Customer Reviews

The Wandering Womb : A Cultural History of Outrageous Beliefs About Woman

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I highly recommend this book to both sexes, especially medical students. There are many doctors today (both men and women) who still treat and diagnose women as overemotional dogs. Our symptoms are sloughed off as being "emotional," "hysterical," or "depressed." Yet we have come a long way, and still have further to go. To learn that female genital mutilation was practiced in the USA within the past 1.5 centuries is shocking, let alone the horrific treatments of women in asylums. The classifications of symptoms were so broad as to allow anyone wishing to dispose of a woman in an asylum, an easy way to do so. These beliefs lie in the Judeo-Christian concepts found in the Bible. Interestingly enough you will find additions to the Bible in King James (hence the King James "translation") time that had to do with the oppression and execution of women. Jesus never taught these things, so they are obviously works by the evil men in the church of that day to subjegate women. Any person reading this book will find it eye-opening and should be outraged that humans were allowed to suffer so much for idiocy, ignorance, fear, and power.

This book is a collection of humorous and at times sad examples of the misconceptions about women's bodies throughout antiquity. At times it is a bit heavy on the Feminist jargon, but this is not intolerable at all. Overall this is a great book and I would recommend it to anyone (of any sex) interested in the history of women's issues and gynecology.