Reviews for The less noble sex

The average rating for The less noble sex based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-04-24 00:00:00 Craig Coulter Reading The Less Noble Sex felt like stepping back into my junior year of high school (ie D&R). The book provides a thorough romp through the scientific, philosophical, and theological history of misogyny from ancient Greece through the Western tradition up to the late 19th century. The work is arranged by category of woman's deficiency - bodily, mental, spiritual, reproductive, etc. - and within each chapter the author describes the continuities and shifts of viewpoints and scholarship throughout the last two thousand years on these subjects. Along the way the reader is surrounded by delightful facts to gather into his or her basket of random bits and bobs of knowledge. I found that the most interesting portions, far and away, were the evolving medical views on the body and how these were influenced by the surrounding culture. It should serve as a warning to anyone involved in science or medicine that much of what we take as fact is very much a product of the culture in which the research occurs. A riveting history of quackery, the chapters covering the deficiencies of women's bodies illuminate such faux-science as craniology and the wandering, fickle uterus. My complaints about the book are mostly about its writing and structure. I found myself wishing throughout that instead of organizing chronologically by topic the opposite approach had been taken, making the entire work progress chronologically. This would've cut down on the considerable repetition and made for a more fluid read. The writing is utilitarian and academic, and while I hardly expect flowery prose on the topic, I have read many better-written nonfiction works (last year's Fruit Hunters and Traffic come to mind, and more classically, even E. B. White's essays on raising chickens). That said, some of the most interesting contrasts aren't really pointed out or explained. For example, during the classical era and age of alchemy, androgyny appeared to be the ideal promoted for women to strive towards, but androgyny became demonized in the 18th century. I would have appreciated more elaboration on the change, and also perhaps an exploration on the attitudes towards and incidences of intersex people, a question their apparent idealization begs. It also isn't always clear how much effect the pronunciations of ivory tower philosophers had on average women. Class is mentioned sparsely, and I wondered if the pronunciations of Aristotle, Galen, Augustine, etc. affected all women or, say, wealthy educated ones alone. In general, The Less Noble Sex is a somewhat dry and repetitive exploration of a very interesting topic, and is well-researched and mostly well-presented.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-02-09 00:00:00 Donald Cassel Had to read this book for a class. Not everyone can understand and therefore appreciate Tuana's style of delivery, but I do. I love this author and her book. I will continue to study her work. I recommend.