Book Description
The author turns his attention to sex and the reasons why we are driven constantly to analyze and discuss it. An iconoclastic explanation of modern sexual history.
Customer Reviews:
Foucault.......2007-02-09
Great introduction in the area of sexuality. Can be an asset to refrencing in academic work. In my opinion not really a book you could 'take to bed' as difficult to read.
Somewhat wordy, but deserves consideration.......2007-01-04
Foucault has been criticized for being too wordy, and to a large extent I agree. He deals with complex topics and histories and tries to mesh philosophy with sexuality with politics with morality, etc. It can be very confusing. But Foucault nontheless presents many unique ideas. He wants you to radically reconsider your definitions of morality and sexuality. The book focuses on the hijacking of, and incessant focus on, the bourgeois-created notion of sexuality.
Sexuality, Foucault argues, is a recently constructed term (17th century-present). It is a term which today conjures up certain notions (which the author deconstructs), and this has been accomplished via the "ethics" of the (European) Christian ruling class. Simply put: it is morality foisted upon the masses. That is his thesis. Strange, radical, unique, philosophical, wordy, but regardless, an interesting read. If you can get through it, it will make you think.
Hard...but worth it........2006-06-20
Foucault is one of the most important thinkers of our time. He is a historian, a cultural theorist, and a philosopher. When looking at the History of Sexuality Foucault does not see powerful figures repressing sex, but actually encouraging people to discuss it. This discourse was encouraged so that sex could be controlled and this discourse actually created what is today called sexuality--a norm that we believe to be culturally independent or universal. The belief that sex is repressed is only another strategy formed through a series of power relationships that desires for people to keep discussing sex in order that this "sex" can be classified and controled. For example: Encouraging a discourse on the act of sodomy enabled a catagory of homosexual to be created. Instead of sodomy being a act that a person may engage in, that person instantly became a homosexual, his sexuality constituting his entire being--how he/she should talk, act, and live in general. The discourse that was encourage to develop around sex enable power to classify and control sexuality--power actually created what we believe to be the "real sexuality". Foucault explains the complicated relationship between power and discourse that developed a set of complicated and sometimes contradicting--and always changing--ideas about what sex is and how we are to approach it.
This book is not easy. I will have to read it again. However, I believe that this book is a good intro to Foucault's very important theories on power relationships. An important factor to be recognized is that this book is a translation from french and, as many people have already expressed, has made it more difficult to comprehend. I did not understand everything in totality but I feel that the most imporant concepts were revealed. If you get confused take a deep breath and reread the previous paragraph, doing this helped alot and gives your brain a second chance to wrap itself around the really difficult parts. This is a very rewarding book that will give you valuable tools for confronting and interpreting the ideologies and power relationships we are confronted with. Good Luck!
Influential and important work, absolutely dreadful translation.......2006-04-16
I would concur with the Marquis point regarding the quality of the translation, which is obfuscating at best, and downright misleading at its worst. For those with the French, go with the original text (French title "La Volente de Savoir"). But I thought it worth mentioning that there does apparently exist an alternative translation of the work by a Robert Hurley, which has been published rather recently under the title "The History of Sexuality: the Will to Knowledge" (ISBN: 0140268685). Unfortunately I haven't had an opportunity to check out the new translation, though I would love to know whether it's any better.
Incidentally, one aspect of this work which appears to have been only eluded to by other authors, is that as the introductory volume of what was intended to be a more far reaching study, there is a significant portion of the work relevant for those interested in Foucault's (contra Dmitry) genealogical method, which made quite a splash in contemporary political theory, as well as the exposition of Foucault's rather novel theory of power. Unfortunately much is left out, and I would therefore suggest inquisitive readers to acquire the collection of Foucault's essays published under the English title "Power: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984" which contains many texts particularly relevant to this work.
