The Menstuff® library lists pertinent books on Women's Issues.
Bolen, Jean Shinoda, The Millionth
Circle: How to change ourselves and the world. The essential
guide to women's circles. Women of all ages have been forming
circles dedicated to varous purposes - book clubs, support groups,
professional guidance, mid-life transitions, and more. Until now,
nothing was available to inspire, instruct, and capture the
imaginations of the millions of women engaged in what we will
eventually recognize as the social, cultural and psychospiritual
transformation of our time. The book is part vision, part how-to -
grew out of the author's decades-long work with women's circles -
as leader, lecturer and active participant. Extrapolated from the
myth of The Hundredth Monkey, it is accessible, empowering, and
destined to become the bible of women's groups everywhere. The
Millionth Circle depends upon a simple hypothesis whose
mechanism has already been proposed and observed, and is one that
can be intuitively and immediately grasped: when a critical number
of people change how they think and behave, the culture will also,
and a new era begins. Once the principles are understood, the
significance of women's circles can be appreciated as a
revolutionary-evolutionary movement that is hidden in plain sight.
This book proposes nothing less than the visionary possibility
that women's circles can accelaraate humanity's shift to a
post-patriarchal era. With principles on how to form a circle,
with whom, and how to anticipate and resolve potential conflicts,
she provides the tools and inspiration for women to create new
cirlces or deepen and transform existing circles into vehicles of
societal and psychospiritual change. Conari Press www.conari.com
or concari@conari.com 1999
ISBN 1-57324-176-8 Buy
This Book!
Delacoste, Frederique & Priscilla
Alexander, Sex Work: Writings by women in the sex
industry. The first (and only?) book to be reviewed favorably
by both The Women's Review of Books and Hustler,
this book popularized the term "sex work" to describe the
occupations of street prostitutes, exotic dancers, nude models,
escorts, porn actresses, and workers in massage parlors and so
changed the way we talk about sex and money. Features the original
stories of women in the life, including writings by Sapphire, Nina
Hartley and Joan Nestle. Includes Sex Workers' response to AIDS.
Latest information on the legal status of sex work in the US,
Europe and Asia. Growth of the international prostitutes' rights
movement. Bibliography, revised to reflect a decade's worth of
writing and publishing on sex work. Resources, including activists
organizations and publications - many just a web click away. Cleis
Press cleis@aol.com 1998
ISBN 1-57344-042-6 Buy
This Book!
Edson, Margaret, W;t: A
play. In this extraordinary play, the author has created a
work that is as intellectually challenging as it is emotionally
immediate. At the start of Wit, a renowned professor of
English, who has spent years studying and teaching the brilliantly
difficult Holy Sonnets of the metaphysical poet John Donne, has
been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. Her approach to her
illness is not unlike her approach to the study of Donne:
aggressively probing and intensely rational. But during the course
of her illness - and her stint as a prize patient in an
experimental chemotherapy program at a major teaching hospital,
she comes to reassess her life and her work with a profundity and
humor that are transformative both for her and for the audience.
Faber and Faber 1999 ISBN 0-571-19877-5 Buy
This Book!
Eisenberg, Susan, We'll Call You If We
Need You: Experiences of women working
construction. "The author introduces us to the feminist
pioneers who first ventured onto building sites, braving hatred,
abuse, physical suffering, and even mortal danger. She gives us
firsthand reports of skills developed, obstacles overcome,
self-esteem achieved...An inspirational and life-affirming
book...she tells the story through interviews with thirty women -
carpenters, electricians, ironworkers, painters and plumbers...she
moves adroitly from topic to topic, interweaving her own
commentary with pertinent remarks by each of
them." Samuel Florman, New York Times Book
Review. Cornell University Press 1999 ISBN 0-8014-8605-X Buy
This Book!
Ensler, Eve, The Good Body. Botox,
bulimia, breast implants: the author of Vagina
Monologues is back, this time to rock our views of
what it means to have a "good body." It starts with her tortured
relationship with her own "post-forties" stomach and her
skirmishes with everything from Ab Rollers to fad diets and
fascistic trainers in an attempt to get the "flabby badness" out.
As she hungrily seeks self-acceptance, she is joined by the voices
of women from L.A. to Kabul, whose obsessions are also laid bare.
