The Whole Woman and over 360,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle – Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Learn more

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
More Buying Choices
61 used & new from $0.44
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Whole Woman
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Start reading The Whole Woman on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

The Whole Woman (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The woman question is answered..." (more)
Key Phrases: jen angel, disorderly eating, replacement estrogen, United States, The Female Eunuch, Equal Opportunities Commission (more...)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
List Price: $16.95
Price: $11.53 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $5.42 (32%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Wednesday, November 25? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
19 new from $9.04 41 used from $0.44 1 collectible from $14.00

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Kindle Edition, April 22, 2009 $9.99 -- --
  Hardcover, May 10, 1999 -- $2.09 $0.01
  Paperback, August 7, 2000 $11.53 $9.04 $0.44
  Unknown Binding, December 31, 1990 -- -- --

Frequently Bought Together

The Whole Woman + The Female Eunuch (P.S.) + The Second Sex
Price For All Three: $36.18

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: The Whole Woman by Germaine Greer

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • The Female Eunuch (P.S.) by Germaine Greer

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • The Second Sex by H. M. Parshley

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Female Eunuch (P.S.)

The Female Eunuch (P.S.)

by Germaine Greer
2.5 out of 5 stars (13)  $12.44
The Second Sex

The Second Sex

by H. M. Parshley
4.1 out of 5 stars (44)  $12.21
The Feminine Mystique

The Feminine Mystique

by Betty Friedan
3.6 out of 5 stars (60)  $10.85
The Female Eunuch

The Female Eunuch

by Germaine Greer
The Change: Women, Aging and the Menopause

The Change: Women, Aging and the Menopause

by Germaine Greer
4.2 out of 5 stars (4)  $17.94
› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For women born in the immediate postwar period, there were the years BG and AG--"before Greer" and "after Greer." It's all too easy to underestimate its influence, but the fact is that in 1970 every self-respecting woman on the Left owned a copy of The Female Eunuch. Thirty years later, Germaine Greer is ready to get angry again. In The Whole Woman, she analyzes, among other issues, the invasive ways in which the health industry persuades women to have their bodies and reproductive systems "managed." Greer lays out the facts about the high failure rate and devastating side effects of in vitro fertilization and the incongruence between the "success" of breast implants in achieving the "perfect" mammary to please men and the continuing failures in detecting and treating increasingly prevalent breast cancer.

Greer's polemic has the confident virtuosity of wit and maturity. Celebrating women's successes, The Whole Woman is a more positive book than The Female Eunuch. Her unique combination of outrageous humor and assertiveness continues to lead the way forward for women who want to take control of their lives. --Lisa Jardine, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.



From Publishers Weekly

The blithe spirit of The Female EunuchAa tart, irreverent feminist screed that crackled across the Western world in 1971Ahas given way to the surprisingly curmudgeonly temperament of Greer's latest effort, with its dim view of humanity and our capacity to change. After 30 years and many books, the Australian-born polemicist who lives and teaches in England has attempted to recreate and update the formula that brought her international acclaim. Like its predecessor, this new work is a loosely connected series of short, idiosyncratic, Menckenesque essays larded with statistics, slangy erudition and disembodied quotations set off in half-tones. This time around, the author gambols over such disparate subjects as female circumcision in Africa (Greer urges tolerance for cultural practices so different from our own) and transgendered people (she blazes with antagonism against sexual reassignments). In one of her pet peeves, she excoriates housewives who waste hours in shopping malls in search of the latest prepackaged foodstuffs while remaining immune to the joys of baking a cake from scratch. At her best, Greer argues passionately for the mystic virtues of ecofeminism and stirringly calls for a return to the values of a simpler life, minus its egregious sexist assaults. Occasionally an aphorism sparkles with the old wit and biteA"One wife is all any man deserves"; "The power of Hillary Clinton's well-trained brain is principally demonstrated to the American public in her spirited defenses of her husband against the charges that he has cuckolded and humiliated her"Abut too often the effect is labored and strained. Greer has grievances aplenty with present-day society, but she offers few prescriptives for improvement besides demonstrations of support for embattled Iraqi and Palestinian women. Agent, Gillon Aitken. 100,000 first printing; seven-city author tour.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Anchor; Reprint edition (August 8, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385720033
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385720038
  • Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #848,635 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Germaine Greer
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Germaine Greer Page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The woman question is answered. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
jen angel, disorderly eating, replacement estrogen, female eunuch
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, The Female Eunuch, Equal Opportunities Commission, Sex Discrimination Act, Spice Girls, New York, Miss World, London Underground, Courtney Love, Sister Biggins, The Girlie Show, Vivienne Westwood, Wall Street, Adrienne Rich, British Boxing Board of Control, Cardinal Winning, Charlotte Raven, First Lady, Gloria Steinem, Guerilla Girls, Labour Party, Lynne Griffiths, Michael Jackson, Milton Brown, Tomorrow's Women
New!
Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 84 books:
See all 84 books this book cites
 