Abysmal.......2006-03-23
All Volumes Reviewed: Is this the work of Michel Foucault, the author of "Order of Things," "Discipline and Punish," and "Archeology of Knowledge?" Surely, this must be a hoax. Foucault is notoriously provocative, keenly insightful, and always virulent. So what happened here? Hardly much of a history, anything but provocative, entirely pedestrian, already outdated, and woefully incomplete. Accessibility is not a problem, unlike "Archeology of Knowledge," but truly lacking in information, perspective, and relevance. Compare, for example, this trite and superficial reading with Compton's expansive and exhaustive "Homosexuality and Civilization." After all, Foucault was gay and into sado-masochism. The two are incomparable. A complete waste of time (since I was sure Foucault had something quixotic to write over three volumes), but hope never materialized into reality. PASS.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Resource.......2006-06-25
Leila Ahmed's "Woman and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate" is an outstanding contribution to the field of Middle Eastern Women's Studies. Ahmed explores and effectively dissects the many intersections between women, gender, and Islam. Her book is readable and makes an excellent sourcebook for those who are interested in the historical foundations of women and Islam.
Particular focus is placed on Egyptian women.
Everyone should read this.......2004-05-11
By far the best scholarly and historical work amidst the increasing number of books on this topic. Particularly interesting is the discussion of how Muslim caliphs adopted the Persian custom of having huge imperial harems. Of course, this is one of the aspects of "Muslim" culture that really tantalized the early Orientalists, as discussed by Edward Said in his book on the subject.
Good history book.......2002-10-01
This is a good book for anyone to read who doesn't know much about Islam. The author gives several chapters of in-depth history of the rise of Islam. It is interesting to read--not dry and boring like a lot of other detailed history books.
Brilliant and informative........2001-10-17
Leila Ahmed gives a brilliant and informative read about the history of women in Islam. Her book maintains both factual information along with anecdotal pieces which only enhance our understanding of the lives involved in the religion and politics of Islamic civilisations. While the book focuses on Egypt, it should be understand that Egypt is taken as a very typical regime with the exception of perhaps Morocco and Saudi Arabia as polar extremes. Ahmed clearly has a humanistic objective of equality in all her points, though never too harshly. The book carries a very clear picture of issues and can even help a lot of us consider what Western false concepts of female equality we truly have.
A serious work with no apologies for her feminism.......2001-07-25
This book was assigned reading in my NYU course about the Middle East. Written by Leila Ahmed, a professor of Near Eastern studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the Director of the Women's Studies program there, it reinforced some basic information we studied from other textbooks, with a particular emphasis on women's role in Middle Eastern history. The book is well researched, with little-known documentation from pre-Islamic history on up to the present, citing what is known of ancient marriage laws and including literary writings and histories of some 19th and 20th Century women writers. Her particular feminist position is apparent throughout and there are no apologies for this. Often she writes about the veil and blames colonialism for using it as a misunderstood interpretation of women's subjugation.
The second half of her book concentrates specifically on Egypt and it was fascinating. However, I would have liked to see more about the other countries, especially as she got into modern times. I also would have enjoyed reading her insights about the changes and challenges occurring today. It is refreshing to see a serious work such as this written by an Islamic woman and I hope she continues bringing her skills in research and interpretation to the public. Recommended.
Book Description
America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in the Movies is a lively introduction to issues of diversity as represented within the American cinema. The first synthetic and historical text of its kind, America on Film provides a comprehensive overview of the industrial, socio-cultural, and aesthetic factors that contribute to cinematic representations of race, class, gender, and sexuality. The volume chronicles the cinematic history of various cultural groups, examines forces and institutions of bias, and stimulates discussion about the relationship between film and American national culture.Accessible and user-friendly, America on Film features 101 illustrations, a glossary of key terms, questions for discussion, and lists for further reading and further viewing. The book is organized within a broad historical framework, with specific theoretical concepts - including film genre, auteurism, cultural studies, Orientalism, the "male gaze, " feminism, and queer theory - integrated throughout. Each individual chapter features a concise overview of the topic at hand, a discussion of representative films, figures, and movements, and an in-depth analysis of a single film, including The Lion King, The Jazz Singer, Smoke Signals, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Celluloid Closet.
