Book Description
Women are constantly being told that it's simply too difficult to balance work and family, so if they don't really "have to" work, it's better for their families if they stay home. Not only is this untrue, Leslie Bennetts says, but the arguments in favor of stay-at-home motherhood fail to consider the surprising benefits of work and the unexpected toll of giving it up. It's time, she says, to get the message across -- combining work and family really is the best choice for most women, and it's eminently doable.
Bennetts and millions of other working women provide ample proof that there are many different ways to have kids, maintain a challenging career, and have a richly rewarding life as a result. Earning money and being successful not only make women feel great, but when women sacrifice their financial autonomy by quitting their jobs, they become vulnerable to divorce as well as the potential illness, death, or unemployment of their breadwinner husbands. Further, they forfeit the intellectual, emotional, psychological, and even medical benefits of self-sufficiency.
The truth is that when women gamble on dependancy, most eventually end up on the wrong side of the odds. In riveting interviews with women from a wide range of backgrounds, Bennetts tells their dramatic stories -- some triumphant, others heartbreaking.
The Feminine Mistake will inspire women to accept the challenge of figuring out who they are and what they want to do with their lives in addition to raising children. Not since Betty Friedan has anyone offered such an eye-opening and persuasive argument for why women can -- and should -- embrace the joyously complex lives they deserve.
Customer Reviews:
Please read this book.......2007-10-03
I am a female attorney who has been practising family law for 26 years.
When I first started out, I represented many women who were married in the 1940's, 50's and 60's, when society felt that every woman's place was in the home. As a result, many "displaced homemakers" suddenly found themselves facing poverty in their old age. My own generation (the baby-boomers) all seemed to gravitate towards careers, so the displaced, poverty-stricken homemakers would be a thing of the past, right?
Wrong.
I am stunned to discover how many women in their 20's and 30's (the so-called post-feminist generation) are opting to become stay-at-home moms.
What is the problem, you ask?
In one word - DIVORCE.
And don't say it'll never happen to you. After all, I'm sure you buy smoke detectors, don't leave matches within your children's reach, don't leave candles or a stovetop unattended - but I'll also bet you also have homeowner's insurance, in case the unthinkable happened and your house caught on fire.
I've known so many women who tried so hard to be terrific wives, great mothers - and still found themselves divorced. Making sure you always have marketable skills so that you are able to support yourself and your children is like buying homeowner's insurance.
Of all the divorced SAHM's I've known, very very few are able to return to the workforce and earn enough money to support their families in the same lifestyle they enjoyed during the marriage. Sure, you can always get a minimum-wage job as a sales clerk or a waitress, but it will not buy you a middle-class lifestyle. Well-paying jobs will go to either a) recent college graduates, with newly-learned marketable skills or b) people who have spent the last 5, 10 or 15 years working their way up the ladder.
This book is a must-read, especially for young SAHM's who are confident that their marriage will last forever and that they will have no trouble re-entering the workforce any time they choose. I do have two criticisms, though: one, it is repetitive (one needn't repeat the same thing over and over to make a point) and it focuses almost exclusively on upper-middle class women, who are only a minority of the population.
Actually, upper-middle class SAHM's often suffer the worst, financially and emotionally, from a divorce, since they tend to have the most unrealistic expectations about the workplace (especially those who never worked outside the home at all) and they experience the biggest drop in lifestyle.
The men, on the other hand, tend to do very well after the divorce, simply because they have always had a well-paying career, without interruption, and after the initial financial hit (splitting the assets and paying child support) they keep on earning a high income, year after year.
Use of Ancedotal Evidence Left Me Frustrated and Confused.......2007-09-27
I would not recommend this book. It's a shame really, b/c I think Ms. Bennetts has a good message. Unfortunately she seems to base many of her points on ancedotal evidence. The writing style was a bit choppy and I couldn't figure out if Ms. Bennetts simply chose the wrong ancedote each time or if she truly wants women to not only support themselves, but to drive fancy cars and live in fancy houses.
Her apparent emphasis on material wealth repeatedly seemed to undermine her intentions. And the use of ancedotal evidence just compromised her authority. Perhaps I should have been tipped off at the start of the book when she used her mother as an example of a woman that was able to balance family and work successfully without reprocussions. (Too bad she doesn't emphasize the fact that her grandmother provided the childcare.)
Another example is when she put down a stay-at-home mom for driving old cars in order to live in a wealthy neighborhood with a good school system. Ms. Bennetts seemed to imply that the mother should go back to work so her family could afford new cars and other such luxuries. Surely this wasn't her point, or was it?
I was looking for a book that would support my decision to remain a working mom; however, examples like these throughout the book left me questioning the true message of the book and left me frustrated.
SAHMs Beware.......2007-09-27
Women do bash each other too much, but that's probably because we are all trying to be good at so many contradictory things -- and are afraid we're failing at all of them.