Along the way, she also introduces us to women who have found a
hard-won peace with their bodies. These are just a few of the
inspiring stories woven through her global journey from obsession
to enlightenment. Ultimately, these monologues become a personal
wake-up call from her to love the "good bodies" we
inhabit.Villard, www.villard.com,
2004, ISBN 0-375-50284-X 
Ensler, Eve, The Vagina Monologues. You might think this is
a rather odd addition to a men's library. However, this book
transforms the vision of the "cunt", "twat", "pussy" to a higher
level where it should be, to all men, and especially to men
raising daughters. The author writes, "I was worried about
vaginas. I was worried about what we think about vaginas, and even
more worried that we don't think about them...So I decided to talk
to women about their vaginas." In talking to over 200
women, old, young, married, single, lesbians, college professors,
actors, corporate professionals, sex workers, African American,
Latino, Asian American, Native American, Caucasian, Jewish. At
first, women were a little reluctant to talk. They were a little
shy. But once they got going, they couldn't be stopped. So she
begins her hilarious, eye-opening tour into the last frontier, the
forbidden zone at the heart of every women. This groundbreaking
book gives voices to a chorus of lusty, outrageous, poignant, and
thoroughly human stories, transforming the question mark hovering
over the female anatomy into a permanent victory sign. With
laugher and compassion, she transports the reader to a world we've
never dared to know, guaranteeing that no one who reads this book
will ever look at a woman's body the same way again.
Warning: There is one of the
Monologues in the DVD version, at least, that romances child
molestation. A 24 year old woman plies a 13 year old girl with
alcohol and gets her off. She never sees this woman again, which
supports the predatory nature of the incident. Some adult needs to
interact with their daughter regarding this situation in the DVD
and in life. The act, while meaningful to the girl, and possibly
the first "loving act" she had ever received from an adult, is
still glorifying molestation. Molestation can fulfill the need for
love and caring from an adult man to an underaged boy or girl as
well as between an adult woman to an underaged boy or girl. It's
still child molestation in this country and cannot be justified.
(Cunt: A declaration of independence is a
great companion.) Villard 1998 ISBN 0-375-75052-5
DVD 0-7831-2079-6 
Evans, Susan & Joan Avis,
The Women Who Broke All the Rules: How the choices
of a generation changed our lives. The eighteen million women
born in the first years of the baby boom grew up anticipating a
life of rules - go to college, get married, have a family. But
when the time came, the cultural, social and political tumult of
the late 1960s catapulted them into options that no previous
generation had even considered. This book is the first one to
celebrate the ordinary but extraordinary women who made decisions
that have changed every woman's life. Against extreme odds and
without role models, these women made unprecedented life choices -
in marriage, childbearing, education and work. By breaking every
rule in the "good girl" handbook, they defined new ways for adult
women to live. Sourcebooks 1999 ISBN 1-57071-428-2 Buy
This Book!
Giles, Fiona, ed., Dick for a Day: What
Would You Do if You Had One?. While not really a book directed
to men, versus at men, this review offers a look into the thoughts
of a small group of women writers - feminists, scholars,
performers and artists. Left with this outrageous question to
celebrated women, the results are serious, humorous and downright
strange. What's most exciting is that every man will be able to
ponder his own response - and discover the basis for arguments,
fantasies and gender benders of the most provocative kind.
"Breasts for a Day" just doesn't have the same ring to it,
somehow. Villard www.randomhouse.com
1997 ISBN 0-679-77353-3 Buy
This Book!
Higgs, Liz Curtis Bad Girls of the
Bible: And what we can learn from them. Lessons in good
living from the Bible's bad news belles. The author
says: "For ten years I studied bunches of biblical role
models and finally realized what we had in common: Zip. Sarah
was so faithful. Esther was so courageous. Mary was so innocent. I
was so none-of-the-above. Then I happened upon Jezebel, and
something inside me clicked. I identified with her pushy
personality, I understood her need for control, I empathized with
her angry outbursts, and I began to wonder...Could those Bad Girls
from the past teach us how to be Good Girls in the present? I'm
here to tell you - yes! Whether they were Bad to the
Bone, Bad for a Moment, or Bad for a Season but Not Forever, these
infamous sisters show us how not to handle the challenges of life.
We first meet them in a contemporary, fictional story (Delilah
becomes a hairdresser named Lila from Dallas!), followed by a
zippy, verse-by-verse review. Of course, I've included plenty of
fun, 'Lizzie style' commentary to keep readers smiling, and each
chapter includes four life-changing lessons well worth
remembering. This book is for all women - from Former Bad Girls
who need to be reminded we're truly forgiven to Veteran Good Girls
who long to understand those still searching for answsers. This is
the place, sisters. Grab a veil and dive in!" WaterBrook Press,
1999. ISBN 1-57856-125-6 Buy
this book!