Amazon.com
Some books are like revelations, they open the spirit to unimaginable possibilities. The Chalice and the Blade is one of those magnificent key books that can transform us and...initiate fundamental changes in the world. With the most passionate eloquence, Riane Eisler proves that the dream of peace is not an impossible utopia. -- Isabelle Allende, author of The House of the Spirits
Book Description
The phenomenal bestseller, with more than 500,000 copies sold worldwide, now with a new epilogue from the author--The Chalice and the Blade has inspired a generation of women and men to envision a truly egalitarian society by exploring the legacy of the peaceful, goddess-worshipping cultures from our prehistoric past.
Customer Reviews:
Dumbest Book Ever Written.......2007-05-20
This is the weirdest, dumbest book I've ever read. It's a pity that a lot of college professors are using this doorstop as a textbook in their classes. What a crock. This book is the scholarly and intellectual equivalent of R.L Stine's Goosebumps series. If this book were food, it would probably be something like stewed okra. I would've rated this with no stars but, interestingly enough, Amazon doesn't seem to think that authors are capable of writing completely and utterly unredeeming books.
A Vivogenic Template for Human Beings .......2007-05-13
The Chalice and the Blade ranks in the top ten paradigm shaking books of the Late, Great Twen-Cen. Those continuing to puzzle over where we went wrong, as a species, will be well served by this outstanding scholarship.
When women were equal.......2007-01-14
"The Chalice and The Blade" is a wonderful book about the history of peaceful civilizations who worshiped the goddess and warring civilizations who worshiped male gods. Eisler's theory is that there was a global shift from egalitarian to patriarchal societies. Eisler shows how women were degraded to pawns controlled by men, and that without women as equals, men turned to violence. This book is a must read for anyone interested in women's history.
More timely now than ever!.......2007-01-12
This book answers these questions, "Where did humans go wrong?" "Why are we so cruel and allowing of cruelty?" and "Why does the majority of our world not value women, their work, their ideas?" I liked this book so much - after reading it I bought 10 more copies to hand out to friends because it is soooo encouraging. It does show us a different way of living is possible and humans use to live that way. NOTE: Since reading this book I have seen history channel explore the remains of the culture's Eisler talks about. BUT history channel only focused on the buildings being far advanced over Rome's. The program NEVER TALKED ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO LIVED THERE. Eisler talks about the people. And women were valued to those people. ALSO, huge media figures are now mentioning that society needs fundamental change. Eisler identifies where that change lies. In 'Conservatives without Conscience' Dean explores basic beliefs, attitudes and prejudices and how those are incorporated into our society and dialogue. Eisler's book goes straight to the heart of where those authoritarian beliefs, attitudes and prejudices come from, what we look like without them and how we can get back to living without them.
Nerissa Oden
Other Options for the Human Race.......2006-02-14
It was wonderful and freeing to read this book. Even if there were some oversimplifications, how liberating to have other possible explanations of and options for human history! This book has inspired me to question and reexamine beliefs and attitudes that are so ubiquitous in our society that it's hard to even know that we hold them, let alone question them. I'll always be grateful to Ms. Eisler for helping me find greater freedom in all aspects of my life.
Book Description
A powerful and groundbreaking revelation of the secret history of the 1.5 million women who surrendered children for adoption in the several decades before Roe v. Wade
In this deeply moving work, Ann Fessler brings to light the lives of hundreds of thousands of young single American women forced to give up their newborn children in the years following World War II and before Roe v. Wade. The Girls Who Went Away tells a story not of wild and carefree sexual liberation, but rather of a devastating double standard that has had punishing long-term effects on these women and on the children they gave up for adoption. Based on Fessler's groundbreaking interviews, it brings to brilliant life these women's voices and the spirit of the time, allowing each to share her own experience in gripping and intimate detail. Today, when the future of the Roe decision and women's reproductive rights stand squarely at the front of a divisive national debate, Fessler brings to the fore a long-overlooked history of single women in the fifties, sixties, and early seventies.
