From Publishers Weekly
"Men are normal, women are deficient" is the tacit message our culture instills, asserts California social psychologist Taviris. In a valuable, enlightening roadmap to sanity for women and men, she argues that there is far more substantial evidence for similarity between the sexes than for differences. She refutes ecofeminists and other theorizers who claim that women are more empathic and peace-loving than men. She disputes feminist historians who argue on shaky grounds for worldwide prehistoric matriarchies centered on Mother Goddess worship; she debunks feminist psychoanalysts who, she says, reinforce Freud's notion that men and women are inevitably worlds apart psychologically. Rejecting the notion that women are less sexual, Tavris deflates the stereotype of the "coy female" propagated in sociobiology and pop psychology texts. Her lively study explores how society "pathologizes" women though psychiatric diagnoses, sexist divorce rulings and images of females as "moody," "self-defeating" or "unstable." She also presents evidence that women's expectations about premenstrual syndrome, a stigmatizing label for a natural set of bodily changes, may actually influence their symptoms. First serial to Redbook, Mademoiselle, Woman's Day and Self; BOMC and QPB alternates; author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Tavris, a social psychologist best known for Anger ( LJ 1/1/83) presents a considered and comprehensive analysis of how women are measured against men in society. She examines why women are not inferior, superior, or the same as men. Comparisons have led to labeling men as "normal" and women who do not perform physically, sexually, mentally, or emotionally like them as "abnormal." Tavris argues that the costs of these measurements have been, and continue to be, substantial for women. She also presents careful and convincing critiques of Carol Gilligan, author of In a Different Voice (Harvard Univ. Pr., 1982) and other works on the psychology of women such as codependency, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . Tavris articulates and synthesizes convoluted philosophical arguments easily. The result is an accessible, thorough, and enjoyable feminist overview of women in society. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/91.
- Melody Burton, York Univ. Libs., TorontoCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
