Customer Reviews

Catfight: Rivalries Among Women--from Diets to Dating, from the Boardroom to the Delivery Room

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3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I read Tannenbaum's book cover to cover in one sitting. I found myself calling female friends and family to read parts of the book to them. This is new stuff...Competition is an old subject but Tannenbaum has highlighted so elequently the competition that exists between all women. Today I went out into my normal day to day activities and witnessed and observed myself in at least 15-20 competitive situations. This was a mirror for myself and should be a mirror for all women to see a reflection of what we are doing to one another. It's keeping us all down to behave in this way. There is so much truth to this books it's impossible to describe in 1000 words.. It's a must read for all women. I know I will begin to change my behaviour immediately! I thought this was about other women but it's about me too. Darn!

Thank you Leora...

Tannenbaum does an excellent job exploring and explaining the basis for women's rivalries. As a woman, I found myself nodding my head repeatedly as I read. As a female physician and mother, I, like most women, have experienced many of the phenomena that Tannenbaum describes. Tannenbaum has exhaustively researched every aspect of her book, and thoroughly supported virtually every statement within. Catfight serves not only as an excellent reference and review of feminist literature, but also as an enlightening, entertaining read.

I agree with some of the author's points - overall, I think she's on to something in her exploration of competition between women. But she made a few assumptions in the book that made me want to throw it in the trash. The first point that bothered me was her judgement of women who have breast reconstructions after a mastectomy. The author judges these women as vain, which I thought was a bit cruel. There were also several generalizations about men that bothered me. She assumes that women are the only ones who struggle with that precarious balance between work and family. She portrays men as having it so easy - they just slide right up to the top of the org chart with ease, having children along the way (or not) with no time or financial conflicts to consider. I work with many men who stress about finishing a project in time to take off early for their children's activities. My husband and I are expecting a child, and after my maternity leave, he is going to be a stay-at-home dad. And my little brother, a talented musician, is wary of striving for a musical career because of the time and travel constaints it might involve once he has a family. (He's only 18 and he is already considering the work/family balance!)

Most of the information is great. Some of the information is dubious. I found some of the works cited to be faulty. One of the studies cited by Tanembaum was about how women and men did on a math test. The men and women were separated again into those in regular clothes to those in bathing suits. I found this faulty because men can lounge around in shorts. Women don't always wear their bathing suits to just lounge around. It was implied that women didn't do as well in bathing suits, compared to the regularly clothed women, because of self-esteem issues. I doubt that that is what is the real reason for the results. I'm a psych student and the results could have only suggested that that is the reason along with many others. It's hard to be definite in psych. Those type of assumptions give psychologists a bad name.

It started out tough to read, her book [...] is a much easier and more engaging read

"Engrossing." -- The New York Observer

"CATFIGHT represents an important wave of feminist literature... offering valuable, multilayered, introspective, and solidly researched insight into [important] societal questions. The strength of [Tanenbaum's] very original criticism and approach is to illuminate how women experience competition in different areas of life and with different intensities than men do." -- The Chicago Tribune

"Fascinating, chatty." -- New York Post

"A thoughtful and thoroughly engaging writer, Tanenbaum offers not cold sociological interpretation, but earnest encouragement. CATFIGHTT addresses...the heavyhearted suspicion that the same feminist battles we've been fighting for years could well go on forever. There's a lot of bravery here; the book will surely prompt conversations between women and take some of the taboo out of the subject of competition." -- Women's Review of Books

"[CATFIGHT's] approach to the contradictions between feminist rhetoric and women's real experiences is sure to attract even more attention for this fast-rising social critic." -- Publishers Weekly

"Tanenbaum's inquiry...blends well-documented research, interviews, and personal reflection in a lively, accessible style." -- Library Journal

"Tanenbaum relates her own experiences and interviews a variety of women and psychologists to explore the seemingly eternal adversarial relationships that exist among women despite many recent feminist gains." -- Booklist

"Tanenbaum's prose is provocative.... She succeeds beautifully at getting women to think about the role competition plays in their daily lives." -- San Francisco Bay Guardian

"Tanenbaum's best when grappling with the conflicting demands of work and children. She describes the isolation of motherhood with particular care." -- Village Voice

"CATFIGHT is an incisive exploration of a long-taboo subject--how and why women sabotage one another. Tanenbaum is a witty young woman, wise beyond her years. Her insights and lively stories explain the essence of women's resentment of other women; how to spot sabotage by the Other Woman; why rape victims are often disbelieved even by women friends; and much more. Since competition is a learned behavior, not innate, Tanenbaum is able to guide us toward healthy competition. CATFIGHT will prompt women to confront--and cure--their own feelings of competitiveness." -- Gail Sheehy

This book poses as a feminist text, but is really a guilty pleasure fest of stories of women cutting each other down in bathrooms and streetcorners. It portrays women in a very poor way, with the justification that "I concentrate on the bad aspects of women in competition cause that is what we need to change" Or maybe because it sells books to talk about women fighting over men, obsessing over their weights or badmouthing each other. There is no serious intellectual analysis here. Try Michael Messner for a balanced,intelligent and fun discussion of women in sport.