From Publishers Weekly
In these 15 essays Stimpson's passionate, scholarly convictions give resonance to feminist themes that have become worn. She contemplates whether there is a unique feminine sensibility in literature, studies blacks and women as victims of white patriarchal culture and defines a central task of feminism as the exposing of misrepresentations of women in mass media, everyday speech and religion. A founding editor of the journal Signs, Stimpson parallels the homosexual and the androgyne, offers a shrewd analysis of Ladies Home Journal, critiques conservative feminists and "Midge Decter's Daughters" of the right, examines lesbian novels, Adrienne Rich's poetry and Shakespeare's attitude toward rape. Applying her feminist principles to her own life, she wonders whether she has become "phallocentric": too much in love with power and ego.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This collection of essays on such seemingly diverse subjects as civil rights, feminist theory and criticism, and the signification of Nancy Reagan's hat, retrospectively documents the career of an exceptional and innovative feminist scholar. One of the women responsible for the success and respect that women's studies has achieved within academia, Stimpson provides a useful historical resource for exploring the social context in which the field has developed and the strategies necessary, within and without educational frameworks, to insure its future. Her wit and lucidity combine to make these critical essays both delightful and instructive.Mollie Brodsky, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
