Are men afraid of smart, successful women? Why did feminism fizzle? Why are so many of today's women freezing their faces and emotions in an orgy o...
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Dec 13, 2007
Brian
rated it: 
According to the author, "All men want a virgin in a gingham dress." Really? All men? Unlike Ms. Dowd, I do not feel qualified to speak to the desires of every man on the planet, but, speaking for myself, I can attest to the fact that I have absoutely no...idea what gingham is.
Ms. Dowd's reputation as an intellectual took a pretty big hit after this book was published. And it's easy to see why. The tone of the book is catty and trivial, and it consists of somewhat random an More...
Ms. Dowd's reputation as an intellectual took a pretty big hit after this book was published. And it's easy to see why. The tone of the book is catty and trivial, and it consists of somewhat random an More...
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Dec 16, 2009
Jafar
rated it:
What’s not necessary is reading this book. If you want to read a really great book on the current state of women, read Laura Kipnis’s The Female Thing which actually provides a social, economic, political, and psychological analysis of the subject matter. Kipnis is not only a lot smarter than Dowd, she’s a lot funnier too. Don’t waste your time on this book. Dowd doesn’t have the focus and the rigor to write a book. She should stick to writing newspaper columns.
So, what the hell is More...
So, what the hell is More...
Aug 17, 2010
Jessica
rated it:
So after reading this, I'm no more clear on the Man Question than I was when I started. One thing I did learn is that good editors are necessary. And Maureen Dowd, unfortunately, did not seem to have one.
This book just did not work. I gave it two stars because I did wolf it down quickly, and because the experience of reading it wasn't actually painful. There were definitely parts in here that I enjoyed quite a lot. But the book -- with its stylized, beguiling cover -- was a huge disa More...
This book just did not work. I gave it two stars because I did wolf it down quickly, and because the experience of reading it wasn't actually painful. There were definitely parts in here that I enjoyed quite a lot. But the book -- with its stylized, beguiling cover -- was a huge disa More...
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Jul 16, 2008
Karen
rated it: 
I learned nothing from this book because it says nothing. Well, nothing else besides how many names she has and what all of her friends and coworkers think about stuff. I'm not sure how the chapters are organized or what the actual point of the book is. It's a ramble, pure and simple. Not only that, it's a ramble that refers only to news articles (without ever citing specific dates or titles) from 2005. She makes her points from movies like Mean Girls (2004) and Million Dollar Baby (2004) with o
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Jun 03, 2007
Lilly
rated it: 
Hm. Ok, so you'd see the cover and think this book might ask if men are necessary. You know, a little sisterly solidarity. But what follows is a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pantsuit tour of pop and political history, ending with the more likely conclusion that women are petty, trite, oversexed backdrops to the ongoings of men's lives. Yikes!
When I was done reading about the women in Dowd's book I pretty much despised myself! (I was also left wondering how a NYT columnist gets away w More...
When I was done reading about the women in Dowd's book I pretty much despised myself! (I was also left wondering how a NYT columnist gets away w More...
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Nov 24, 2008
Bob
rated it:
Putlitzer Prize winner Maureen Dowd's New York Times column falls somewhere between journalism and satire. I am addicted to her columns as I am to sour lemon balls. In this book, the 56-year-old, never married Dowd distills the decades of experience she and her friends have racked up in the trenches of the battle of the sexes.
In the introduction, Dowd writes "I don't understand men. . . This book is not . . . a handy little volume of sterling solutions to the American woman' More...
In the introduction, Dowd writes "I don't understand men. . . This book is not . . . a handy little volume of sterling solutions to the American woman' More...
Nov 27, 2010
Summer
rated it:
When I read about how glib and non-chalant people are about sex, plastic surgery, women's bodies, infidelity, etc. I get a little sad. Are we really this shallow?
I wasn't a huge fan of it overall--but I did find a few quotes I liked.
Quotes from the book:
Little did I realize that the sexual revolution would have the unexpected consequence of intensifying the confusion between the sexes, leaving women in a tangle of dependence and independence as they entered the twenty-first More...
I wasn't a huge fan of it overall--but I did find a few quotes I liked.
Quotes from the book:
Little did I realize that the sexual revolution would have the unexpected consequence of intensifying the confusion between the sexes, leaving women in a tangle of dependence and independence as they entered the twenty-first More...
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Aug 20, 2008
Erin
rated it:
Maureen Dowd is a narcissitic pseudofeminist who publishes fluff and sells it to the mainstream as "feminism" based on chats she has over coffee with a handful of her ivy-league educated friends. She doesn't do her research and in my opinion her work ultimately contributes to the backlash against American women, undermining the progress of the feminist movement. She ignores the lives of real women in her lame attempts at wit. The only reason to read this book is to "know your e
Jul 13, 2011
Tara
rated it:
To say I'm finished reading this does not mean I actually finished reading the pages. It means I can only stand to read so much crap before I loose my mind. If there were a way to not give it any stars that would be my rating. The first few chapters I felt like I could related to. I'm not ashamed to say that I am one of the confident and independent women she is talking about in the beginning. I'm sad to say that her opinion regarding how this confidence is one of the main reasons men stay aw
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Jan 23, 2009
marty
rated it:
I didn't like this book. And not because I believe men are necessary, but because Dowd spends very little of the book actually trying to answer that question. She spends the majority of it analyzing women's (which seems to only encompass white, middle and upper-class, heterosexual women) behavior and pointing out how silly, vain, and idiotic it is. She relies heavily on quotes and musings from her friends, colleagues and socialites (all presumably also white, middle and upper-class, though actua
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Feb 24, 2011
Michelle
rated it: 
Originally picked this up because I thought it was going to be "summer beach read." A thrilling novel of a women not thinking she needs a man, but in fact she finds love and lives happily ever after.
