Customer Reviews

The Mismeasure of Woman

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I found this book to be well reasoned, well written and thought provoking. I am not saying that I agree with everything (I completely disagree with her assertion that same-sex schools are ok for women but not for men) but in most cases I found her insight to be refreshing.

An example of such insight: it is often claimed that women students have poor self esteem due to the fact that males score higher on "self-esteem" inventories. She points out that this could well be due to the fact that women mature quicker and therefore have a more realistic picture of themselves; that is, this is a case in which it is wholly inappropriate to compare women to the *men's* standard.

In short, she has helped me understand that "equal treatment" is not always the same as "fair treatment".

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in seeing a feminist point of view that is NOT inherently anti-male.

Carol Tavris, Ph.D., is a social psychologist who lectures and writes on many aspects of psychology. Her brilliant book, Anger: the Misunderstood Emotion, is a classic, and this book promises to become one, too.

In Mismeasure of Woman, Dr. Tavris carefully exposes the origins and structure of the prevailing habit of virtually all societies, even our so-called "enlightened" one, of describing men--particularly socially powerful men--as the "norm" and derogatorily measuring women in comparison to them. Dr. Tavris's direct, concise, highly readable prose is filled with documented examples showing that the differences between men and women are not primarily biological. Instead, they are created by socially mandated discrepancies in power, resource allocation and life experience.

Though many feminists have written about the relegating of women to penis-envying, second-class men, I consider Dr. Tavris one of the most clear and persuasive of those speaking out against this "mismeasure of woman." In this book, I believe she does a better job of describing the extent of the problem, and is very inspiring in brainstorming possible solutions.

An analysis of the way science views women, this book has three main points: Women are not inferior to men, women are not superior to men, and women are not the same as men.

I read this book in college and almost immediately used a small portion of it in my final project for Human Sexuality. From my own research, I learned that the author's analysis of my topic (the G-Spot) agreed with the primary sources. I do not doubt that the rest of the book is just as accurate.

The reviewer who said that the author does not address the issue of abuse properly doesn't understand what the book is really about. It certainly is not about abuse, incest, or the like, nor what to do when you are recovering from it. It is about SCIENCE, and examples of biased interpretations of the same.

It isn't necessary to agree with everything in this witty book to realize that its subject - male bias - is crucial to our understanding of ourselves as humans. It is such an obvious, if overlooked, fact that using the male as the standard of normalcy for humans is illogical.

Tavris exposes the confusion between gender equality and gender sameness. Women and men do differ because of differences in reproduction and these lead to differences in health issues, life experiences, access to resources etc etc.

When Tavris shows the results of using the female as the norm then female bias becomes obvious. Men become selfish with inflated self-esteem, narcissistic, inflexible etc etc and possibly many should be diagnosed with Delusional Dominating Personality Disorder.

Not being able to see the male bias in so much of the debate about equality is surely a major block to its achievement. Imposing a male standard on both sexes does not lead to equal consequences for the sexes. As parents recognize the differences between their children, treating them equally does not mean treating them uniformly as if they are the same.

This recognition of male bias and the difference between equality and sameness is essential. It is something so obvious that it is hard to believe we have been so blind to it for so long - a case of not being able to see the wood for the trees.

Of course dominant groups are always in a position to impose their own perspective, experience and values as the norm and subordinate groups can be caught in the trap of either trying to prove they are the same or accept their difference and their consequent poor treatment. Some might attempt to assert their difference as superior, too, as some women do (and perhaps many more do in private).

Tavris warns against all these outcomes of inequality and leads us to the acknowledgement of difference and a change of focus from equal/same treatment to equality of outcome.

This book is an excellent analysis of women's roles and status in our culture today -- and a roadmap for making some very necessary changes. I agree with the reader from Dallas that this is not a book for people looking for support during their recovery from abuse (eight years ago I couldn't have read this book -- I was too busy in therapy, digging up painful aspects of my own childhood, and couldn't have comfortably considered her theses about some of the problems inherent in certain modern approaches to recovery).

Rather, it is an analytical book that takes aim at _many_ different aspects of our culture and reveals how they play into perpetuating power iniquities.

I definitely squirmed a couple of times while reading this book, when my own sacred cows were being gored, but ultimately I found myself persuaded. Very much worth your time and consideration, even if you don't agree with every point she makes.

As a college student majoring in psychology and ethnic/gender studies, I have read numerous books about psychology and gender. Tavris has written one of the best. She looks at each side of every argument she brings up, and is not afraid to make new arguments that go against status quo beliefs. Every reader will learn something new about discrimination against women in areas such as medicine, education, and science while reading this book. Open your mind and open Tavris's book. You will wish you would've read it sooner.

I read this book for a class on gender issues in the workplace. Tavris has done a thoughtful and thought-provoking job of bringing out the reality of a world measured in single sex terms, whether it be male or female. What needs to be done, and it isn't easy, is to remember to look at as many sides of an issue, as many definitions of a concept, as possible. We have a tendancy to look at things via absolutes: "I am depressed because my cat died." When in fact there are a multitude of reasons and motivations behind the things we do. And finally, to remember that the best way to create equality is not to first create inequality on one side in order to "balance out" past inequality on the other. I was brought up with the simplistic but nonetheless true maxim that "two wrongs do not make a right." Tavris states the same thing in a much more eloquent and profound way.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in gender issues, and even those who aren't. It's very well put together. No, men and women aren't the same in all ways, and no, men aren't the norm and aren't the standard setters. We've probably all heard that women smile more than men or smile "too much" yet it could be that men don't smile enough! A simple point, yet one of many in her well written and researched book. The reader from CA is looking for compassion in this book, but it's not a theraputic book per se. The author's point of view is that women get stuck in being victims and it becomes their only identity and their only lense. Her point is that support groups can help but if women stay in the victim role for too long, they will focus inwardly on themselves and not realize some of the things that they're angry about are real - not just a reaction as an incest victim that's to be handled within themselves in therapy, but real injustice or not being treated with respect that needs to be dealt with.