100 books cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Whole Woman
56% buy the item featured on this page:
The Whole Woman 3.8 out of 5 stars (65)
$11.53
The Female Eunuch (P.S.)
24% buy
The Female Eunuch (P.S.) 2.5 out of 5 stars (13)
$12.44
The Second Sex
8% buy
The Second Sex 4.1 out of 5 stars (44)
$12.21
The Female Eunuch
6% buy
The Female Eunuch
Explore similar items

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
 
(28)
(15)
(11)
(11)
(11)
(9)
(8)
(6)
(5)
(9)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

65 Reviews
5 star:
 (38)
4 star:
 (7)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (14)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (65 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Who says you have to agree with everything?, June 30, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Whole Woman (Hardcover)
I love this book. It is amazing, and, it has to be said, very few people still write anything like this. I don't agree with everything Greer says, but then i don't have to: she is forty years older than me and if her book inspires someone of my generation to write the next 'Female Eunuch' then it will have served its purpose. When I read her first novel, the Female Eunuch, it wasn't so much as a piece of feminist literature as a primary historical source. Yet I feel I owe a debt to Greer and her contemporaries for writing such works and creating the workd in which I grew up.

Many criticisms of The Whole Woman have centred on Greer's discussion of 'Pantomine Dames' and supposed defence of female genital mutilation. Whether or not you agree with her conclusions, I think she raises some extremely valid points surrounding these topics, such as, do we construct the Female negatively (ie. by the omission of a male genitalia rather than the possession of female genitalia?) - and, of course, the post-colonial relationship between Western women and women in developing nations. Whilst I will support any woman, anywhere, in her struggle for recognition and emancipation, Greer points out that it isn't my job to tell her how to do it. The West has been doing that for far too long.

This isn't, to me, a book of answers. It's a book of questions which I haven't heard asked before. My greatest problem with Greer is that I still find her somewhat dismissive of men. After all, men are our lovers and our sons, and I think few women want that to change. But she reminds us that we have a long way to go in reconstructing our society and redefining the gender roles within it to improve life for men and women.

To all those twenty year olds out there: our mothers did a hell of a lot for us. We owe it to them to do a hell of a lot more!!!

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A MALE RESPONSE FROM THE UK, November 19, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Whole Woman (Hardcover)
I HAVE READ GG's BOOK; IT WAS DEFINATELY WORTH READING- WHATEVER STANDPOINT YOU MAY TAKE ON HER OWN OPINIONS AND RESEARCH- HER BOOK IS DEFINATELY THOUGHT PROVOKING- AND SHOULDN'T THAT BE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF WRITTEN TEXT?- THAT IT ANGERS; ENCOURAGES SYMAPTHY; ENLIGHTENS... THESE SHOULD BE ESSENTIALLY WHAT MATTERS IN ANY PIECE OF LITERATURE:

FOR A MALE'S OPINION; I THOUGHT MOST OF GGS POINTS DID INDEED RING TRUE IN THE SOCIETY AROUND ME: THE WHOLE IDEA OF CONSUMERISM AND IT'S TWISTED GOAL OF CONSTRUCTING MAN'S DESIRED IMAGE OF WOMAN; WHEREAS THE MALE POPULUS CAN SPEND IT'S TIME ON FEEL-GOOD BUYING- IE MUSIC