Holland, Barbara, They Went
Whistling: Women wayfarers, warriors, runaways, and
renegades. Throughout history there have been women, endowed
with curiosity and abundant spirit, who cast off the shackles of
expectation and struck out for new territory. In this ode to bold,
brash, and sometimes just plain dangerous women, the author
reanimates those rebels who defied convention and challenged
authority on a truly grand scale: they traveled the world,
commanded pirate ships, spied on the enemy, scaled 19,000-foot
passes, and lobbied to change the Constitution. Some were merry
and flamboyant; others were depressive and solitary. Some dressed
up as men; others cherished their Victorian gowns. Many were bad
mothers. But every one of them was fearless, eccentric, and
fiercely independent. The author evokes their energy in this
unconventional book that will acquiant you with the likes of Grace
O'Malley, a blazing terror of the Irish seas in the 1500s, and
surprise you with a fresh perspective on legends like Bonnie
Parker of "Bonnie and Clyde" fame. With wit, wisdom, and
irreverent flair, this book makes a compelling case for the
virture of getting into trouble. Anchor Books, www.anchorbooks.com,
2001 ISBN 0-385-72002-5 Buy
This Book!
Jong, Erica, What Do Women Want? Reflections on a century
of change. This is a book of inspiration, humor, and
provocation - an intimate conversation between the reader and
author. In these personal statements she addresses many of the
questions that concern women and men today. Are women better off
today than they were twenty-five years ago? Why do powerful
women evoke ambivalence? Why do mothers continue to be blamed
for working outside the home? How does the mother-daughter
relationship influence cycles of feminism and backlash? What
is the connection between pornography and the creative
spirit? Who is the perfect man? With her characteristic
wit and her refreshing refusal to bow down before political
correctness, she tackles these and other issues. Grappling with
the writers she loves and the hypocrisy she hates, she reveals her
own original, quirky take on the world we live in.
HarperPerennial, 1998 ISBN 0-06-098445-7 Buy
This Book!
Juffer, Jane, At Home with
Pornography: Women, Sex & Everyday Life.
Twenty-five years after the start of the feminist sex wars,
pornography remains a flashpoint issue, with feminists locked in
the familiar argument: Are women victims or
agents? This book exposes the fruitlessness of this
debate and argues that we need to stop emphasizing pornography's
transgressive aspects and start focusing on the place of porn and
erotica in women's everyday lives. The author asks where do women
routinely find pornography, for how much, and how is it circulated
and consumed within the home? How is this circulation
and consumption shaped by marketing categories that try to
distinguish erotica, such as sexual self-help videos for couples,
from porn? The author demonstrates how women's
consumption of erotica and porn for their own pleasure can be
empowering while simultaneously reinforcing concervative ideals.
She shows, for instance, how the Victoria's Secret catalog
functions as a kind of pornography whose popularity is enhanced by
both its reliance on Victorian themes of secrecy and privacy and
by its appeals to the pleasures of modern career women. In her
pursuit to understand what women like and how they get it, the
author delves into adult cable channels, erotic literary
anthologies, sex therapy guides, cyberporn, masturbation, and sex
toys, showing the degrees to which these materials have been
domesticated for home consumption. Representing the next
generation of scholarship on pornography, this book will transform
our understanding of women's everyday sexuality. New York
University Press www.nyupress.nyu.edu
1998 ISBN 0-8147-4237-8 Buy
This Book!
Kaplan, Louise, Female Perversions: The temptations of
Emma Bovary. In her latest breakthrough study, the author
leads us on a rare, literary foray into the minds of the
perverse: men and women governed by unconscious strategies
which distort their behavior while regulating shameful, forbidden
desires. As she explores the dynamics of aberrant sexual and
social behavior, she dispels the myth that perversion is the
province of males alone. Just as male perversions caricature
masculine ideals of virility, female perversions parody feminine
models of submission and purity. Manifestations vary by
sex: fetishism, transvestism, and exhibitionism are male
afflictions; while kleptomania, delicate self-cutting, and
anorexia are female pheonomena. But the author asserts that all
perversions are expressions of socially normalized gender
stereotypes, and that all are instruments of deception. Disguised
in the manifest performances of perversion are potentially
crippling anxieties and mortification, repressed aggressive and
sadistic impulses, and especially, cross-gender ambitions and
desires. Thus, the perverse strategy is insistent and
irresistible, for if it were not played out, the person might be
assailed by his or her own demons. As this book unfolds, and the
elements of the perverse strategy emerge, readers too will be able
to interpret their meaning. Interwoven with the author's
astounding perceptions are case studies and the accessible,
illuminating story of one woman, enslaved by the social
stereotypes of her time. Using this and other texts as a
reference, the author examines the ways in which women endow men
with the power to dominate them, and she describes how social
structures perpetuate the war between the sexes. Doubleday, 1991
ISBN 0-385-26233-7 Buy
This Book!