This book has jumped right into the "mommy wars," and been bashed accordingly.
Even though young women want to do life differently than their mothers did (who - trust me - wanted to do life even more differently than THEIR mothers did), we all keep circling around the same problem: We want our families to flourish. We just don't want to become penniless and futureless doing it.
This highly readable book argues that combining work and motherhood is tough but possible and even rewarding. Bennetts contends that depending on husbands to earn all the family money is very risky, and she is quite believable when she describes the many ways that this way of life can go wrong.
Bennetts is also not buying many of the "reasons" that have become fashionable for mom's total surrender of jobs, money, and benefits. She is at her most entertaining when she dissects today's version of the weary cult of motherhood, in which only mom's incessant hands-on attention is presumed to create conditions in which an infant can even survive.
Entertaining and thought-provoking.
Wise Counter Argument to Stay at Home Mom Phenom.......2007-09-10
As far as this topic goes, I've always been a live and let live kind of woman, although I would personally not be comfortable totally relying on a man to support me financially. All the women in my family have worked. I grew up with a working mom, who was a stay at home mom, until she found herself widowed with an 11 month old daughter. When I would hear those "I didn't even know where the checkbook was" stories from women who had either been abandoned or did the abandoning, I always thought...where the heck was your brain? Even if you are a housewife/full time mother, you are and ADULT in your home and should share in the responsibility of guiding your family's financial future. I have a very dear friend who is a stay at home mother and home schools her children. She does part time sales, but guess what..she does the books! Her husband wouldn't dare make a financial move without her and it works for them. Conversely, I have friends who also have husbands who earn a good living, but they work, because they feel they are able to contribute more. As a single woman, it is sometimes daunting to think that I am fully responsible for my financial future..but after reading this book, it reminded me that even if I were married, I would still be fully responsible. I'm also a fairly conservative person, but I have to say, I've seen the church and conservative politicians try to hammer home that the BEST solution for families is to have the mother at home while the father worked. But even GOD allows for personal choice, and if I remember my Bible correctly, the Proverbs 31 woman worked both inside and outside of her household. To me the best solution is to do what works for you. If you feel that you should stay home, then stay home. If you feel that you should work, then work. Each choice, like most choices, comes with its pros and cons. However, whatever your choice, in life, you should always make it a priority to educate yourself and develop a skill.
A Relevant Warning to Women.......2007-09-07
This book serves as a warning to all women who have children or are thinking about having children, that you can't always depend on a man to support you. For women who are thinking about dropping out to raise children they need to think of the long term consequences of their future earning power.
Book Description
The Science of Getting Rich is a classic inspirational and financial book authored by Wallace D. Wattles. This book works as a guide to individuals who are interested in uncovering the secrets of getting rich through strategies and case studies. A timeless title such as this one should not be passed up by anybody who is interested in learning how to become wealthy. This book has often been compared to the Napoleon Hill book, Think and Grow Rich, and works well as a companion to that title.
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This book will without any doubt change your life, by changing your mind about the concept of "money". So many of us were brought up with the idea of money as a finite resource, which you had to compete for. This book is desgined to release every preconcieved idea that is holding us all back from wealth. The basic premise of this book is that becoming wealthy is a science, that once understood, and replicated will create wealth in everyone's life. Wealth is as infinite as the creative mind. Create ideas, take action and abundance will flow.
Customer Reviews:
This is it........2007-09-21
I have long experienced aspects of this teaching without ever realizing it. When you finally get into the whys and hows of this idea, you too should see very clearly what I am suggesting.
I particularly like the references to Christ and his teachings. It may seem contrary at first, stick to it. Jesus told us we could do these things if we only had the slightest bit of faith.
Enjoy.
"If your day is a failure...then you are a failure.".......2007-09-03
I am a huge Secret fan & good thing Byrne only took a few excerpts from this book/CD otherwise we would have people depressed convinced they are a failure. Not enlightening, not inspiring.
quick delivery.......2007-08-21
haven't got a chance to read it yeat but it came in the mail very quickly.
No more Excuses.......2007-08-13
Now there are no more excuses to getting rich as it is all here in black and white. I have seen some negative reviews here about this book, But I have to believe those writing negatively on it have not grasped the positive simplicity of what Mr. Wattles is trying to convey. Yes, maybe it is 100 years old, but I would have to say if the book was as irrelevant as some people are claiming that it would no longer even be in print. I also did not see as some others did, that all you have to do is visualize wealth and it will automatically come to you. No, if it were that easy we would all have tons of cash on hand. Visualization is a very important part of the puzzle, according to Wattles, but you cannot just sit around expecting your bank account to grow. I believe he stresses the fact that you need to go out and do the footwork once you have visualized the desired result. Your intention on getting rich will set the universe in motion to bring the right people and circumstances to your door, but if you are not there to open the door and meet the universe halfway, then you will not get anything, let alone rich. I believe this book is as vital and timely now as when it was first published.
