From the author of the acclaimed Against Love comes a pointed, audacious, and witty examination of the state of the female psyche in the pos...
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Jul 29, 2008
Wealhtheow
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Kipnis examines women and modern American society's relationships with dirt, sex, envy and vulnerability. It's a huge subject, and she does not do it justice. Kipnis focuses all too often on pithy cheap-shots and sarcastic responses to other feminist thinkers. I liked some of her analysis, but she overstated her case and made terrible comparisons (women shouldn't worry so much about rape because "violent things happen to men too: they're maimed or die in pointless wars, for instance."
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Oct 24, 2007
Kimberly
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I appreciate how this books discusses a variety of ideas central to feminist theory without disintegrating into an lengthy philosophic tome. For a serious student of philosophy, the casual references to Shulamith Firestone and Judith Butler may appear superficial. But I think this is an excellent book to buy a friend who has nascent ideas about her own feminism, but just hasn't articulated them yet.
"[T]he drawback to femininity, as currently construed, is that it can never be More...
"[T]he drawback to femininity, as currently construed, is that it can never be More...
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Jan 05, 2012
Jafar
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"... when it come to the female situation, contradictions speckle the landscape, like ingrown hairs after a bad bikini wax." So writes Kipnis in the preface of the book, which is about the contradictions of being a modern woman. This is the third book that I read by her, and I picked it up mainly because she is so incredibly witty, insightful, and hilarious. Her Against Love: A Polemic is the best book that I've read on the subject of marriage. I don't know what kind of feminist Kipnis
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Jan 10, 2008
Tanya
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So I pulled this rather randomly and haphazardly off the library bookshelf, based on a random and haphazard online review from a cartoonist I sometimes admire. While I appreciate Kipnis's layman's speak, I am having trouble seeing her as the representative for All Western Womankind. I can't help but wonder: how influenced by Sex and the City is the "normal" modern woman? Because that's how this reads--if Carrie Bradshaw wrote a textbook on the female psyche, this would be it.
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May 20, 2010
Erin
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As I read my way through the first chapter, I felt like I was reading a Cosmo or Glamour for feminists, a little trashy and a lot of fluff, but just enough to have some bite. Several times I almost put it down, but I'm glad I kept reading due to taking some perverse pleasure in it.
To some extent, it's a frustrating read. It is just as dichotomous and contradictory as the subject Kipnis seeks to explain. Her sweeping statements about how great women have it "post-feminism" a More...
To some extent, it's a frustrating read. It is just as dichotomous and contradictory as the subject Kipnis seeks to explain. Her sweeping statements about how great women have it "post-feminism" a More...
Sep 15, 2010
Amber
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Not a bad read. Easy as pie and more of a pop-academic sort of book (if that makes sense to you all). I appreciate some of the statistics and information brought along for the ride but when that sort of thing gets brought into a book and the citations aren't clearly defined it always makes me nervous.
Apart from all of that, it takes and interesting perspective on women and the psychological turmoil we go through on the day to day, having to deal with the historical stigmas as well a More...
Apart from all of that, it takes and interesting perspective on women and the psychological turmoil we go through on the day to day, having to deal with the historical stigmas as well a More...
Jun 16, 2009
trina
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the book is broken into four chapters (the titular "dirt, sex, envy, and vulnerability"), but naturally they intersect, and it is where these categories meet that kipnis really impresses. she doesn't shy away from the perverse, sticky, dark corners of the (female) psyche, or from indicating women('s minds) as culprits equal with men and the media, equally responsible for the current female condition. while many people find her analyses contentious and incendiary, and though i tend to a
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Jun 18, 2009
Avory
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Generally speaking, I thought this was a better book than Against Love, which I found quite mediocre and unmemorable. There were some contradictions and things I disagreed with (well, a lot I disagreed with), but it was more of an *interesting* book. Another short diatribe related to sexuality and gender, this one covers four themes: Envy, Sex, Dirt, Vulnerability. Envy was the blandest chapter, followed by Sex, which is mostly about female orgasm. I found myself disagreeing with a lot, but
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Nov 15, 2011
Michelle
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Kipnis covers 4 basic factors relating to feminism: envy, sex, dirt, and vulnerability. She discusses how there is a "new femininity"--namely, women are voluntarily participating in "hook-up" culture, willingly submitting themselves as sex objects and rejecting ideas of the "old femininity", namely when women would be taken out to dinner and courted in an old-fashioned way. Basically, women are at odds between being assertive, independent, sexual beings yet the iron
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Sep 07, 2010
Ruzz
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Kipnis is the sort of woman I'd enjoy watching dissect a crowd of intellectuals, then sitting back and discussing it with her. Her mind, and tongue are razor sharp and she has that mystical ability to see what's plain behind the show and pomp of a lot of modern thought. No small feat.
Against Love, her poorly named polemic against relationships, or more specifically against marriage--though titled so--was a rip roaring ride of research, biting wit, cleverness and general disregard fo More...
Against Love, her poorly named polemic against relationships, or more specifically against marriage--though titled so--was a rip roaring ride of research, biting wit, cleverness and general disregard fo More...