Latteier, Carolyn, Breasts: The women's perspective on an
American obsession. This book describes and explores our
national breast fetish, which is defined as a culturally
constructed obsession that is deeply interwoven with beauty
standards, breast feeding practices, and sexuality. By tracing the
complex history of this erotic fascination and discovering how it
affects men's and women's sexuality and their relationships, this
book will help women accept their breasts as they are and provide
male readers with insight into how women think and feel about
their bodies. Harrington Park Press, 1998 ISBN 1-56023-927-1
Buy
This Book!
Leon, Vicki, Uppity Women of Ancient
Times. 200 uproarious pirates, pyramid builders, poets,
poisoners, panderers, power brokers and princesses. Full of
piquant details on sex, sporst, madness, celebrites, gossip and
gore, this, like its companion Uppity Women of Medieval
Times (below), excavates a treasure of little-known or
long-suppressed facts about biblical babes, classical consorts,
and Mesopotamian maids for the armchair archaeologist in all of
us. It is sure to inspire all women to take history into their own
hands. MJF Books, 1995 ISBN 1-56731-249-7 Buy
This Book!
Leon, Vicki, Uppity Women of Medieval
Times. 200 daring damsels who dazzled the dark ages and rocked
the Renaissance. From blacksmiths, bankers, plague-ridders, and
sheep thieves to secret agents, pirates, holy women and holy
terrors, medieval women around the world used wits, wiles,
patrons, and networking to make a winning hand of their lives.
Like its companion, Uppity Women of Ancient Times (above),
this offers a riot, a romp, a rousing tour through a crowd of
strong-minded and stong-willed women of history, many of them
suppressed, some of them denied, but none lost to us forever,
thanks to the author's tireless research and infectiously witty
writing. MFJ Books, 1997. ISBN 1-56731-250-0 Buy
This Book!
Lessa, Christina, Women Who
Win: Stories of triumph in sport and in life. What is it
that defines a true athlete? What is it that makes female
athletes unique? What is it that separates world-class from
average? The ideals are presented here. The fine athletes in
this collectoin were chosen not only for their accomplishments in
sports, but also for their pioneering spirit in fields otherwise
dominted by men. It's amazing to think that the women's basketball
leagues are only in their beginning seasons and that the women's
soccer team is about to complete in its first World Cup. The
hockey team, without a league of its own, has just won gold at its
first Olympic games. Not so long ago, there was no ABL and many
women had to play abroad in order to live their dream of being a
professoinal player. Like many of the stories in this book, they
all involved persistence, devotion , and sacrifice - qualities
that characterize professional female athletes. Overall, these are
stories of celebration - what makes a woman and her athleticism
endure and evolve. These could have been stories of anger and
frustration, but they are not. Instead, they are stories of
strength: the power of leadership in the face of adversity; the
importance of mentors, role models, and people who give children
the boost they need to rise; the inescapable influence of parents.
The athletes in this book are women who shape their own existence,
their own goals - they teach us what true sportsmanship is all
about. It is humbling to think about the women who have come
before us, born into difficult circumstances and conflicting
expectations and told to live inside the boundaries. Yet somehow
they bravely went outside them, rewriting the assumptions and
conventions that told them who they should become. Universe
Publishing, 1998, ISBN0-7893-0233-0 
Magezis, Joy, Teach Yourself Women's
Studies. This is about the daily life of every woman. Whether
she's pushing a stroller or sitting in the boardroom. It is a
clear, well-written guide to Women's Studies and examines women's
past accomplishments, their present struggles and their future
hopes. It explores a variety of subjects from female literature to
work, from families to women's minds and bodies. This is the
reference book for those who want to take an informed look at
pressing issues which affect us all. It is also the ultimate guide
for those who wish to assert their rights and get a fairer deal in
today's society. This will provide general readers or student with
the knowledge they need to challenge traditionalist views and
develop their own. NTC Publishing Group 1999
ISBN 0-8442-3113-4 Buy
This Book!
Maglin, Nan Bauer & Donna Perry, ed.
Bad Girls, Good Girls: Women, sex & power in the
nineties. Agents or victims, liberated or oppressed, "bad
girls" or "good girls"? What do these labels mean and do they
further or hinder women's progress? How are today's
visions of female sexuality and power like or unlike those of the
past? How do younger women define
feminism? Isn't the personal still
political? The authors provide a forum for a diverse
group of feminists to discuss women, sex and power in the
nineties. The result is a provocative collection of twenty-four
essays by second- and third-wave feminists; artists and activists;
professors and graduate students; professional journalists and
just-published writers; mothers and daughters. These women
reexamine women's empowerment in light of issues such as AIDS,
battering, acquaintance rape, narratives of childhood sexual abuse
and pornography. Rutgers University Press, 1996
ISBN 0-8135-2251-X Buy
This Book!