Nice to believe BUT NOT SO SURE.......2007-07-27
I do believe most of us have the ability to get rich if we want to (with dedication and work) BUT The Secret and The Science of Getting rich is a bit sketchy. At first I loved it I thought it was wonderful and did everything to a T. I had positive results, but they use techniques that will work: Visualize your goal; Of course if you put focus in your goal it will benefit you. BUT TO SAY THERES THIS STUFF FLOATING AROUND THATS MANIPULATED BY OUR THOUGHTS???
It's nice to believe we can just sit around and visualize and have everything we want these aren't book's there entertainment! I do believe human potential is unlimited BUT there more to it then just believing.
Book Description
After the long period of cultural decline known as the Dark Ages, Europe experienced a rebirth of scholarship, art, literature, philosophy, and science and began to develop a vision of Western society that remains at the heart of Western civilization today.
By placing the image of the Virgin Mary at the center of their churches and their lives, medieval people exalted womanhood to a level unknown in any previous society. For the first time, men began to treat women with dignity and women took up professions that had always been closed to them.
The communion bread, believed to be the body of Jesus, encouraged the formulation of new questions in philosophy: Could reality be so fluid that one substance could be transformed into another? Could ordinary bread become a holy reality? Could mud become gold, as the alchemists believed? These new questions pushed the minds of medieval thinkers toward what would become modern science.
Artists began to ask themselves similar questions. How can we depict human anatomy so that it looks real to the viewer? How can we depict motion in a composition that never moves? How can two dimensions appear to be three? Medieval artists (and writers, too) invented the Western tradition of realism.
On visits to the great cities of Europe—monumental Rome; the intellectually explosive Paris of Peter Abelard and Thomas Aquinas; the hotbed of scientific study that was Oxford; and the incomparable Florence of Dante and Giotto—Cahill brilliantly captures the spirit of experimentation, the colorful pageantry, and the passionate pursuit of knowledge that built the foundations for the modern world. Bursting with stunning four-color art, MYSTERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES is the ultimate Christmas gift book.
Customer Reviews:
All Over The Map.......2007-09-16
Maybe Cahill's a frustrated stand-up comic. Imagine the author as a stand-up inviting the audience to suggest topics for improvised comedic departure. Someone shouts out, "The Middle Ages!" and Cahill thinks, "Yeah. I can go with that." So we're off on tangent after tangent about Frank Zappa or Osama Bin Laden. Spare us the "cute" writing. Please.
Better Items Available.......2007-09-03
I agree with most of the negative reviewers of this product. The author is condescending and irritating. While he has a fine grasp of the English language, many of his conjectures are not only incorrect they are idiotic. His personal views, which he feels a need to share, detract from the story he is trying to tell in an unavoidable and irritating way. Stay away from this one.
Enjoyable overview of the Middle Ages & how they formed us.......2007-08-12
This is the fourth book in Cahill's "Hinges of History" series, and it is excellent. As others have pointed out it is not in-depth, not scholarly but rather written for people who don't usually read history. He makes it completly enjoyable, ties together main points, major movements, the pivotable people in a sort of quilt of moving shapes and colors that for a moment bring it all alive again. In this book famous and less famous people each are used to illustrate points about an era, and the changes that began in that era, and in fact that person may have been the one of powerhouses of the change, like Abelard, or Eleanor of Aquitaine, or simply a recorder or interpreter of it as Giotto was. Each fingernail sketch of a life in its unique era is memorable. Hildegarde of Bingen, at age 8, was given to the Church by her noble parents, to be interred as an anchorite, a life of complete sequestration, forever. Yet as she grew to adulthood the depth and breadth of her learning, taught to her in her little walled-in cell by a monk, grew to the point that her writings and correspondence was noted throughout Europe and even the Popes knew of her. She was perhaps the best known and best educated woman in Europe in her day and the most influential in the Roman Catholic Church. Made an abbess and allowed to preach and write openly she lived on to age 81, renowned and venerated. Eleanor of Aquitaine, the richest heiress in Europe at age 15, ruler of Aquitaine and other parts of France larger than the remaining lands of France itself was married first to the French king and went on Crusade with him, the first Noble woman known to do so; divorced him to marry her lover the much younger king of England; was the mother of several sons by him including Richard the Lion Hearted, her favorite...from her, most of the royalty of Europe descends. She was a strong, powerful,and free woman for most of her long life. The story of Heloise and Abelard, the great and tragic lovers is retold really well. Dante's story,his long exile due to the great wars of his native Florence and the feuding families at the root of it all reminds one of the Romeo and Juliet story: the "two houses"...But not to miss the point that each life discussed is tied in to a specific time and concept of an age different from us but leading toward us and our time. In fact, as the author points out, the events, the gradual change in thought-- never predetermined-- were how our era as it is now was formed; our way of seeing the world, our political, relgious, cultural and scientific, views were formed from theirs, our immediate cultural forebears.
