Reviews for Reading Bataille Now

The average rating for Reading Bataille Now based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-05-26 00:00:00 Peter Jenkins This is a well-written and interesting academic study of the works of the philosophes. Steinbrugge uses their philosophical treatises and some of their literary works to explore the re-envisioning of how and why women's minds were less intellectual and rational than men's. Simultaneously, they cast women's nature as pious, emotional, and moral-- the natural guardians of the hearth, nurturers of children, and guiding love to men. As the description states, these ideas and ideals worked together "to back women into the corner of domesticity," relegating middle class women to home, and binding to them the roles of wife and mother, to the exclusion of other arenas and other roles, for generations. But another thing that makes this study so interesting is how it illustrates the change from earlier thinking about women's nature. One factor that fueled and informed witchcraft trials was the perception that women were more susceptible to demonic seduction. Women were also inherently sexual and tied to their bodies, making them prime targets to be drawn to malefaction. But the changes outlined here in The Moral Sex pull the brakes on these ideas, as women became kind, loving, and pious. Overall, this a well-written text, though at times, it does fall into a dry academic tone. I read it in the English translation, so this could be related to translation issues and not the tone of the original author.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-08-21 00:00:00 Sharon Martin This is a scholarly book. While I usually enjoy scholarly books, too, I'm just not that interested in 18th century French women and high fashion. But the paper this book is printed on...ooh la la! You could make a christening gown from it.