Well. It was nothing like that. Dowd writes about, and critiques the Feminist movement. However, she defends it as well. She merely creates a dialogue in which leaves her reader thinking and questioning all TV shows, politicians, and themselves and the relationships they are in More...
Well. It was nothing like that. Dowd writes about, and critiques the Feminist movement. However, she defends it as well. She merely creates a dialogue in which leaves her reader thinking and questioning all TV shows, politicians, and themselves and the relationships they are in More...
Feb 24, 2009
Kate
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Oct 26, 2007
Sherry
rated it:
I thought I shared Dowd's politics, but basically, I don't think she has any. Certainly she appears to have no substantive argument to support her claims. The book is choppy, makes no sense, and I would put her in the same category as Anne Coulter--a pundit without a portfolio.
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Jan 02, 2012
Yessiwrites
rated it:
I read this a couple of years ago, but I remember that it disappointed me as a feminist text, though it never really stated it would be that exactly. In fact, Dowd stated that it was "not a systematic inquiry of any kind, or a handy little volume of sterling solutions to the American woman's problems."
I can't even recommend reading it for a quick read, as I didn't find it especially easy to read. I did find it a bit tedious at times. I might recommend it for those that will c More...
I can't even recommend reading it for a quick read, as I didn't find it especially easy to read. I did find it a bit tedious at times. I might recommend it for those that will c More...
Jan 12, 2012
Kate
rated it:
There were some interesting parts in the beginning, then just hours ranting about stupid crap, mostly Hillary/Bill/Monica. Which I didn't give a shit about in 2005 (when this was cleary written), and is even LESS relevant in 2012, except now I have additional knowledge of Hillary's career trajectory.
If you're going to read this -- perhaps you have one of those short-term memory disorders where you can't get over the fact that it's not 2005 anymore -- I would recommend reading the pr More...
If you're going to read this -- perhaps you have one of those short-term memory disorders where you can't get over the fact that it's not 2005 anymore -- I would recommend reading the pr More...
Sep 19, 2011
Allison
rated it:
This is a terrible book. Dowd raises some interesting issues, but explores them in such a cursory uniformed fashion that I found myself frustrated instead of engaged. Also, she jumps from one topic to another without providing adequate connective prose and, to make matters worse, she tends to switch topics just when you're starting to become interested in the topic she was discussing. Overall, this book is little more than a collection of Dowd's random, typically anecdotal and unsupported musing
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Dec 19, 2008
Kyle
rated it:
This has an incredibly abrupt ending, which kind of retroactively lessened my enjoyment of the book.
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Feb 11, 2010
Heather
rated it:
Seriously disappointing. I decided to stick it out for more than half the book, though Dowd's whining voice was full of obnoxious self-importance and was just plain hard to listen to. The critics were right, though. She basically says "this crappy thing is happening or happened" but comes to almost no solutions or resolution. Even her "criticisms" are "fair and balanced." I felt like I wanted to just shout at her "take a stand!" For example, for all the Bi
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Nov 19, 2007
briana
rated it:
It wasn't a great book. And the answer is no.
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May 15, 2011
Kimberly
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Nov 16, 2008
J.
rated it:
I'm astonished, really, by the number of reviews I've read of this title, mostly by members of my own gender, that pan it on the premise, presumably, of its title and perhaps its cover, as it seems many slam the text without bothering to read it, and so it is Ms. Dowd who bears the brunt of their wrath and not the content of her book.
Although I enjoy her op-ed pieces in the New York Times, I, too, was put off by the title and cover; Ms. Dowd did little to entice me to explore the co More...
Although I enjoy her op-ed pieces in the New York Times, I, too, was put off by the title and cover; Ms. Dowd did little to entice me to explore the co More...
Nov 16, 2008
Val
rated it:
I normally enjoy reading Maureen Dowd's New York Times columns because she is extremely critical, yet she somehow makes her criticisms entertaining and funny. Dowd seems to hate everyone -- she denounces nearly all politicians, regardless of their political party, age, race, or gender. (Although, she is more harsh to Republicans than Democrats.)
This book was written along the same lines. The title is misleading, as the book does not come close to answering the question "Are m More...
This book was written along the same lines. The title is misleading, as the book does not come close to answering the question "Are m More...
Sep 02, 2008
Jennifer
rated it:
Yeah, part of me almost wanted to leave this off my list, for fear of being presumed a militant feminist or something. I know a few of the people on this list are snorting right now.
