Female Perversions

Rating:
Summary: "...normal femininity..a perversion.."
Review: Although this book has some interesting ideas, the author's perspective is limited by a narrow focus on freudian theories on penis envy and castration fear. The overall work is also tinged with an outdated 80's feminism that blames the evil patriarch for enslaving helpless women. The author seems to have a contempt of all traditional femininity. At one point she refers to parent's teaching children to act in feminine or masculine ways as 'soul murders.' The book ends with the words "..normal femininity..a perversion, if you will." If you are looking for progressive thinking you will find this book quite conservative.

Rating:
Summary: "..normal feminity...a perversion.."
Review: Although this book presents some interesting ideas, the author's perspective is limited by a narrow focus on Fruedian theories of penis envy and castration fears. Further, the entire book is shaded by an outdated 80s era feminism that blames the evil patriach for enslaving helpless females. The author seems to have a comtempt for all that is traditionally feminine. In one passage she calls parent's attempts to teach children to be feminine or masculine "soul murders," and the book's final words are "..normal femininity...a perversion, if you will." If you are looking for progressive thinking you will find this book very conservative.

Rating:
Summary: Female Perversions
Review: I'm currently reading this book for a women's studies class on psychoanalysis and gender. The author succeeds in posing critical questions to psychoanalytic theories of perversions such as fetichism, sadomasochism, etc. However, I think her arguments were clouded sometimes by what seemed like moral judgements, for example in saying that "Perverts don't make love, they make hate". It has really interesting case studies. It also helps to analyze one's own behavior in terms of sexuality and its intersection with how we gender our actions in every day life. I would recommend it to anyone interested in re-thinking psychoanalysis.