Mason,
Jerry, The Family of Woman: A world-wide photographic
perception of female life and being. From the world's
photographers, a piercing look at the changing and the unchanging,
at universal woman and her progress through life. The book looks
at work, at activism, at play, at sexual exploitation, at grief
and death, at love. It looks at how women feel and act with
lovers, friends, parents, husbands, children. It illuminates the
changes that are occurring within the great calm center of what
continues unchanged. Grosset & Dunlap, 1979.
ISBN 0-448-16265-2 Buy
This Book!
Mason, Mary Ann, Equality Trap: Why working women
shouldn't be treated like men. Did the feminist revolution
bring about the new feminine poverty? In this
provocative and original analysis, the author draws on social and
legal history to show how the push for equality has inadvertently
left many women worse off than before - working more hours per
week in the home and outside, often in low-paying jobs. With
nearly 50 percent of all marraiges now ending in divorce and with
a growing trend toward low financial settlements, divorced mothers
frequently find themselves financially devastated. This book
points out ways to solve this dilemma. It calls for a new women's
rights agenda that would benefit all working women. From day care
and health care to child support and paid leaves here is a
blueprint for economic justice that is already redefining the
future of the women's movement. Touchstone, 1990
ISBN 0-671-69624-6 Buy
This Book!
McDonough, Yona Zeldis, editor, The
Barbie Chronicles: A living doll turns forty. "From the
spring day in 1959 when I dumped my Ginny doll for the new flashy
babe on the block, I have adored Barbie. When she was finally
exposed as a sexist stereotype, my adoration, undimished, went
underground. This book celebrates our complex forty-year love/hate
relationship toward the world's most irresistible
doll." To some she's a collectible, to others she's
trash. In this book, twenty-three writers join together to
scrutinize Barbie's forty years of hateful, lovely, disactrous,
glorious influence on us all. No other tiny shoulders have ever
had to carry the weight of such affection and derision, and no
other book has ever paid this notorious little piece of plastic
her due. Whether you adore her or abhor her, this book will have
you looking at her in ways you never imagined. Touchstone,
www.SimonSays.com 1999
ISBN 0-684-86275-1 Buy
This Book!
Miller, Bradford, Returning to Seneca Falls: The first
woman's rights convention & its meaning for men
& women today. In 1848, the First Woman's Rights
Convention took place in Seneca Falls, New York, convened by the
suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and made luminous by the
presence of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass - the only man to
speak in favor of her resolution for women's right to vote.
Creating a new American myth, confronting his demons, exploring
the place and history of Seneca Falls - mixing autobiography,
confession, social history, psychology, and prophecy - the author
takes the readier on a voyage of initiation through the historical
soul of America. Out of his own experiences - seeing himself writ
large as the soul of a nation - he hammers out a new vision of
humanity in which men and women, strong and equal, black and
white, can move bravely into the future, as true heirs of that
founding gesture of 1848, Lindisfarne, 1995
ISBN 0-940262-71-1 Buy
This Book!
Muscio,
Inga, Cunt: A declaration of independence. An
ancient title of respect for women, the word "cunt" long ago
veered off this noble path. The author traces the road from honor
to expletive, giving women the motivation and tools to claim
"cunt" as a positive and powerful force in their lives. With humor
and candor, she shares her own history as she explores the
cultural forces that influence women's relationships with their
bodies. Sending out a call for every woman to be the Cuntlovin'
Ruler of Her Sexual Universe, the author stands convention on its
head by embracing all things cunt-related. (Good companion to
The Vagina Monologues.) Seal Press,
www.sealpress.com 1998
ISBN 1-58005-015-8 Buy
This Book!
Neft, Naomi and Ann Levine, Where Women
Stand: An international report on the status of women
in 140 countries. Find out information on a multitude of
important issues, and discover facts pertinent to anyone concerned
about women's issues and women's status in the growing global
community. Based largely on United Nations documents and
unpublished reports commissioned by the U.N., this book provides
the latest "facts" on women in the world around us. Two
complementary sections illuminate pressing issues and essential
statistics about women's status around the world. The first
section provides a global progress report on women's political
representation, education and employment. It also deals with
marriage and divorce, family planning, and violence against women.
The second section uses these topics as criteria to profile 140
countries, 21 of them in depth. With ample graphs, charts and
tables, no other book offers so much information in such an
easy-to-access format. Random House www.randomhouse.com
1998 ISBN 0-679-78015-7 Buy
This Book!