An Engaging Writer but Superficial and Wrongheaded History.......2007-07-15
Though an engaging writer, Cahill is an appallingly bad historian. He compares the medieval nun Hildegard of Bingen to blues singer Bessie Smith (Hildegard's lyrics display a spiritualized eroticism) and the woman in bondage in The Story of O and refers to Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City in the same passage. ("This was one loose sister," is his characterization of Hildegard.) He compares Dante to James Joyce on the grounds that both were exiles infatuated with their mother cities. He characterizes WWI's Gallipoli as a "confrontation between ... Islam and the West," an appallingly bad summary of a complex military campaign which had little to do with religion and a great deal to do with military matters. Throughout the book, Cahill tramples history into a muddled paste of great figures and exalting moments, ignoring nuance or exception. He concludes with a five-page diatribe against sycophancy and buggery in today's Church. The footnotes don't inform much; the bibliography omits essential scholarship (e.g., R. W. Southern on medieval humanism, Roberto Lopez and Lauro Martines on Renaissance humanism). It is difficult to conceive of an audience that would benefit from reading this silly and superficial book.
Haven't finished reading it yet...too soon..........2007-07-05
but from the first page I have felt as though this is the easiest and most interesting way to experience history.
I don't believe anyone else can make reading & studying history such a pleasure. My method is to jot down notes on a small paper pad with the page number noted, so I can go back & make sure I have absorbed the links that have led to the future. There is such a stupendous wealth of detail.
I have all of Thomas Cahill's Hinges of History books so far and have never been disappointed yet.
Mary H.
Average customer rating:
- unavailable...
- A must have
- A woman's liberation classic
- a room for what?
- To get a room of one's own
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A Room of One's Own
Virginia Woolf
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ASIN: 0156787334 |
Amazon.com
Surprisingly, this long essay about society and art and sexism is one of Woolf's most accessible works. Woolf, a major modernist writer and critic, takes us on an erudite yet conversational--and completely entertaining--walk around the history of women in writing, smoothly comparing the architecture of sentences by the likes of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, all the while lampooning the chauvinistic state of university education in the England of her day. When she concluded that to achieve their full greatness as writers women will need a solid income and a privacy, Woolf pretty much invented modern feminist criticism.
Book Description
Why is it that men, and not women, have always had power, wealth, and fame? Woolf cites the two keys to freedom: fixed income and one’s own room. Foreword by Mary Gordon.
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" A remarkable work in both the history English literary criticism and feminist theory, Virginia Woolf?
Customer Reviews:
unavailable..........2007-09-09
after i ordered this book, the distributors let me know instantly that they no longer had the book on shelf, and instantly refunded my account. speedy service is one thing, but keeping the customer informed is another...thanks
A must have.......2007-01-03
A timeless essay not only for women. Good hard binding that will keep. It's a must have if you like English literature.
A woman's liberation classic .......2006-05-23
This is a beautifully written and highly enjoyable exploration of the history of women in writing. It is also a plea for the liberation of women, and their full entrance into the world of Literature. Woolf argues that a woman needs financial independence, a room , that is a space of her own, if she is to be able to truly create. She also needs the kind of access to everyday life that women confined to hearth and home were as she sees it, traditionally denied.
She urges that Woman enter into all fields of writing, and develop in directions they had no opportunity to develop in before.
She also perhaps reflecting on her own experience and nature argues for the androgynous nature of the creator, seeing in Shakespeare, Keats and certainly Proust a strong feminine element.
Woolf anticipates and perhaps in some sense helps creates the vast flourishing of Literature written by women which will come in the decades after her.
a room for what?.......2006-03-14
This essay reunites several works from Virginia Woolf about the right of women to possess a place - a room- to read, write and work, intended that not as domestic work as was usual for women during many times.
This book is very good. The problem with it today is many people uses this work only as a vindicating feminist weapon, while few people has truly read it, but remember, Virginia Woolf wanted that room not for itself, but for a finality: to do an intellectual task inside. Some people forgets this fundamental fact.
To get a room of one's own.......2006-02-17
Woolf's argument that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction," holds true not just for fiction but for any activity a woman wants to pursue. The early 20th century essay is still widely relevant, and not just in developing countries.
On the reading style, this essay is much more accessible, compared to say `Mrs. Dalloway' and `To the Lighthouse'. Reading it felt like having a conversation with someone who was not just erudite, but also reflected some of my own thoughts and beliefs. Especially as I believe that economic independence and resource availability could be key to overturning the notions of sexual inequality.