In 2002, Fessler, an adoptee herself, traveled the country interviewing women willing to speak publicly about why they relinquished their children. Researching archival records and the political and social climate of the time, she uncovered a story of three decades of women who, under enormous social and family pressure, were coerced or outright forced to give their babies up for adoption. Fessler deftly describes the impossible position in which these women found themselves: as a sexual revolution heated up in the postwar years, birth control was tightly restricted, and abortion proved prohibitively expensive or life endangering. At the same time, a postwar economic boom brought millions of American families into the middle class, exerting its own pressures to conform to a model of family perfection. Caught in the middle, single pregnant women were shunned by family and friends, evicted from schools, sent away to maternity homes to have their children alone, and often treated with cold contempt by doctors, nurses, and clergy.
The majority of the women Fessler interviewed have never spoken of their experiences, and most have been haunted by grief and shame their entire adult lives. A searing and important look into a long-overlooked social history, The Girls Who Went Away is their story.
Customer Reviews:
shocked and saddened.......2007-10-10
i'm currently reading this book. it's taking me a while because although it's a fascinating and compelling read, i get so angry while reading it I slam the book shut, point my finger at whoever is nearest me and start shouting about these poor women who had their babies taken from them without any consideration for their mental, physical, emotional health or well being. anyone who says roe v. wade isn't the best ruling the supreme court ever made should be dope-slapped repeatedly. and anyone who isn't absolutely enraged or brought to tears by this book is not human. I knew people born in the 50's & 60's who were adopted and said they really had no desire to meet their biological mother because they were "given up," and i used to agree with them. i suggest you read this book, it will make you see things from a different angle.
Heartbreaking.......2007-10-10
I cried throughout - this is a heartbreaking book and a reminder of how greatful we should all be for a change in the times. I gave it to my mother in England, whose roommate had given up for baby for adoption and it was the most emotional that I had ever seen her (and that is saying something for an English person!) I have given this book to many friends as it is simply the best book I have read in years.
The true story of "birthmothers".......2007-08-11
This book is a powerful explanation of the pain that so many women experienced after being convinced or coerced to place their out-of-wedlock children in adoptive homes. The case histories are told by the individual women and illuminate the shame and guilt that so many women experienced. It is important social history and will be very empowering reading for women who "went away" to have a baby.
Elizabeth Counts, Where Are You?.......2007-07-28
Between the end of World War II in 1945 and the 1973 United States Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, many unwed girls and women were forced by society to "go away" during unplanned pregnancies -
< to "hide" the physical evidence of their perceived moral turpitude, while the fathers, blameless and shameless, were free to roam about their usual lives and wild oat sowing> - and surrender the baby to "good homes" (2 parent households.) Then, adding insult to past psychological injuries, the Men in power continue to refuse to allow adequate access to birth and adoption records such that the members of the "adoption triad" (birth parents, adoptive parents and adoptee) can't find each other. Thus is created a large segment of the "Baby Boom" generation without medical/genetic history.
Ann Fessler found her history and has written an excellent, empathetic, anecdotal and well -researched history of her mother and other mothers who "gave up" their babies and the confluence of forces in the age of Ozzie and Harriet, McCarthy, and beyond. As this reviewer has cautioned in other reviews, a lot of younger women take for granted the great strides made in the brief period between the 1960's and now. This book and In Our Time: Memoir of A Revolution will remind those of us who lived through this period of the progress we've made - and teach the younger generations that they must be eternally vigilant, lest those rights be taken away. Rosie the Riveter, paragon of "We Can Do It!" womanhood in the 1940s, was shuffled off to June Cleaver's kitchen in the 1950s. As Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Elizabeth Counts, your past is calling. Please contact me. Your daughter, my client, is looking for you. /TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer
Riveting and heartbreaking. .......2007-07-23
I am an adult adoptee who has been reunited with my birth mother, birth grandparents and birth uncle. I found this book to be an eye opening look into the world my birth mother was living in at the time of her pregnancy and my birth. I've always been grateful to my birth mom for giving me my family, but this book shows that I didn't really understand what she was up against in 1967. I've spoken at high schools regarding my experience as an adoptee, and some people seem surprised that I'm 'normal'. Surprised that I have nothing but praise for my birth mother, the woman who 'gave' me away. As a mother myself, I cannot imagine a pain worse than giving your child away. I believe my birth mother did it as a selfless act, but reading this book has made me wonder exactly how much society influenced her decision. The stories in this book seem straight out of another world in terms of how pregnant girls were treated.