I read the original 1992 hardcover edition. If you happen to hold the same in your hands, here's the warning that the dustjacket tends to disintegrate at the edges, not matter how careful you will hold the book.

While some feminists celebrate supposed sex differences, Carol Tavris is a minimalist on most such issues. She dismantles popular and mainstream scientific beliefs concerning imagined differences of intellectual ability, brain function, competence, morality, empathy, hostility, greed, the need for intimacy and attachment, love, grief, and the capacity for sexual pleasure.

I would be amazed, though, if she would still write about the very last issue in this list in the very the same manner, as today the opposite of her statements have become irrefutable. However, leading to the same conclusion of "same difference". She avers that there would be no such thing as the G-spot and its different kind of orgasm. At the time she was writing this, the quest for that magical spot somewhere "down there" was usually described in such a mysterious and vague manner that I don't blame her for that theory. In the meanwhile women have written very clear do-it-yourself instructions for every woman and offered very clear workshops for further help. If all of that should be imagined, I guess, I'd preferred the illusion of that very pleasurable orgasm over someone's "fact", that it doesn't exist any time. Read for example: Female Ejaculation and the G-Spot: Not Your Mother's Orgasm Book! (Positively Sexual). What really flabbergasts me is her statement that there's no connection between the pc muscles and orgasm (not politically correct muscles, but "pubococcygeus"). The catch in this entire issue is: Men have the same spot with a different name and could produce the very same kind of orgasm(s), but at this time and age choose not to do so, because of the taboo-zone "back there". If they did otherwise, they were probably better lovers for women...

Another criticism I share with an early reviewer who became sort of ostracized for that. Tavris' take on "imagined abuse" I find personally distasteful, completely out of place and frankly scientifically build on extremely thin ice, in contrast to the very most of the rest of her book. Survivors of abuse may be warned not to read beyond page 312 of the hardcover or the headline "Choosing a story: Victims, survivors, and the problem of blame". Which doesn't mean, other readers shouldn't take that chapter without a grain of salt, but for survivors themselves this borders on the bearable. However, it would be a loss, if the remaining some 300 worthy pages weren't read nevertheless.

Unfortunately, Tavris doesn't apply her insights of gender to the next level of constructed separation. Many times she seemed to believe in the construct of "races".

What I like about this book is the repeated exposure of the faulty male standards. The constructed evidence of sex differences. (Give men a check list with supposed symptoms of PMS and they all have it, if they don't know about the nature of the list and none has it, if they do know.) And also the unveiling of culture changes over time leading to gender perception changes. (When men started to leave the home for work, instead of for example owning a business and the house of living in the same building, emotions and childcare became femalized gender issues.)

The bottom line: Most parts of this book will open you eyes. Even though it uses dated material, it is relevant in its basics and exposure of human thought mechanisms today (2009) as it was in 1992. And with any book, this one, too, shouldn't be misjudged as infallible, but as an important milestone in the overstanding of ourselves - without giving up the aspiration of continuing that quest after this book.

You may also be interested in Myths Of Gender: Biological Theories About Women And Men, Revised Edition, The Meanings of Sex Difference in the Middle Ages: Medicine, Science, and Culture (Cambridge Studies in the History of Medicine) and Nature's Body: Gender In The Making Of Modern Science.

... is the double-entendre premise of this book and it is very well articulated. Ms. Tavris points out a tendancy to see men as the norm and women as the deviant and therefore something to be corrected and studied. She demonstrates as much with, for example, the following-



- Studies conducted indicate hormonal fluctuations in both men and women, and certain studies show that fluctuating testosterone in men decreases sense of humor and interferes with hand control ... yet men aren't faced with umpteen pieces - seemingly in competition with each other - trying to explain exactly what ways they are rendered irrational/unstable/incapacitated by those menacing hormones (or numerous "syndroms" ... one wonders if there is any time of the year where women are healthy!), not to mention the "common wisdom" of attributing their anger and hurt feelings to said hormones, and all because they aren't like women.

- The "equal as same" fallacy, where it is believed that a woman working in the same environment as a man should then conform to his, ie. the "normal", standard if she wants "equality" thereby missing the point that it is outcome and opportunity that matters for instance in the way a parent would treat two different children with different needs depending on them but still be sure they get it. Or, conversely, the belief that if two things aren't the same then one must be inferior.

- Things, such as crimes, looked at from the male experience. For example how it is often in our culture questionable when a woman doesn't fight back during a sexual assault, completely overlooking the fact that - as a woman - she risks even more physical threat from the heavier, stronger male than a man would. Further the tendancy of jurys to still scrutinize an alleged rape victim based on her demeanor, dress, and sexual prowess (because, of course, from a male point of view she is "looking for him" or "asking for it").

- She also addresses another pitfall, that women are somehow "superior" to men because they *aren't* like them.

To not give too much away I will stop, but this is certainly one of the best books I have ever read and hope that there will be an updated soon.