Scan barcode
Reviews
The Eternal Woman: The Timeless Meaning of the Feminine by Gertrud Von Le Fort, Alice Von Hildebrand
leelulah's review
3.0
Like Edith Stein, Gertrude von le Fort was living a time where womanhood was being put in question and shaken by an incorrectly understood notion of the rights of women, and where Nazis basically reduced them to chances to multiply the Aryan race. If any of this sounds familiar, then nothing much has changed.
Unlike Edith Stein, her reflections feel less concrete. She's valuing women beyond physical fertility, but does not go far enough. When she claims that femininity is self-givenness, I ask myself, if this is not a definition of personhood, since Christ, as a full man, gave Himself too.
Similarly, her thesis that virginity was honored cross culturally has some weight, but Romans were decidedly more ambivalent about it since they beleived that not having sex since age 12-13 was unhealthy and possibly causing "humors". The monastic development of the Church protected women and girls from such abuses, in a time where teenage years weren't even thought of. In addition, her outlook towards feminism seems much more less nuanced, which is strange coming from a society where protestantism hindered the educational possibilities of women so much.
Unlike Edith Stein, her reflections feel less concrete. She's valuing women beyond physical fertility, but does not go far enough. When she claims that femininity is self-givenness, I ask myself, if this is not a definition of personhood, since Christ, as a full man, gave Himself too.
Similarly, her thesis that virginity was honored cross culturally has some weight, but Romans were decidedly more ambivalent about it since they beleived that not having sex since age 12-13 was unhealthy and possibly causing "humors". The monastic development of the Church protected women and girls from such abuses, in a time where teenage years weren't even thought of. In addition, her outlook towards feminism seems much more less nuanced, which is strange coming from a society where protestantism hindered the educational possibilities of women so much.
More...