In response to another reviewer, this book really has nothing to do with abortion. I don't even recall it being mentioned more than a few times and even then it was just in a brief mention regarding society at the time or as part of a personal story. This book certainly does not condone abortion or suggest it as a better option than adoption. I'm sure that most, if not all, of the women in the book would say they are glad they had their children, whether reunited with them or not.
Book Description
Why, Ann Laura Stoler asks, was the management of sexual arrangements and affective attachments so critical to the making of colonial categories and to what distinguished ruler from ruled? Contending that social classification is not a benign cultural act but a potent political one, Stoler shows that matters of the intimate were absolutely central to imperial politics. It was, after all, in the intimate sphere of home and servants that European children learned what they were required to learn of place and race. Gender-specific sexual sanctions, too, were squarely at the heart of imperial rule, and European supremacy was asserted in terms of national and racial virility.
Stoler looks discerningly at the way cultural competencies and sensibilities entered into the construction of race in the colonial context and proposes that "cultural racism" in fact predates its postmodern discovery. Her acute analysis of colonial Indonesian society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries yields insights that translate to a global, comparative perspective.
Book Description
Maneuvers takes readers on a global tour of the sprawling process called "militarization." With her incisive verve and moxie, eminent feminist Cynthia Enloe shows that the people who become militarized are not just the obvious ones--executives and factory floor workers who make fighter planes, land mines, and intercontinental missiles. They are also the employees of food companies, toy companies, clothing companies, film studios, stock brokerages, and advertising agencies. Militarization is never gender-neutral, Enloe claims: It is a personal and political transformation that relies on ideas about femininity and masculinity. Films that equate action with war, condoms that are designed with a camouflage pattern, fashions that celebrate brass buttons and epaulettes, tomato soup that contains pasta shaped like Star Wars weapons--all of these contribute to militaristic values that mold our culture in both war and peace.
Presenting new and groundbreaking material that builds on Enloe's acclaimed work in Does Khaki Become You? and Bananas, Beaches, and Bases, Maneuvers takes an international look at the politics of masculinity, nationalism, and globalization. Enloe ranges widely from Japan to Korea, Serbia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Britain, Israel, the United States, and many points in between. She covers a broad variety of subjects: gays in the military, the history of "camp followers," the politics of women who have sexually serviced male soldiers, married life in the military, military nurses, and the recruitment of women into the military. One chapter titled "When Soldiers Rape" explores the many facets of the issue in countries such as Chile, the Philippines, Okinawa, Rwanda, and the United States.
Enloe outlines the dilemmas feminists around the globe face in trying to craft theories and strategies that support militarized women, locally and internationally, without unwittingly being militarized themselves. She explores the complicated militarized experiences of women as prostitutes, as rape victims, as mothers, as wives, as nurses, and as feminist activists, and she uncovers the "maneuvers" that military officials and their civilian supporters have made in order to ensure that each of these groups of women feel special and separate.
