The whole woman / Germaine Greer.
By: Greer, Germaine.
Material type: BookPublisher: London : Doubleday, 1999Description: 351 p. ; 25cm.ISBN: 0385600151 (m) (hbk).Subject(s): Women -- History | Women's rights | Women -- Social conditions | Feminism | Sex roleDDC classification: 305.4209Item type | Current library | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General Lending | MTU Bishopstown Library Lending | 305.4209 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 00069511 | ||
General Lending | MTU Bishopstown Library Lending | 305.4209 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 00069510 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Thirty years after the publication ofThe Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer is back with the sequel she vowed never to write. "A marvelous performance--. No feminist writer can match her for eloquence or energy; none makes [us] laugh the way she does."--The Washington Post In this thoroughly engaging new book, the fervent, rollicking, straight-shooting Greer, is, as ever, "the ultimate agent provocateur" (Mirabella). With passionate rhetoric, outrageous humor, and the authority of a lifetime of thought and observation, she trains a sharp eye on the issues women face at the turn of the century. From the workplace to the kitchen, from the supermarket to the bedroom, Greer exposes the innumerable forms of insidious discrimination and exploitation that continue to plague women around the globe. She mordantly attacks "lifestyle feminists" who blithely believe they can have it all, and argues for a fuller, more organic idea of womanhood. Whether it's liposuction or abortion, Barbie or Lady Diana, housework or sex work, Greer always has an opinion, and as one of the most brilliant, glamorous, and dynamic feminists of all time, her opinions matter. For anyone interested in the future of womanhood,The Whole Womanis a must-read. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-348) and index.
Recantation -- Warm-up -- Body -- Mind -- Love -- Power.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Recantation (p. 1)
- Warm-Up (p. 7)
- Body
- Beauty (p. 23)
- Manmade Women (p. 31)
- Womb (p. 39)
- Breasts (p. 49)
- Food (p. 62)
- Pantomime Dames (p. 70)
- Manmade Mothers (p. 81)
- Abortion (p. 91)
- Mutilation (p. 101)
- Our Bodies, Our Selves (p. 114)
- Mind
- Work (p. 127)
- Housework (p. 137)
- Shopping (p. 145)
- Estrogen (p. 154)
- Testosterone (p. 161)
- Soldiers (p. 172)
- Sorrow (p. 181)
- Sex (p. 191)
- Love
- Mothers (p. 205)
- Fathers (p. 217)
- Daughters (p. 227)
- Sisters (p. 236)
- The Love of Women (p. 244)
- Single (p. 255)
- Wives (p. 263)
- Power
- Emasculation (p. 275)
- Fear (p. 284)
- Loathing (p. 292)
- Masculinity (p. 300)
- Equality (p. 308)
- Girlpower (p. 323)
- Liberation (p. 333)
- Notes (p. 345)
- Acknowledgements (p. 362)
- Index (p. 365)
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Although Greer calls this a sequel to her 1970 feminist classic The Female Eunuch, it is more a reprise. The structure is parallel, and some content is repeated. Her rationale is "It's time to get angry again"; but if readers are to become "whole women," we need not only this strongly worded reminder of remaining societal barriers but also hope springing from the progress, however limited, of the last 30 years. There is little hope within these pages. There are also some surprising inconsistencies: "Men will not buy cosmetics" vs. "In 1996 male cosmetic surgery was a $9.5 billion industry nationwide." The meaningless (and offensive) generalization from The Female Eunuch that "all men hate some women some of the time" is not only repeated here but reinforced. Libraries should retain the earlier title for historic interest, but this book will serve as a replacement.ÄBarbara Ann Hutcheson, Greater Victoria P.L., BC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Publishers Weekly Review
The blithe spirit of The Female EunuchÄa tart, irreverent feminist screed that crackled across the Western world in 1971Ähas given way to the surprisingly curmudgeonly temperament of Greer's latest effort, with its dim view of humanity and our capacity to change. After 30 years and many books, the Australian-born polemicist who lives and teaches in England has attempted to recreate and update the formula that brought her international acclaim. Like its predecessor, this new work is a loosely connected series of short, idiosyncratic, Menckenesque essays larded with statistics, slangy erudition and disembodied quotations set off in half-tones. This time around, the author gambols over such disparate subjects as female circumcision in Africa (Greer urges tolerance for cultural practices so different from our own) and transgendered people (she blazes with antagonism against sexual reassignments). In one of her pet peeves, she excoriates housewives who waste hours in