Nelson, Pam, Cool Women: The
thinking girl's guide to the hippest women in history. This
book is not about heroine worship - on the contrary, it's about
taking our heroines down from their pedestals where we can get a
good, hard look at them. Because only there, at eye level, can we
see what's truly inspiring, even startling, about their stories -
that they're not all that different from our own. Because with the
exception of a few fictional characters, what made each of these
women glorious was not her flawlessness, but her humanity. Look
into the eyes of their pictures - the courage that stares back at
you is not about fearlessness, it's about fears that have been
overcome, mistakes that have been made, and lives that have been
lived for the sheer adventure of it. So, sure, this book is about
great stories from the past, but more importantly it's about
stories still to come. It aims for that moment of recognition,
that Eureka that comes when a girl or woman finds the story that
sings to her. That instant is about more than inspiration, or even
transformation - that instant is about takeoff. Girl Press, 1998
ISBN 0-9659754-0-1 Buy
This Book!
Orenstein, Peggy, Flux: Women on
sex, work, love, kids, & life in a half-changed world.
Today's women have grown up with an unprecedented sense of
possibility. Yet since traditional expectations remain in place,
new paths can often seem illusory. To discover how women in their
twenties, thirties and fourties navigate the opportunities and
constraints of their personal and professional lives, the author
interviewed hundreds of women, both individually and in groups.
She has blended their voices into a compelling narrative that
allows the reader to get deep inside these women's lives and
choices, sharing their thoughts, aspirations, and experiences.
Each one has negotiated difficult terrain; each one offers a
different working model for a fulfilling life. With the same
reporting skills and exceptional sensitivity that characteries her
bestselling book on teenagers and self-esteem, the author offers
insight and inspiration for every woman who is making important
decisions of her own. Anchor Books, www.anchorbooks.com,
2000, ISBN 0-385-49887-X Buy
This Book!
Peiss, Kathy, Hope in a Jar: The making of America's
beauty culture. How did powder and paint, once scorned as
immoral, become indispensable to millions of respectable
women? How did a "kitchen physic," as homemade cosmetics were
once called, become a multibillion-dollar industry? And how
did men finally take over that rarest of institutions, a women's
business? (Editor - Actually, men have been doing make-up for over
40,000 years. Examples are at the beginning of each month in our
calendar.) In this
book, the author, a historian, gives us the first full-scale
social history of America's beauty culture, from the buttermilk
and rice power recommended by Victorian recipe books to the
mass-produced products of our contemporary consumer age. She shows
how women, far from being pawns and victims, used makeup to
declare their freedom, identity and sexual allure as they flocked
to enter public life. And she highlights the leading role of white
and black women - Helena Rubinstein and Annie Turbo Malone,
Elizabeth Arden and Madame C.J. Walker - in shaping a unique
industry that relied less on advertising than on women's customs
of visiting and conversation. Replete with the voices and
experiences of ordinary women, this book is a richly textured
account of how women created the cosmetics industry and cosmetics
created the modern woman. Henry Holt, www.henryholt.com
1999 ISBN 0-80500-5551-7 Buy
This Book!
Sandoz, Joli, Ed, A Whole Other Ball
Game: Women's literature on women's sport. Since
the late 1800s, women have repeatedly proven their fitness for
competitive sport...simply by playing the game. Any game. Off
court and on; despite all opposition. A literary first, this book
deals with all aspects of women's competitive sports, from the
thrill of winning before hometown fans to the interpersonal
dynamics on a team. This engaging collection of short stories,
poems, and novel excerpts tells the exciting story of women's
sports from the sports-woman's own point of view. The author has
played, coached, and written about competitive athletics since her
first plunge off the starting blocks in 1961. Her sporting credits
include working as the first woman track coach at Harvard. Noonday
Press, 1997
Seager, Joni, The State of Women in the
World Atlas: Women's status around the globe: Work,
health, education and personal freedom, Joni Seager. This book
captures the shape of women's lives across continents and
cultures. A decade after the first edition of this atlas, the
author explores the shifts that have occurred and portrays the
current status of women in relation to such key issues as
equality, motherhood, feminism, beauty culture, women at work,
women in the global economy, changing households, domestic
violence, time budgets, girl children, lesbian rights, and women
in government. Maps, text and other graphics show clearly the
gains that women are making - and the many inequalities that
persist. Above all, the atlas claims to once again demonstrates
that the better the state of women, the better the state of the
world. Penguin, 1997 ISBN 0-14-051374-4 Buy
This Book!
Shainess, Natalie, Sweet Suffering: Woman as victim.
Why are so many women their own worst enemies? The
answer is in this book - a book that could literally save lives.
