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An Argument Against Women's Liberation for Female Emancipation
by Arianna Stassinopoulos
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Amazon.com |
Brilliant and provocative, this book proposes the concept of "the female woman" who combines femininity with intelligent individuality and enjoys the fundamental differences between men and women.
The author believes that Women's Libbers are confused middle-class intellectuals who project their own neuroses and hang-ups onto all women -- and thereby do great harm. In her well-written and lively book, Miss Stassinopoulos makes the point that though men and women may be equal, they are certainly different. She says that it is absurd to take the position that the enormous physiological differences between the sexes have no other consequences. Of course they do. And these innate differences mean that women are better at certain tasks than men, more comfortable in certain roles, more like each other -- as a group -- than they are like men.
The author believes in women's emancipation which insists on equal status and equal opportunity for distinctly female roles. Liberation, which she scorns, forces women into male roles and devalues femininity. It makes women who enjoy family life feel guilty and glorifies the run-of-the-mill nine-to-five job, at the expense of a career in the home. The author says: "Calvin wanted to turn the world into a monastery, while Women's Lib wants to turn it into an orphanage." What is so glamorous, Miss Stassinopoulos asks, about working as a file clerk -- even at Ms magazine?
Furthermore, though Women's Lib sees men as a highly privileged group, the oppressors of women, the author holds that man's fate is much more extreme than woman's. Men may be more privileged some of the time, but they are often more deprived. Not only is it hard to be a man, it is also harder to become one.
The Female Woman is a powerful, controversial and newsworthy book which needs to be read by everyone interested in the plight of modern woman -- and modern man.
"The Female Woman sorts out with masterly skill the contemporary confusion of ideas about the sexes ... a rare pleasure to read."
- The Times
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