Many thanks to Woolf for airing these thoughts and inspiring the rest of us.
Amazon.com
Ariel Levy's debut book is a bold, piercing examination of how twenty-first century American society perceives sex and women. Writing vividly, she brings her readers to places she visited to make her assessment; the elevator of Playboy Enterprises with women auditioning to be Playmates in the fiftieth anniversary edition, a Florida beach where sunbathers urge a woman to take off her bathing suit for the camera crew of Girls Gone Wild, a San Francisco Italian restaurant where a lesbian worries she's not dressed up enough for her date, a CAKE party in New York, with women grinding each other's pelvises in time to pulsating dance rhythms, and outside a juice bar in Oakland where a beautiful high school student shares disappointment at her experiences with sex.
Levy cleverly leads us to explore the role models women aspire to emulate. We are not pursuing the confident, self-determined, powerful, free ideal the women's liberation movement would have dreamed for its daughters. Instead, our icons are porn stars and strippers and prostitutes. Paris Hilton and Jenna Jameson flaunt their successes in the pornography industry, and in doing so seem to earn our adulation.
Levy relates our embracing of this raunchy culture to unresolved tensions thirty years ago between the sexual revolution and the women's liberation movement, and amongst feminists; joy at discovering the delights of our clitoris conflicting with disgust at pornography's objectification of women. She creates a convincing argument by analyzing a diverse spectrum of material; presents a fascinating palette of interviews with revolutionary women's libbers, nouvelle raunchy feminists, and everyday women and men. Detailed facts and recurring names are sometimes cumbersome, albeit worth ploughing through for the `a-ha moments'.
The reality that we model ourselves on images whose "individuality is erased" is harsh, yet Levy's work is imbued with hope - hope that women can celebrate their uniqueness instead of their `hotness', explore their sexuality as delight rather than consume sex as currency, and succeed professionally because of their brilliant minds and personalities, not because of their brilliant bodies.--Megan Jones Ady
Book Description
Meet the Female Chauvinist Pig -- the new brand of "empowered woman" who embraces "raunch culture" wherever she finds it. In her groundbreaking book, New York magazine writer Ariel Levy argues that, if male chauvinist pigs of years past thought of women as pieces of meat, Female Chauvinist Pigs of today are doing them one better, making sex objects of other women -- and of themselves. Irresistibly witty and wickedly intelligent, Female Chauvinist Pigs makes the case that the rise of raunch does not represent how far women have come; it only proves how far they have left to go.
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"Meet the Female Chauvinist Pig--the new brand of ""empowered woman"" who wears the Playboy bunny as a talisman, bares all for Girls Gone Wild, pursues casual sex as if it were a sport, and embraces ""raunch culture"" wherever she finds it. If male chauvinist pigs of years past thought of women as pieces of meat, Female Chauvinist Pigs of today are doing them one better, making sex objects of other women--and of themselves. They think they're being brave, they think they're being funny, but in Female Chauvinist Pigs, New York magazine writer Ariel Levy asks if the joke is on them. In her quest to uncover why this is happening, Levy interviews college women who flash for the cameras on spring break and teens raised on Paris Hilton and breast implants. She examines a culture in which every music video seems to feature a stripper on a pole, the memoirs of porn stars are climbing the best-seller lists, Olympic athletes parade their Brazilian bikini waxes in the pages of Playboy, and thongs are marketed to prepubescent girls. Levy meets the high-powered women who create raunch culture--the new oinking women warriors of the corporate and entertainment worlds who eagerly defend their efforts to be ""one of the guys."" And she traces the history of this trend back to conflicts between the women's movement and the sexual revolution long left unresolved. In the tradition of Susan Faludi's Backlash and Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth, Levy pulls apart the myth of the Female Chauvinist Pig and argues that what has come to pass for liberating rebellion is actually a kind of limiting conformity. Irresistibly witty and wickedly intelligent, Female Chauvinist Pigs makes the case that the rise of raunch does not represent how far women have come, it only proves how far they have left to go. "
Customer Reviews:
Horror.......2007-09-18
This is one of the few books which has me claiming that I am a reader of horror... I read non-fiction.
Regarding the book itself though, the reason why I choose such a designation for it is because there were at least four times in the book at which I just stopped, with a feeling of despair, much like I would feel if I was reading a novel where the protagonist dies. The reason for this phenomena though, was because of the social insights which Ariel Levy reveals.
Not too long ago, I decided to get involved with feminism, and I found it odd that there were a lot of cases of activities within its embodiment which seem to support things which serve to objectify women, under the name of empowerment. This is one of the points Levy points out, although I think it's equally said for both society in general, modern feminism, and the gay community.