It belongs in the hands of every woman (and her name is legion)
who feels she is always being stepped on by others, is always
being put down, ignored, or abused. Such a woman, feeling that she
is somehow a born victim, suffers, in fact, because she is locked
into a pattern of inflicting psychic pain on herself. Submitting
always to the will and whim of others, she perpetuates her own
misery by living in fear that she would somehow offend if she
tried to stand up for herself. Such torment, we now know, is
self-imposed: a masochist metes out her own punishment. Pointing
no finger of blame, the author, who is the country's foremost
authority on masochism, explains why no woman in our culture
escapes masochism altogether. A searching but easy-to-take
questionnaire allows you to discover to what degree you yourself
may have the problem. The final section is perhaps the most
important: once a woman comes to recognize and understand her
mascochism, it is possible for her to change. The author shows her
how to "dig out", as she puts it, how to learn to assert herself
and to look to herself, finally, rather than to others for
judgment. Bobbs-Merrill, 1984 ISBN 0-672-52766-9 Buy
This Book!
Spadola, Merma, Breasts: Our most public private parts. Why
a book about breasts? More than just another body part,
breasts are symbols of sexuality, motherhood, and power. They are
simultaneously romanticized and taboo, worshipped and exploited.
Yet, despite their notoriety, women rarely talk about them. For
the first time we hear why women love them, loathe them, flaunt
them, hide them, compare them, and sometimes alter them. From
embarrassed early bloomers to the vice-president of the "Itty
Bitty Titty Committee," surgeons to strippers, mothers to
daughters, breast cancer survivors to lingerie professionals,
teachers to housewives - this book reveals what women really feel
about their breasts. Candid, hilarious, sad, sexy, this is an
invitation for women to talk honestly about their experiences ad
ultimately accept their own breasts. Wildcat Canyon Press,
circulus@aol.com Also on
video from HBO Home Video, $14.95 ISBN 0-7831-1235-1
800.367.7765 Book 1998 ISBN 1-885171-27-7 Buy
This Book!
Stone, Sidea, The Shadow
King: The invisible force that holds women back. Ending
the tyranny of the inner patriarch. Many women (and men -ed.)
have worked to free ourselves from the rigid patriarchal values
that have dominated our culture for so long. The author helps us
take the next step by making us aware of the Inner Patriarch - the
voice within each of us that echoes those values. This inner voice
is called the Shadow King because it is invisible and works from
the shadows to sabotage even the most liberated women. This books
shows us how to transform our Inner Patriarch from an unseen enemy
to a powerful ally so that we can claim our power. Nataraj, 1997
ISBN 1-882591-31-3 Buy
This Book!
Thompson, Lana, The Wandering
Womb: A cultural history of outrageous beliefs
about women. For most of recorded history, female anatomy -
especially the womb - has been shrouded in mystery and
misunderstanding. As a result, powerful but misguided cultural
beliefs - religious, philosophical and even "scientific" -
continue to perpetuate the subordination of women in
male-dominated societies. This book is a provocative tour through
four thousand years of Western civilization and its outrageous
beliefs about women. While many of these ideas became entwined in
centuries of medical ignorance and religious superstition. But
this is not an exclusively "ancient" or "primitive"
phenomenon: As late as the nineteenth century, many doctors
opposed the use of anesthesia in childbirth because women had been
condemned by God to "bring forth children in
sorrow." This is a fascinating, amusing and sometimes
infuriating romp through the bedrooms, birthing rooms, madhouses,
menstrual huts and ivory towers of Western civilization.
Prometheus Books www.prometheusbooks.com
1999 ISBN 1-57392-264-1 Buy
This Book!
Tierney, Helen, Women's Studies Encyclopedia: Natural,
behavioral and social sciences, health and medicine, economics,
linguistics, political science, law. This book provides a feminist
perspective on these and over 250 other topics. Entries included
range from abortion, comparable worth and eating disorders to
orgasm, pornography, sexual harassment and welfare. With over 125
consultants and contributors, a wide spectrum of feminist views is
presented here. For anyone seeking information on women's role in
the social and natural sciences, this book is essential. Peter
Bedrick Books, 1991 ISBN 0-87226-244-8 Buy
This Book!
Towery, Matt, Powerchicks: How
women will dominate America. The most dramatic power shift in
American history is about to occur: Women, after two
centuries of being wholly or partially disenfranchised, are poised
to become the dominant social, economic, and political force of
the next century. The movement has already begun. Today women in
America are responsible for more than eighty percent of consumer
spending, outnumber men in the voting booths, are the primary
source of leadership in raising the next generation, control most
of the purchasing power in the workplace, earn more college
degrees than men and are taking the greatest advantage of
technological advances that make it possible to successfully meld
responsibilities or work and home. The story of this imminent
power shift is not black and white; it surfaces bit by bit from
hundreds of statistics, observations and personal stories. But
once the dots are connected, the picture formed is a fascinating
one of the world's first powerful matriarchy. Based on fresh
research and original interviews with some of America's most
influential women, this book is the prescient story of this quiet
revolution that will change American society forever. Longstreet.,
1998 ISBN 1-56352-521-6 Buy
This Book!