But the book is not (at least so far) a man-hating book or anything like that. Catchy title aside, it's asking what has happened since the women's movement in the 70's.
Dowd aptly summarizes it as this: 'We went from having Barbie dolls, to denouncing Barbie dolls, to having plastic surgeries so we can More...
But the book is not (at least so far) a man-hating book or anything like that. Catchy title aside, it's asking what has happened since the women's movement in the 70's.
Dowd aptly summarizes it as this: 'We went from having Barbie dolls, to denouncing Barbie dolls, to having plastic surgeries so we can More...
Jan 17, 2008
Raquel
rated it:
Not bad. Maureen Dowd is very funny and snarky, and she's so blatantly liberal-to-the-point-of-bashing-conservatives it's refreshing in a Jon Stewart-esque way. I enjoyed this book, and she posed some really interesting questions, but at times I felt like she got a little carried away into the realm of man-bashing. I most enjoyed the chapter about the lengths women go to in order to look young. While I chuckled over the section about how women obsess over moisturizing (I obsess over moisturizing
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Jan 15, 2008
Colleen
rated it:
I'm rushing through the library, desperately searching for an audio book for my drive from Reno to Portland. It must be shorter than ten hours. Non-fiction preferred, since the driving weather was reported to be sketchy. I didn't want to focus on the road and miss and important character development.
Looking, looking, looking.... nothing, nothing, nothing... wait! What's that cheeky cover with the aloof women? An author implying that women are independent and funky-awesome on t More...
Looking, looking, looking.... nothing, nothing, nothing... wait! What's that cheeky cover with the aloof women? An author implying that women are independent and funky-awesome on t More...
Aug 09, 2007
Carole
rated it:
This is not the man-hating treatise the title suggests. If anything, the author's answer to the question in the title is "yes."
I picked up this book because it addresses my favorite topic: "Men And Women Are Not The Same." Some other great books on this subject are The Tending Instinct, Return to Modesty, and Reviving Ophelia. All classics.
While this book addresses the same general topic as those others, the author isn't really out to convince us of a More...
I picked up this book because it addresses my favorite topic: "Men And Women Are Not The Same." Some other great books on this subject are The Tending Instinct, Return to Modesty, and Reviving Ophelia. All classics.
While this book addresses the same general topic as those others, the author isn't really out to convince us of a More...
Jun 27, 2007
Michele
rated it:
HILLARY! For President
I'm a fan of Maureen Dowd, primarily because she's a good writer and she's not afraid to speak her mind. In fact, that's her job . . . as a columnist for The New York Times . . . And that's what this book was to me: One long--338 page--column. That said, it's still a swift read, and essentially stays on subject; however, I didn't find the title to convey the true topic sentence of the book. "Are Men Necessary?" This is more of an attention grabbing, h More...
I'm a fan of Maureen Dowd, primarily because she's a good writer and she's not afraid to speak her mind. In fact, that's her job . . . as a columnist for The New York Times . . . And that's what this book was to me: One long--338 page--column. That said, it's still a swift read, and essentially stays on subject; however, I didn't find the title to convey the true topic sentence of the book. "Are Men Necessary?" This is more of an attention grabbing, h More...
Jun 22, 2007
Khalid
rated it:
To start, Are Men Necessary? does not answer, or attempt to answer to any serious degree, the question it asks. This question is used mainly as a teaser that would get your attention to the book. Even though it does not address the main subject comprehensively, I did find this book enjoyable to read, and do not regret having read it.
The biggest weakness I found in this book is the way it is unorganized. The author jumps around between different subjects, coming back to some of them m More...
The biggest weakness I found in this book is the way it is unorganized. The author jumps around between different subjects, coming back to some of them m More...
May 29, 2007
lkt
rated it:
From my Amazon.com review:
Nothing earth-shattering here...
I was drawn to this book because of its interesting title (and I wanted to see if she had a concrete answer for it), but it ended up teaching me nothing, other than the fact that Dowd is a well-connected individual, quite the name dropper. "My friend at Newsday said..."; "a friend from the Village Voice...,"; "a friend of mine who's a reporter for so and so...." etc. T More...
Nothing earth-shattering here...
I was drawn to this book because of its interesting title (and I wanted to see if she had a concrete answer for it), but it ended up teaching me nothing, other than the fact that Dowd is a well-connected individual, quite the name dropper. "My friend at Newsday said..."; "a friend from the Village Voice...,"; "a friend of mine who's a reporter for so and so...." etc. T More...
May 10, 2007
Kelly
rated it:
For those familiar with Maureen Dowd, this book is typical Dowdness: witty, tongue-in-cheek, dotted with first-person references, simple paragraphs with those dramatic one-sentencers, often ridiculing the right but occasionally poking fun at the left. She integrates pop culture, history, and politics into her 338 pages of gender musings.
Are men necessary? This is more of a whimsical, hypothetical question than one she attempts to answer. The title references Normal Mailer's argument More...
Are men necessary? This is more of a whimsical, hypothetical question than one she attempts to answer. The title references Normal Mailer's argument More...