THE WHOLE IDEA OF THE CAREER MINDED POWER WOMAN HAS BEEN MASCULINISED SO AS TO DETRACT FROM MOST SENSE OF FEMININITY

HOWEVER; THERE WERE SOME IDEAS PROPOSED BY GG WHICH I WOULD NOT HAVE SUPPORTED; AND IN PARTICULAR HER UNDERSTANDING OF THE GAY COMMUNITY (which I prefer to label as a non-heterosexuality) IS FAIRLY INACCURATE:

BUT GREER IS RIGHT; I BELIEVE; IT SHOULD BE TIME TO GET ANGRY AGAIN; FEMINISM ITSELF HAS BEEN MASCULINISED OR DISTORTED INTO A FORM PALATABLE ENOUGH FOR OUR SOCIETY:

THIS WAS A BOOK I FOUND VERY HARD TO PUT DOWN- EVEN BY THE END OF THE LAST CHAPTER; I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE READ MORE OF THE BOOK

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Bravo! The feminist Juvenal returns!, June 6, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Whole Woman (Hardcover)
Greer returns to tell the 'muddle crass' what a load of tripe and codswallop feminism has become in the nineties. Sure, its full of hyperbole, and short on coolly considered politically-correct solutions. She gives women's 'progress' the lie in stunning rhetorical form. She is a feminist Swift, or perhaps Wyndham Lewis(!!) quaranteed to piss off conventional wisdom of any ilk.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good feminist reading
I was relieved to pick up this book after several other feminist books with the stereotypical "I am so opressed and hate men" mantra. Read more
Published on August 13, 2007 by S. Leslie

2.0 out of 5 stars There is more power to be found AWAY from the home.
As a women in her early 50's, I grew up with 70s feminism, but never read anything by Ms.Greer. Recently, I bought a copy of the Whole Women. All I can say is, Ms. Read more
Published on January 27, 2007 by High Flyer

3.0 out of 5 stars Germaine's Still Angry!
Germaine Greer is back and she's still angry. The Whole Woman is the self-proclaimed sequel to 1971's The Female Eunuch, a sequel she had said she would never write. Read more
Published on October 11, 2004 by Richard Hawkins

1.0 out of 5 stars A Book to Make Its Readers Angry (For the Wrong Reasons)
I found The Whole Woman more antagonistic and needlessly controversial than enlightening. Greer makes it quite clear that there is exactly one feminist left on the planet, and she... Read more
Published on September 21, 2004 by K. A. Bruce

1.0 out of 5 stars This is not feminism
In fact, this book is as anti-feminist as they come. Motherhood as a career? Puhhhhleese. Ms. Greer clearly writes for shock value and what was shocking in the 70s is commonplace... Read more
Published on February 17, 2004 by SJ

5.0 out of 5 stars Germaine Greer is a genius!
I am so glad that Ms. Greer has once more emerged from wherever she keeps herself to grace us with her passion, wit and insight. Read more
Published on September 7, 2003 by CoffeeGurl

1.0 out of 5 stars Trivializes the plight for women's equality!
I don't even know where to begin criticizing it. At one time, I considered myself a feminist. I certainly believe in the equality of the sexes, but after reading Greer's book, I... Read more
Published on November 16, 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Greer hits the bullseye
"You've come a long way baby!" Remember the cigarette ad from the 70s? To hear Germaine Greer tell it we haven't, unless progress is having won the right to smoke thin... Read more
Published on May 16, 2001 by mfdb

5.0 out of 5 stars What it Feels Like (To a Woman)
Young women who live in the midst of a culture based in artificially manipulated beauty and warped ideas of women should be given this book upon entering adolescence. Read more
Published on March 24, 2001 by sundre

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read
There are a lot of mixed reviews about this book. I picked up this book (hardcover edition) just out of curiosity because my knowledge of this subject is rather limited. Read more
Published on September 5, 2000 by steveoinnyc

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:











i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.