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Oct 16, 2009
Fabi
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In do not agree with every thing she says in this book, however the 4 chapiters are intelligent and the reading was easy and facinating. One of the best books I read this year, I wouldn`t know if Kipnis is anti-feminist or radical-feminist, as one reviewer mentioned, but I think she aproaches the female phsyque with very reasonable statements (I felt guilty, though). When I listened to my mom yesterday, having a discussion with a friend about whose house was cleaner, I found out Kipnis was ver
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Nov 08, 2007
Laurie
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This book does a great job of pointing out certain truths on women and society. While it doesn't give answers, it ends by saying that this is the starting point. The author, Laura Kipnis, focuses on four topics in the book. In "Dirt," she talks about why women have an innate propensity to clean more than men. Is it because society has always catered cleaning products toward women using advertising to say "This is how you become a better woman - by cleaning!"? Could it also be
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Feb 26, 2008
Larissa
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Kipnis is the wry, well-informed, playfully ranting feminist friend that we should all be so lucky to have. Simultaneous paying respect to the multi-faceted, many-phased ‘women’s movement,’ while still being able to approach it objectively, Kipnis is able to suggest that “feminism came up against an unanticipated opponent: the inner woman,” without self-righteous finger-pointing or woman-aggrandizing propaganda (she’s actually remarkably empathetic with feminist backlash against undeserving male
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Jan 29, 2009
Chassica
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While the humor in this book smacks of some post-feminist bitterness (I can almost see the author winking at "the girls"), it is no less amusing. The success in this book is the breakdown of the suppossedly inherent traits of feminity in light of recent history, while being sufficiently witty to hold readers who are not familiar with heavier feminist writing. In the best case, it serves as "gateway" feminist theory, charming reader's into a deeper exploration of feminist an
Aug 06, 2011
Ron
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Kipnis exhibits great wit and clarity in exposing the myths along the gender divide, daring to do what few feminist scholar would dare: she calls out women for continually pointing fingers at men as the source of all the problems and lays the responsibility for change squarely on the shoulders of the only people who are capable of creating it.
Feb 06, 2009
Book
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Kipnis's writing is converstational, intelligent, and humorous.
You don't need to agree with her every opinion or point of view to learn about the female condition -- today and throughout recent history.
~Kate, The Book Cellar bookseller
You don't need to agree with her every opinion or point of view to learn about the female condition -- today and throughout recent history.
~Kate, The Book Cellar bookseller
Feb 21, 2009
Collette
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I thought that this was a very interesting and insightful book. I also found that the section on dirt rang super true in my own life. Kipnis is really funny.
Aug 31, 2010
Buthna
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interesting comparison of feminism vs femininity, but at the end of the day, this book just reaffirms that women are a complicated and crazy creature.
Aug 20, 2009
Grace
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This book basically discusses the behavior of women and how they contribute to the problems that they in turn experience in the American culture.
Dec 02, 2008
Colin
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a) The printing of the book I have has a significantly less saucy cover.
b) This is a great book. I appreciate very much Kipnis' willingness to sit down and play around with the contradictions and the weird perspectives that come up when there's so much pounding on patriarchy. Made for a good quick read.
c) Extremely brutal chapter on Vulnerability at the end but brings up a lot of stuff on topics like sexual assault that are worth mentioning.
b) This is a great book. I appreciate very much Kipnis' willingness to sit down and play around with the contradictions and the weird perspectives that come up when there's so much pounding on patriarchy. Made for a good quick read.
c) Extremely brutal chapter on Vulnerability at the end but brings up a lot of stuff on topics like sexual assault that are worth mentioning.
Dec 13, 2009
Sarah
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Witty, amusing, and a interesting analysis of the oppressed internalizing oppression.
Aug 11, 2008
Sarah
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This book was frustrating because I could not for the life of me tell when Kipnis was being sarcastic, funny, serious, or just what her position was on anything. In a way, that made it interesting, because it forced me to think about my own opinions. But mostly it just made me want to throw the book at the next biological determinist I see. And I agree with the reviewers who said it reads like Cosmo - which, in my opinion, only undermines any point she might be trying to make.
Feb 20, 2008
MM
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Kipnis is smart and interesting to read, and like her other work this one is accessible and sometimes polemical. She is often concerned with social boundaries and ambivalences -- here she interrogates issues of (mostly heterosexual) female sexuality that are both sacred cows and obsessions in our culture (i.e. dirt, sex, envy, vulnerability). Always interesting places to explore, even if I don't always agree with her conclusions.
Oct 20, 2010
jen8998
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Kipness explores feminity and feminism in this polemic. She has a chatty style that's easy to read and amusing. However, she is often provocative, sometimes downright harsh in her judgments.
Mar 07, 2008
Ghislaine
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another enjoyable book by Laura Kipnis. It helped solidify for me the reasons I didn't like the second-wave feminist stuff I read in college, and also why the dynamics of marriage and gender relations generally remain so...interesting
Aug 13, 2007
Chisholm.steph
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I loved this book- I tink it is the most accurate portrayal I have read of the female psyche and situation in the US- truly fascinating! Every womn should rad this book, and every man in order to understand women just a bit more.
Apr 29, 2008
k8
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This is sort of a primer on post-feminism...most of the stuff i got just be being a woman in a liberal arts college years ago, but i think it would be interesting to have my male friends read it.
Nov 13, 2007
Laurel
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Its been a while since I've read a good, thought-provoking book on feminism and gender... this was satisfying in that regard. This book has no answers, though... only questions.