Additionally she points out in great detail how the commercialization of sexuality today is expressing itself in many women, which is unfortunate because it has less and less to do with trust and comfort (the minimum I think required for a meaningful sexual encounter) and more to do with accumulation of status and power.
Overall though, I highly recommend this book.
finally, somebody showed that sexuality isn't about being a stripper........2007-09-11
the fascinating thing about this book is the way it challenges its readers...men AND women...to broaden their sexuality. sexuality should never just be strippers, prostitutes and sex workers, or scantily clad women who don't know what they want. after reading plenty about women who are in these professions and chose to be (withOUT a history of abuse plaguing them), it was more noticeable to me that levy was making her main point that these women are doing this because we are told that this is what sexuality is...not because women WANT to do it. as a matter of fact, she touches very explicitly on the fact that most women DON'T know what they want, other than to be wanted...and that they will do anything to feel that desire from others. What happened to a woman's individual sexual desire and why must it be captured in raunch culture? With raunch culture, no one wins--men are told that they're not men if they don't love strippers and fake boobs, so this is all they've got to be turned on by. women aren't sexy then, if they're not doing these things that are supposed to be "sexual." it's a vicious cycle--women give the men what they are supposed to want, and men continued to be attracted to what they are 'supposed' to be attracted to...and no one wins. it's amazing that many men asked levy to write a book about men and raunch culture as well--the segment on 'the man show' really said it all.
not only this, but the ideas of what is 'masculine' and 'feminine' are really challenged in this book. women are either trying to desperately to be a caricature of a man or a caricature of what a woman is supposed to be sexually. you don't have to be frigid to be a feminist...you just have to know that you WANT what you're asking for...that it turns you on, arouses you...that you DESIRE it for more than just being wanted. but stop trying to be a 'man.' the pinnacle in levy's work is when she begins to quote women who don't want to be 'girly girls,' and instead are sleeping with men haphazardly and not caring--not because it arouses them, mind you...but because they don't want to be the committed girly girls--in order to be more like 'men.' but who, levy asks, is this mythological man we are all trying to be like?
women who consistently try to identify traits of theirs as more 'masculine,' will hopefully feel differently after reading this book--if you are a woman, you are feminine...no matter what...by virtue of BEING a WOMAN. and a man who likes to read and dress nicely is still masculine...by virtue of being a man.
excellent read.
Trying To Keep From Drifitng Away While Celebrating Freedom From The Anchor.......2007-07-16
Let me state that this is a combination of a book review and a commentary of Ariel Levy's book "Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture."
First, this is a book that does need to be written. It does give plenty of slop and mud to wallow in like a pig (I'm trying to score some humor points here): This is not for children. It deals with sexuality not to titilate but to expose, but it still is pretty graphic.
The theme of this book is that true feminism is not expressed by sleaziness, by complete lack of physical and sexual restraint. Levy is right on the money here.
The book is well written, and keeps one's interest. It is well documented, and the documentation does not come across as manipulative. I applaud this book's purpose.
Now for my commentary, which leads to a problem. In pointing out the problem of when one drifts too far from the standard, Levy ignores that this is a natural consequence of rejecting the standard. I can tell she feels the influence of evangelical Christianity in politics is a danger, and she takes the normal stand that abstinance alone doesn't work, ignoring the obvious fact that the only time abstinance fails is when it isn't practiced.
In other words, the real solution to the raunch culture is not to try to be balanced in our rebellion from our Judeo-Christian ethic, but rather a return to it. Levy's system cannot condemn the raunch culture as wrong (at least consistently).
There is much we agree on, but I believe Levy is trying to solve the problem without applying the solution.
Great!.......2007-07-11
Not perfect, though.
Mothers who buy brazilian waxes for their daughters and let them dress like whores are trying to live through them. Too simplistic? Too obvious? The truth can be just that. Mature women are almost openly despised at this point in time, and it is a major feat for a middle aged woman in America to get through her day with all her self-esteem intact.
Historically, women were what men rebelled against; that is, women enforced social rules of decorum, manners, sexual restraint. (as men demanded!) Women also were charged with maintaining order, peace and harmony in the family. Past that, men were charged with protecting their young daughters from sexual predators.
Now, since feminism has become an insult and teenage women are valued for acting out men's pornographic fantasies for approval and money and women think that being like a man is the key to social power, the notion of protecting young girls has become a joke. Over and over the author states that the women screwing around do not do so out of pure sensuality and honest lust. Over and over she reveals that there is a disturbing attitude of misogyny permeating this FCP/"raunch culture", as in, for example, the chapter on lesbian "boyz". The message is that what MEN want and the way MEN act, is of central and overwhelming validity in this culture, and is something for all females to aspire to and imitate at whatever cost to their safety, sanity, intelligence and self respect. Just as I do not consider a male to female transsexual to be a woman, I do not buy the specious "gender" arguments that put down all differences in male and female as culturally conditioned. Specifically,women's sexuality is MORE powerful than men's, as researchers like Dr. Mary Jane Sherfey and Rebecca Chalker, among many, many others, have revealed. But as I stated before, and as the author repeatedly states, the women in their slutgear putting notches on their headboards are not driven by PLEASURE. Most of them do not have orgasms, and she even quoted a teenage girl as saying that it would be "weird" to go after sex out of a simple passionate desire for the experience in and of itself..bliss, orgasm, sensuality, delight.