White, Emily, Fast Girls: Teenage
tribes and the myth of the slut. The American high school is a
tribal place - and often a cruel one. Divisions are drawn between
jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, drama geeks, goths. But there is one
person who exists outside of the cliques, who is never welcomed
into any group. She is the girl with the reputation, the one boys
are drawn to and other girls avoid. Many people remember her from
their high school days - some can even recall her name - but few
have thought about her significance: Why is she such a
universal figure? Has she done the things of which she is
accused? How is her reputation created in the first
place? She is the high school slut, and this book explores
her experience and her legacy. In this brilliant fusion of
reportage, criticism, and memoir, the author provides an in-depth
look at the girls who were labeled high school sluts and the
culture that perpetuates the myth. She began this project by
placing a query in a syndicated newspaper column - "Are you now or
were you the slut of your high school class?" - and by setting up
an 800 number in her home to talk with girls who were branded as
sluts. Through interviews, e-mails, and other exchanges with more
than one hundred girls and women across the country, she
identifies the common threads in their life stories and
deconstructs the archetype of the slut, revealing how it reflects
our society's attitudes toward sex, women, and the outsider. She
seamlessly combines her own research with congent analysis of
feminist thought and a critical examination of popular films and
music, resulting in a book that not only explains the
preconditions of the slut - what qualities lead a girl to be
targeted, which communities most often target her - but also tells
us why our culture needs her. With remarkable empathy and
understanding for her subjects, the author opens a window on the
tribal world of teenagers and the lasting effects of adolescent
ostracism. Incisive and affecting, provocative and haunting, this
book marks the debut of an important new voice for feminism.
Understanding the "myth of the slut" and its sometimes traumatic
repercussions offers insight that can bring us closer to women we
might know and love, but too seldom undersatnd. Simon
& Schuster, www.simonsays.com,
2002 ISBN 0-684-86740-0 Buy
This Book!
Wurtzel, Elizabeth, Bitch: In praise of difficult women. No
on better understands the desire to be bad than the author. This
book is a brilliant tract y of manipulative female behavior. By
looking at women who derive their power from their sexuality, the
author offers a trenchant cultural critique of contemporary gender
relations. Beginning with Delilah, the first woman to supposedly
bring a great man down (latter-day Delilahs include Yoko Ono, Pam
Smart, Bess Myserson), the author finds many biblical counterparts
to the men and women in today's headlines. In five brilliant
extended essays, she links the lives of women as demanding and
disparate as Amy Fisher, Hillary Clinton, Margaux Hemingway and
Nicole Brown Simpson. She gives voice to those women whose lives
have been misunderstood, who have been dismissed for their beauty,
their madness, their youth. She finds in the story of Amy Fisher
the tragic plight of all Lolitas, our thirst for their brief and
intense flame. She connects Hemingway's tragic suicide to those of
Sylvia Plath, Edie Sedgwick and Marilyn Monroe, women whose beauty
was an end, ultimately, in itself. Writing about the wife/mistress
dichotomy, explains how some women are anointed as wife material,
while others are relegated to the role of mistress. She takes to
task the double standard on women, the cultural insistence on
goodness and society's complete obsession with badness: what's a
girl to do? In a prose both blistering and brilliant, Bitch is a
treatise on the nature of desperate sexual manipulation and a
triumph of pussy power. Doubleday www.bdd.com
1998 ISBN 0-385-48400-3 Buy
This Book!
Yalom, Marilyn, A History of the Breast. In this
provocative, pioneering, and wholly engrossing cultural history, a
noted scholar explores twenth-five thousand years of ideas,
images, and perceptions of the female breast - in religion,
psychology, politics, society and the arts. Through the centuries,
the breast has been laden with hugely powerful and contradictory
meanings. There is a "good breast" of reverence and life, the
breast that nourishes infants and entire communities, as depicted
in ancient idols, fifteeth-century Italian Madonnas, and
representations of equality in the French Revolution. Then there
is the "bad breast" of Ezekiel's wanton harlots, Shakespeare's
Lady Macbeth, and the torpedo-breasted dominatrix, symbolizing
enticement and aggression. The author examines these
contradictions and illuminates the implications behind them. A
fascinating, astute, and richly allusive journey from Paleolithic
goddesses to modern-day feminists, this is full of insight and
surprises. Ballantine, 1998, ISBN 0-345-38894-1 Buy
This Book!In 1989, Americans bought over 7,000 Harlequin romance novels...every hour.
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