shopping malls in search of the latest prepackaged foodstuffs while remaining immune to the joys of baking a cake from scratch. At her best, Greer argues passionately for the mystic virtues of ecofeminism and stirringly calls for a return to the values of a simpler life, minus its egregious sexist assaults. Occasionally an aphorism sparkles with the old wit and biteÄ"One wife is all any man deserves"; "The power of Hillary Clinton's well-trained brain is principally demonstrated to the American public in her spirited defenses of her husband against the charges that he has cuckolded and humiliated her"Äbut too often the effect is labored and strained. Greer has grievances aplenty with present-day society, but she offers few prescriptives for improvement besides demonstrations of support for embattled Iraqi and Palestinian women. Agent, Gillon Aitken. 100,000 first printing; seven-city author tour. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reservedBooklist Review
"It's time to get angry again," Greer declares in the "Recantation" that opens her new book. Women, she urges, have been persuaded to aspire not to liberation but to mere equality, and "the price of the small advances we have made . . . has been the denial of femaleness as any kind of a distinguishing character." The manifesto Greer offers, 30 years after The Female Eunuch, considers old and new attacks on women under four divisions: body, mind, love, and power. "Body" covers beauty, food, womb, breasts, sex-change operations, infertility treatments, abortion, and medical care. "Mind" takes on work, housework, shopping, estrogen, testosterone, female soldiers, sorrow, and sex. The roles of mothers, fathers, daughters, sisters, wives, single women, and women who love women are Greer's subjects under the heading "Love." Her "Power" section discusses emasculation, fear and loathing, masculinity, equality, girl power, and liberation. Readers who forget Greer is an academic (a Warwick University English and comparative literature professor) may be surprised at the volume of information she provides here, but she remains more than willing to challenge conventional wisdom and court controversy. To her credit, Greer has always recognized that structures that oppress women oppress most men as well, and that "lifestyle feminism" in the industrialized world is ultimately less important than resistance by women in the less developed world against "penetration" of their societies by globalizing multinationals. First printing of 100,000 copies; expect interest. --Mary CarrollKirkus Book Review
Greer's ba-a-a-ck in top effing form, as she might say. This book takes up where The Female Eunuch left off, trashing the optimists who believe feminism has moved women along and the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately generation who believe there are no battles left to fight. Greer (Daddy, We Hardly Knew You, 1990, etc.) said that she would never write a sequel to The Female Eunuch (1971), but the ``fire flared up in [her] belly'' when she saw feminism stalled and some feminists asserting that women now had it all. Wrong, asserts Greer: ``On every side, we see women troubled, exhausted, mutiliated, lonely, guilty, mocked by the headlined success of the few.'' Greer proceeds to outline, issue by issue, where women are stuck in the mire of an unliberated society. Beginning with a section on 'Body,' she tackles the Barbie school of beauty, cosmetic surgery, transsexuals, abortion, and mutilation (including episiotomies, cesarean sections, and hysterectomies). In segments on 'Mind,' 'Love,' and 'Power,' she takes on work (including the time women spend working on their appearance), estrogen, testosterone, and sorrow (with comments on the outpouring of grief from women on the death of Princess Diana). She discusses motherhood as a ``genuine career option,'' incest, single women (``no sex is better than bad sex'') plus fear and loathing, rearguing a much-discussed line from The Female Eunuch: ``Women have very little idea of how much men hate them.'' In fact, she predicts, the second wave of feminism is still ``far out to sea,'' and its power will be demonstrated by poor and oppressed women in countries like China, Thailand, and Iran. The text is highlighted throughout with provocative quotes from poets, writers, performers, and publications on the fringe. Little new information here, but Greer, as always, infuses the questions of ``women's liberation'' with clarity, energy, and insight. An inspiring and passionate challenge to feminists and humanists alike. (First printing of 100,000)Author notes provided by Syndetics
Germaine Greer is an author and noted Feminist. She is the author of The Female Eunuch, Daddy, We Hardly Knew You, The Change: Women, Ageing and the Menopause, The Beautiful Boy, Shakespeare's Wife and White Beech: The Rainforest Years, among others(Bowker Author Biography)