The book is not perfect; the 60's "sexual revolution" cannot be entirely to blame for "raunch culture". But thank God she wrote it. I hope others, from other authors, will follow.
Great book.......2007-06-19
You don't need to be a feminist to love this book. If you watch the world around you, you will notice that something in it is not right: the way a lot of women define their sexuality. Levy's book contributes to give an explanation of why some women find attractive or think that's necessary to exploit a limited part of their sexuality in order to feel liberated and empowered ... when actually they're contributing to perpetuate those stereotypes and ideas that keep women in disadvantage in our society.
Book Description
This best-selling anthology is a unique introduction to feminism and women’s studies. It presents a multidisciplinary collection of academic essays and analyses, personal narratives, and fiction and poetry about women’s lives. The selections illustrate the variety of women’s experiences, primarily in the United States, considering both commonalities and differences among women and appreciating women’s diverse approaches to living and fostering change.
Customer Reviews:
Aishe Berger Is a Wonderful Poet.......2005-02-26
There are so many wonderful pieces in this collection, but my favorite is Aishe Berger's poem Nose Is a Country...I Am the Second Generation. She deserves to be read and re-read. Buy the book, if only to read her work!
Feminists buy this book.......1999-04-26
I originally read this book for a women studies class at SUNY New Paltz. Here I am two years later, unable to find my original buying it again. It is a helpful book for all women studies courses, and an excellent book for one's own life, using personal essays relating to women's issues.
Book Description
This interdisciplinary, multicultural text-reader provides an introduction to women's studies within a global context by examining the diversity of women's lives across categories of race-ethnicity, class, sexuality, disability, and age. Substantial chapter introductions provide statistical information and explanations of key concepts and ideas as a context for the reading selections. Each chapter includes reading questions and suggestions for taking action, to help students link what they learn to their own lives and to the world around them.
Amazon.com
In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir posed questions many men, and women, had yet to ponder when the book was released in 1953. "One wonders if women still exist, if they will always exist, whether or not it is desirable that they should ...," she says in this comprehensive treatise on women. She weaves together history, philosophy, economics, biology, and a host of other disciplines to show women's place in the world and to postulate on the power of sexuality. This is a powerful piece of writing in a time before "feminism" was even a phrase, much less a movement.
Book Description
The classic manifesto of the liberated woman, this book explores every facet of a woman's life.
Customer Reviews:
good book.......2007-06-08
Pleased with the book. We got what we paid for and what we expected. Arrived in a timely fashion.
the treaty on feminism.......2007-01-28
Anyone who is interested in women's issues needs to read this book!
To me it appears to be the best discourse on feminism ever written. Well researched it gives a bilogical, historical ,psychological and philosophical persective of so called feminie condition across the centuries and outlines it with great accuracy and professionalism. It deals with various aspects of woman's life , her roles in the family and the society , her psychology and sexuality. Sure, women's condition changed since the book was written, but it's message still seems shockingly revolutionary. No wonder that its publication almost 60 years ago caused so much fear and hatred.
The Second Sex Transcends Time.......2006-09-21
Simone's treatise is the most brave and brilliant piece of literature ever written about gender and its effects on the lives of everyone we know. She continues to speak the truths about men, women and privilege in society and the corrosive effects of the constructed and artificial roles that we still struggle with. The Second Sex is as essential and appropriate reading today as it was 40 years ago. To anyone interested in the roots of gender oppression, definition and equal access to opportunity, this is the go to reference book. Simone de Beauvoir has found another generation of readers who understand its appeal to rationality, historical accuracy and truth.
NOT GOOD.......2006-09-07
after seeing The Guru on TV i got into the whole sex book thing i read all the best sellers from Mars and Venus in The Bedroom by John Gray to How To Get Any Girl Any Time by The Guru
these books changed my Life but in Particular this book was not so great because i and my fiance read it and found that it really was not too helpful and out dated
exceptional achievement.......2006-01-21
Simone de Beauvoir basically explains the sexual initiation of the female, her relations with the opposite gender, and her place in society, in the style of her classic manifesto of the liberated woman.
As a book published in 1949, Beauvoir's achievement for a woman at her time is really exceptional...
Book Description
Now available in paperback, the entrancing story of how one woman's journey of self-discovery gave her the courage to persevere in re-creating her life.