Customer Reviews:
The true "feminist agenda".......2001-01-01
Cynthia Enloe is the author most quoted by opponants of women in the armed forces, because she presents the real Feminist viewpoint, which is staunchly anti-war and ambivelant toward the military. Enloe's arguments, supported by N.O.W., are coopted by "anti-feminist" foes of servicewomen as proof of their own contention that women have no place in the military. Paradoxically, after quoting Enloe, those same crusaders then lambast a so-called "feminist lobby" for promoting gender integration in combat operations. No doubt they confuse Feminism with some "politically-correct" positions of Congressional military panels, which are, ironically, often ignored or opposed by N.O.W. But Enloe's books go much further than simply stating Feminism's pacifist ideals. In "Maneuvers", she accuses the military of deliberate victimization of women worldwide. She makes a number of good points concerning the cruelties of war toward civilian women, but her antimilitary bias shows and is sometimes rather venomous. She gives no thought whatsoever to the conditions which make warfare an unpleasant reality and the armed forces a necessity. Nor has she any real concern for American military women or their reasons for wanting to serve. By relating selected incidents of harassment or violence against servicewomen, she presents a negative and mostly false impression of the American military's widespread and willful victimization of its female members. Read "Maneuvers" for the Feminist counter of Brian Mitchell's "Flirting With Disaster", but don't expect balance in the views of either author.
Important feminist study on militarisation.......2000-10-14
Cynthia Enloe adds to her series of writings looking at the effects of militarisation on women's lives - from the laundresses, camp followers, comfort women and sex workers to feminist military personnel and those who fight the home front.
Like Jan Jindy Pettman's "Worlding Women - a feminist international politics", Enloe's latest book seeks to look at international relations from a gendered perspective - and succeeds admirably.
The author relies a lot on secondary sources (citing a lot of newspaper stories), but weaves together the strands of militarisation on women's lives in a compelling and readable style. The book is full of fascinating anecdotes that illustrate the broader themes of the multifacted impact of contemporary militarisation (I particularly enjoyed the discussion on why British military officers from all services and US Air Force and Navy officers are allowed to carry umbrellas, but they are fobidden as too girlie for the US Marines and US Army! )
Book Description
In this sumptuously illustrated book, Joan Breton Connelly gives us the first comprehensive cultural history of priestesses in the ancient Greek world. Connelly presents the fullest and most vivid picture yet of how priestesses lived and worked, from the most famous and sacred of them--the Delphic Oracle and the priestess of Athena Polias--to basket bearers and handmaidens. Along the way, she challenges long-held beliefs to show that priestesses played far more significant public roles in ancient Greece than previously acknowledged.
Connelly builds this history through a pioneering examination of archaeological evidence in the broader context of literary sources, inscriptions, sculpture, and vase painting. Ranging from southern Italy to Asia Minor, and from the late Bronze Age to the fifth century A.D., she brings the priestesses to life--their social origins, how they progressed through many sacred roles on the path to priesthood, and even how they dressed. She sheds light on the rituals they performed, the political power they wielded, their systems of patronage and compensation, and how they were honored, including in death. Connelly shows that understanding the complexity of priestesses' lives requires us to look past the simple lines we draw today between public and private, sacred and secular.
The remarkable picture that emerges reveals that women in religious office were not as secluded and marginalized as we have thought--that religious office was one arena in ancient Greece where women enjoyed privileges and authority comparable to that of men. Connelly concludes by examining women's roles in early Christianity, taking on the larger issue of the exclusion of women from the Christian priesthood.
Customer Reviews:
Equal opportunity temples.......2007-08-07
The status of women in the ancient world has long been a controversial issue. The traditional view of male historians has been that it was always a male-dominated world. Some feminists have countered this with arguing, on rather fragile evidence, in favor of prehistoric matriarchy and mother goddesses and so forth. Ancient Greece, in particular, has always been a kind of blank screen on which thinkers project their own image of what it was like. Most of the written evidence has suggested that women in ancient Greece were subordinate and secluded. Against this has been the fact that some powerful Greek gods were female and served by female priests. What these priestesses did,, and what their place was in society, has been somewhat mysterious because what we got from the historians and poets and playwrights was scanty. Connelly supplements this by a careful and scholarly (perhaps too scholarly for the general reader) examination of epigraphs and images.
