibliography full of works I can't wait to get my hands on. Read this book! Especially if you find yourself wondering how people, especially women, can always find some physical feature to criticize about themselves. ...more
I guess I should confess I read this because whenever I heard people talk about it they'd mention how scandalized they were by the homoeroticism, and I guess I should confess I read this because whenever I heard people talk about it they'd mention how scandalized they were by the homoeroticism, and because I've always been intrigued by vampires and sexuality. (Yes-- I read a "Classic" because I was beguiled by the man-on-man action-- I'm not ashamed!) Anyway, I'm no English major or anything, but I don't think Braham is all that great of a writer, his female characters are a bit annoying, and whatever homoeroticism is present is too few and far between to keep someone who reads this book specifically for this hooked, and is stylized more like assault than eros-- which is decidedly *unsexy* and problematic given the fact that homosexual men are still seen as hyper-sexualized and incapable of controlling that sexuality in our society. Anyway-- thankfully I've gotten suggestions on what to read when I'm in the mood for Victotian depictions of same-sex eroticism, and I'll be reading the Picture of Dorian Grey. I guess this is whole debacle. what I get for gleaning information about books from people who probably don't read a lot....more
Too often academics extend recent developments into the realm of history. Furthermore, they confuse what is created with what is inevitable, what is nToo often academics extend recent developments into the realm of history. Furthermore, they confuse what is created with what is inevitable, what is nurtured with what is natural, and they fail to recognize the relationships between these processes, how they impact one another (many of these things shouldn't be thought of as 'opposing,' nature and nurture both affect a person, for instance), and how material forces impact humans. Thankfully, astute scholars such as Leacock exist to point out mistakes, challenge findings, and steer the science of anthropology in a more empirical direction. Leacock lays out many critiques. Ultimately, her aim is to disprove the notion that men have always been and dominance in comparison to women and the many manifestations of this erroneous notion: from the horribly mechanical fields of biopsychology to post-structuralist musings about 'the exchange' of women ala Levi-Strauss. Myths of Male Dominance is full of evidence and analysis to the contrary, featuring Leacock's critiques of others' works, and their responses! I must say that I didn't quite expect the book to be so full of other people's works (instead I expected the book to document various pre-class societies, which it did, extensively in one people's case!) and her criticisms of them, so I had difficulty reading about 1/3 of the book. Nevertheless, the criticism is an important tool, especially for anthropology students (for whom this book was written) so I can't fault her for including it. The thing I appreciated most was her outline of general historical developments, and how they impacted women's status. I was already familiar with the material-historical roots of women's oppression, but only in general, Leacock provides an illuminating amount of detail *and* explanations for societies which kept intact their matrilineal/matriarchal roots, something I'd always wondered about. Because this book is very academically oriented, it isn't very easily to get through (this was my third attempt!). Those who do will be rewarded with a greater understanding of the many ways in which women's oppression, as it related to racism, colonialism and imperialism, manifests itself. Moreover, Leacock's book is written in such a way that individual chapters and even sections of chapters are instructive (for those of you who are interested in a particular subject).
It is sad that Leacock has passed on, I'm sure she'd have a great deal to say about silly "scientific" claims which still stunt the women's movement today. Fortunately, most of what she contented in Myths of Male Dominance can easily be adapted to the laughable claims of evolutionary psychologists...more
Loading...