Life is a work in progress, as ever-changing as a sandy shoreline along the beach. During the years Joan Anderson was a loving wife and supportive mother, she had slowly and unconsciously replaced her own dreams with the needs of her family. With her sons grown, however, she realized that the family no longer centered on the home she provided, and her relationship with her husband had become stagnant. Like many women in her situation, Joan realized that she had neglected to nurture herself and, worse, to envision fulfilling goals for her future. As her husband received a wonderful job opportunity out-of-state, it seemed that the best part of her own life was finished. Shocking both of them, she refused to follow him to his new job and decided to retreat to a family cottage on Cape Cod.
At first casting about for direction, Joan soon began to take plea-sure in her surroundings and call on resources she didn't realize she had. Over the course of a year, she gradually discovered that her life as an "unfinished woman" was full of possibilities. Out of that magical, difficult, transformative year came
A Year by the Sea, a record of her experiences and a treasury of wisdom for readers.
This year of self-discovery brought about extraordinary changes in the author's life. The steps that Joan took to revitalize herself and rediscover her potential have helped thousands of woman reveal and release untapped resources within themselves.
Customer Reviews:
A complete waste of time.......2007-08-26
I had to read this book for my book-club. Thank goodness I was able to get it from the library and didn't have to buy it.
The book was tiresome, tedious, narcisisstic and at times, frankly unbelievable. The first conversation with Joan Erikson reads as if scripted for a made-for-TV movie. Joan, "It's about action and touch" she says , as if she knows. "That's where the wisdom is - in the senses - stepping out on a gray day, daring to be different. There's no-one as foolish as us right now. Thank goodness! We can be in a fog all by ourselves! I love the grayness of it. The mist sort of wraps itself around our thoughts, so they can take hold".
Give me a break.
As another reviewer wrote, Anderson insists on dragging in metaphors and hitting us over the head with them. The seals, the fox, the trickling sand - enough already.
As to the reason she went on her sabbatical - it appears she married someone so radically opposite her in many respects, she maybe would have been happier with another man. The fact that she raised two sons who are happliy married themselves is maybe a testament to her husband more than her - she mentions that they are always happy in his company. "Their affection for him is more readily apparent than their feelings for me".
Hmm - I wonder why?
Reflections for Women Over 50.......2007-06-12
This is one woman's story of her own year-long time-out. It is easily readable in a day or two (or a few hours, if you have that much time to yourself). The thoughts the author shares, however, will stay with you; they require much more reflection time. It is thoughtful, humorous in places, and uplifting. A good start for beginning your own journey into the last half of life. I ordered several copies for friends. I recommend following this book with Anderson's "A Weekend to Change Your Life" which guides you into your own retreat and reflection on the path(s) you have taken and will continue to take. But read this one first.
Amazing book!.......2007-05-11
This book was fantastic! I couldn't put it down and although I am only in my 20s I could relate to so much of what she was writting. Once I finished the book I promptly lent it to my mother and she also loves it! A great read for anyone wanting to learn more about women's stories and their experiences.
Taking Time to Open Your Mind.......2007-03-17
Joan Anderson details her experience of separating from her husband and retreating to Cape Cod for a year. She is so out-of-touch with herself and her needs that even in this year of self-discovery, she flounders and at times seems wimpy and lost. It's inspiring, as it shows that you don't have to be super-woman to make changes in your life.
Ideas that seep into my mind as I read include:
*It's never too late to tune into your real self
*Solitude and interaction with nature help free you to think
*Getting your hands dirty releases inhibitions
*We are all unfinished women (and men) but often don't let ourselves grow
Although some passages seemed banal as you read them, the overall revitalization and insight that the author experiences strike a spark. I I imagine we all need some time to recharge and reconnect with ourselves, but rarely have that luxury. We also fill our lives too much with the daily demands and aren't willing to listen to our minds and bodies rebelling or quietly suffocating.
Interesting...........2007-01-20
I found this book to be quite an interesting read. I like Joan's writing style and her bravery in facing situations that came her way. She tells of the creative solutions she came up with to patch up her cabin, her relationships and, ultimately, her own psyche. She stepped out in faith and is an adventurous inspiration to me. I especially loved her interactions with the seals. A quick and enjoyable read!
Book Description
This is the first broad-based anthology to look exclusively at gender and gender relations. Feminist in approach, the topics and writings focus on the experiential basics of readers' lives. The articles are varied but offer unity in that raising one issue brings to mind other articles in the collection. Minas includes writings by thoughtful men and women who exhibit awareness in reacting to the feminist perspective.
Books:
- Foreign to Familiar: A Guide to Understanding Hot - And Cold - Climate Cultures
- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
- Groovy in Action
- Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions and Metaphors
- Hashish!
- Hell's Angels
- Here It Is! The Route 66 Map Series
- History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
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