The text is pretty hard going for the non-specialist but the pictures are great and it will make a handsome addition to a feminist coffee table although it will be a shame if it stays there. I think the large format is justified on more than esthetic grounds because Connolly's argument depends on her ability to bring to bear on the subject her abilities as an art historian and therefore adequate illustrations are needed. These are more than adequate; they are magnificent. It would be presumptuous to pronounce on the strength of her case without more expert knowledge than mine. No doubt other academics will be on the attack and it will be fun to see the fur fly in the Times Literary Supplement etc.
At the risk of quibbling I must break a lance in my ongoing battle against publishers who transcribe Greek inscriptions into lower case. Greek lower case was unknown before the Byzantines. I noticed that she does not mention the triple bronze serpent in the Hippodrome at Istanbul in her discussion of the Pythian oracle at Delphi. Is it authentic?
Portrait of a Priestess, scholarly merits and popular appeal.......2007-05-07
Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece is a book I'd recommend to scholars. It is well researched and well composed. However, the topic is also of interest to those who enjoy exploring the ancient world and a woman's place in it. Women's lives in this historical period are difficult to access but Connelly has done so in a way that is both useful to those who work in the field and accessible to those who have a general interest and curiosity about the women who acted in and acted out the roles of priestess. An impressive collection of images is of interest to both groups of readers. RD Anderson
Book Description
Women: Images and Realities, A Multicultural Anthology is a unique introduction to feminism and women’s studies. This best-selling text 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 changing.hanging.
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
Imperial Leather chronicles the dangerous liaisons between gender, race and class that shaped British imperialism and its bloody dismantling. Spanning the century between Victorian Britain and the current struggle for power in South Africa, the book takes up the complex relationships between race and sexuality, fetishism and money, gender and violence, domesticity and the imperial market, and the gendering of nationalism within the zones of imperial and anti-imperial power.
Anne McClintock explores the sexualizing of the terra incognita, the imperial myth of the empty lands, the dirt fetish and the "civilizing mission", sexuality and labor, advertising and commodity racism, the Victorian invention of the idle woman, feminism and racial difference, and anti-apartheid culture in the current transformation of national power.
Using feminist, post-colonial, psychoanalytic and socialist theories, Imperial Leather argues that the categories of gender, race and class do not exist inisolation, but emerge in intimate relation to one another. Drawing on diverse cultural forms--novels, advertising, diaries, poetry oral history, and mass commodity spectacle--the book examines imperialism not only as a poetics of ambivalence, but as a politics of violence. Rejecting traditional binaries of self/other, man/woman, colonizer/colonized, Anne McClintock calls instead for a more informed and complex understanding of catgories of social power and identity.
Customer Reviews:
It was fascinating!.......2003-08-20
I don't agree with the reviewer for Library Journal because I found McClintock's book thorough and solid. She situates the book in a very clever way in the myriad of "isms" and scholarly debates on post-colonialism. She argues that one cannot talk about colonialism without at the same time investigate how gender,race, sexuality, class etc, has shaped the colonial discourse and discussion.
I would recommend this book to people interested in feminist, gender, postcolonial studies but also to anyone who wants a more indepth and creative analysis of the current debate on postcolonialism and gender.
Books:
- The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company
- The Illustrated Torah
- The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Visions of Glory
- The Lost Word (Alice 19th Vol. 7)
- The Machine That Changed the World : The Story of Lean Production
- The Machu Picchu Guidebook: A Self-Guided Tour
- The Mayan Prophecies: Unlocking the Secrets of a Lost Civilization
- The Medieval Horse and its Equipment, c.1150-1450 (Medieval Finds from Excavations in London)
- The New Concise History of the Crusades
- The Nonrunner's Marathon Guide for Women: Get Off Your Butt and On with Your Training
Books Index
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General
| Sex
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
The History of Sexuality: The Use of Pleasure (Vintage) Vol. 2
Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison
The History of Sexuality: The Care of the Self
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (Routledge Classics)
Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
