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A review by katie_king
Sex, Time, and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution by Leonard Shlain
1.0
From my last status update, on page 129 of 448:
That's it. I'm done. I can't force myself to read another chapter of paternalistic drivel from the privileged viewpoint of an old white American male physician.
While some of his physiology has merit, the conclusions he draws from it do not. Oh, did I mention that he's a devoted Freudian? And that his writing style is so florid, egotistical and repetitive that any random passage could be a contender for the Bulwer-Lytton Prize?
The author promises that if the unwary reader can survive his tortuous prose, that he will Reveal All in Chapter 13. (Along the way, he takes potshots at any researchers' works that do not support his thesis). I will confess that I skipped ahead; it wasn't worth it. By that point I just wanted him to lay it all out in point form.
I await the feminist take-down of this book. I'd be tempted to write one myself, but I can't subject myself to any more of this dreck.
I recollect reading Ashley Montagu's work as "fawning pedestalitis", but this book deserves it more. By elevating Gyna Sapiens to the position of Great Mother, he puts her in the traditional subservient place of docile nurturer.
That's it. I'm done. I can't force myself to read another chapter of paternalistic drivel from the privileged viewpoint of an old white American male physician.
While some of his physiology has merit, the conclusions he draws from it do not. Oh, did I mention that he's a devoted Freudian? And that his writing style is so florid, egotistical and repetitive that any random passage could be a contender for the Bulwer-Lytton Prize?
The author promises that if the unwary reader can survive his tortuous prose, that he will Reveal All in Chapter 13. (Along the way, he takes potshots at any researchers' works that do not support his thesis). I will confess that I skipped ahead; it wasn't worth it. By that point I just wanted him to lay it all out in point form.
I await the feminist take-down of this book. I'd be tempted to write one myself, but I can't subject myself to any more of this dreck.
I recollect reading Ashley Montagu's work as "fawning pedestalitis", but this book deserves it more. By elevating Gyna Sapiens to the position of Great Mother, he puts her in the traditional subservient place of docile nurturer.