leelulah's review against another edition
1.0
I'm glad this wasn't my introduction to Dworkin.
In this work, she's obviously under the influence of Allen Ginsberg (whom she later denounced for being a pedophile), Margaret Murray's unscientific claims, Shulamith Firestone, and even cites Dr. Money's work.
Here, she has the audacity to call gender 'visible sex' and call the human species 'multisexed'. TRAs will point to this as her trans-friendly era, I can tell. But there are also serious concerns of her former partner rewriting her work to suit this agenda. Yet, none of this erases this is quite disastrous for a first book.
Mentions to the 'erotic impulses of children', thinking sexual difference is constructed... I wasn't expecting a kind relationship to religion but she cuts way less slack than she'd do with Jews in the future. It's kind of strange to watch her go giddly on the idea of witches, or seriously believe that Medievals truly equated sexual intercourse with Jews to bestiality, or even argue that bestiality and pedophilia are somewhat vestiges of a past, more natural and humane society aware of the inherent erotic relationship to other beings.
I can't honestly process the high ratings this possesses on this site. Obviously, there are good parts such as the critique of polarity in male-female relationships, where Jungian is exposed in its 'eternal conflict' mindset, and that of pornography, even of sadomasochism as sort of a subvertion of mystical tradtion, by calling it akin to demonic posession.
I am disappointed, but I suppose it's worth engaging. I've also read somewhere that she disowned parts of this book later in life and I can see why, I should have done the same.
In this work, she's obviously under the influence of Allen Ginsberg (whom she later denounced for being a pedophile), Margaret Murray's unscientific claims, Shulamith Firestone, and even cites Dr. Money's work.
Here, she has the audacity to call gender 'visible sex' and call the human species 'multisexed'. TRAs will point to this as her trans-friendly era, I can tell. But there are also serious concerns of her former partner rewriting her work to suit this agenda. Yet, none of this erases this is quite disastrous for a first book.
Mentions to the 'erotic impulses of children', thinking sexual difference is constructed... I wasn't expecting a kind relationship to religion but she cuts way less slack than she'd do with Jews in the future. It's kind of strange to watch her go giddly on the idea of witches, or seriously believe that Medievals truly equated sexual intercourse with Jews to bestiality, or even argue that bestiality and pedophilia are somewhat vestiges of a past, more natural and humane society aware of the inherent erotic relationship to other beings.
I can't honestly process the high ratings this possesses on this site. Obviously, there are good parts such as the critique of polarity in male-female relationships, where Jungian is exposed in its 'eternal conflict' mindset, and that of pornography, even of sadomasochism as sort of a subvertion of mystical tradtion, by calling it akin to demonic posession.
I am disappointed, but I suppose it's worth engaging. I've also read somewhere that she disowned parts of this book later in life and I can see why, I should have done the same.
queenab's review against another edition
4.0
This is the first book written by a feminist that I read, and I quite happy about my choice. Many of the thoughts that the writer illustrates are the same ones that I have from times to times.
I liked how she didn't just write down things but she explained the phenomenons through the use of historical facts.
It's a book that really opens your eyes on what us all, women in particular, experience due to society, without quite realizing it.
I could have given 5 stars but in the final chapters she makes some osservation about taboos that I don't support and kind of upset me. (But I've read that her point of views about these subject changed in the times so that's ok ahah)
I liked how she didn't just write down things but she explained the phenomenons through the use of historical facts.
It's a book that really opens your eyes on what us all, women in particular, experience due to society, without quite realizing it.
I could have given 5 stars but in the final chapters she makes some osservation about taboos that I don't support and kind of upset me. (But I've read that her point of views about these subject changed in the times so that's ok ahah)
daustin_94's review against another edition
challenging
informative
3.5
Started off being very informative and eye opening. Started to lose me a bit once we got to the section on witches and the section on androgyny. Some of the conclusions she made at the end were extremely weird and felt out of place.
nabou's review against another edition
4.0
This is the first book written by a feminist that I read, and I quite happy about my choice. Many of the thoughts that the writer illustrates are the same ones that I have from times to times.
I liked how she didn't just write down things but she explained the phenomenons through the use of historical facts.
It's a book that really opens your eyes on what us all, women in particular, experience due to society, without quite realizing it.
I could have given 5 stars but in the final chapters she makes some osservation about taboos that I don't support and kind of upset me. (But I've read that her point of views about these subject changed in the times so that's ok ahah)
I liked how she didn't just write down things but she explained the phenomenons through the use of historical facts.
It's a book that really opens your eyes on what us all, women in particular, experience due to society, without quite realizing it.
I could have given 5 stars but in the final chapters she makes some osservation about taboos that I don't support and kind of upset me. (But I've read that her point of views about these subject changed in the times so that's ok ahah)
ayannasarah's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
jdisarray's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Cursing, and Misogyny