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334th out of 447 books
—
829 voters
Mismeasure of Woman: Why Women Are Not the Better Sex, the Inferior Sex, or the Opposite Sex
by
Carol Tavris
When "man is the measure of all things," woman is forever trying to measure up. In this enlightening book, Carol Tavris unmasks the widespread but invisible custom -- pervasive in the social sciences, medicine, law, and history -- of treating men as the normal standard, women as abnormal. Tavris expands our vision of normalcy by illuminating the similarities between women...more
Paperback, 400 pages
Published
February 26th 1993
by Touchstone
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Oct 05, 2008
Lindsay
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people curious about gender differences, feminists, psych buffs
Shelves:
feminist-literature,
psychology,
90s,
nonfiction,
read-for-fun,
read-postcollege,
skeptical
This book is a critique of two popular fallacies about men and women: gender essentialism (the idea that all men and all women resemble their own sex and differ from the other sex in the same ways) and universalizing maleness (using the average man as a stand-in for the average person). She mostly tackles essentialism in popular culture and psychology, particularly by looking critically at the studies cited as proof of gender stereotypes (say, that women are more empathic) and identifying factor...more
Feb 26, 2010
Caley
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone interested in gender (as both a societal construct and legitimate psychological differences).
Shelves:
nonfiction,
gender
Absolutely fantastic. The best, most complete, and most helpful book on gender I've ever read. Tavris' ideas deal mostly with the cage our culture imposes by evaluating women to male standards and demanding they adhere to female standards simultaneously. What she does that so many other feminist authors fail to do, though, is offer coherent solutions.
Tavris is a psychologist, and does a very good job of backing up her claims with research. Much of it is dated, though, so as always I suggest look...more
Tavris is a psychologist, and does a very good job of backing up her claims with research. Much of it is dated, though, so as always I suggest look...more
It's good so far. I read about 1/3 of it last night whilst drinking a bottle of icky sweet pink prosecco. A little too 1992 feminism--very white, but still good.
I skipped around in the book. I liked the first part best. A lot of it was repeated for me from '90s feminism stuff. but I liked the message sent by the title.
I skipped around in the book. I liked the first part best. A lot of it was repeated for me from '90s feminism stuff. but I liked the message sent by the title.
Sep 22, 2012
Emily
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Emily by:
I wish I could remember -- it was in the Women in Video Games discussion this year
Shelves:
occupy
This book is the wiser and more knowledgeable sister of The Beauty Myth. Some material is, thankfully, out of date, thanks to 20 years of progress in queer advocacy. But Tavris's discussion of legal equality vs. legal sameness, and of the medicalization of women's hormonal cycle (and the failure to medicalize the far more hazardous mood swings of men!) is still on point.
On hysterectomy for a 'precancerous' diagnosis: "Although prostate cancer is far more common than uterine cancer, no one recom...more
On hysterectomy for a 'precancerous' diagnosis: "Although prostate cancer is far more common than uterine cancer, no one recom...more
Stephen Jay Gould noted with delight that the title of this book was borrowed from his own The Mismeasure of Man. The main issue here (as I read it), is that the 'average human' is not a '60 kilogram man', and medical studies that assume so are bound to be misleading--often fatally so. As John Glenn objects to being an 'n of 1' in his research project comparing the effects of aging with the effects of weightlessness, one main goal of this book is to have more studies done on women, or (better ye...more
Good book. Another feminism book
Written by a psychologist, The Mismeasure of Woman explores studies on 'gender', focusing on the psychological and social aspects, with a basic section on the brain studies. It took me a while to work through because it's a dense read -- there are so many studies and articles mentioned that the bibliography is 42 pages long. It's quite the emotional rollercoaster! It's infuriating and depressing to realize how much science and society have lied about and mistreated women (and men, though not in...more
A dense read, but many fascinating hypothoses. Her basic premise of is that men and women are more alike than different, which current theory in science, (biological, sociologcical, sexually, in communication) has men and women on polar opposites in most areas. And she posits that this hypothesis holds true in most of the animal kingdom below humans. Sort of a plea to us to not judge the opposite sex so stringently.
This book was one of many that have opened my eyes to hidden flaws in my own and the general perceptions of our world, our behaviors, our beliefs and our social practices. A significant and wonderful contribution towards correcting some of the more ignorant problems of western society.
'Equality as acceptance means that instead of regarding cultural and reproductive differences as problems to be eliminated, we would aim to eliminate the unequal consequences that follow from them.' AWESOME book and met Carol at TAM8, super nice!
Examines critically basic assumptions and "conventional wisdom" underlying the stories modern culture tells about women, and that women tell about themselves, whether dealing with their relation to men, health and psychological issues, social roles, sex, body image, etc. It points out that presenting women as opposite to men, better or worse than men, or the same as men, all involve evaluating women against the cultural norm of the universal male instead of taking women as they are in themselves...more
This was a good read - it brought to light a lot of biased ways of thinking about differences between the sexes (and lack thereof) that I may not have noticed previously without being strictly pro-women/anti-man. I thought it was very balanced and also well-written in general.
I am not an extreme feminist or anything... but I recommend this book for every woman! I took a psyc. of women class and this book summed it all up. It really makes you think about the issues of being a woman in todays society.
A disapointment. I'd hoped it was going to answer some questions about what women/men simmilarities. Instead it answered questions about the politics of who is labled with what qualities.
Common knowledge is usually an oxymoron. Seek the unbiased, documented information.
I mean, it's a good book, but a little dated now. Worth a read, if you're into psychology, as that's what I remember it mostly focusing on.
Amanda mentioned it on Pandagon, and apparently, it holds up very well.
May 22, 2013
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Carol Tavris earned her Ph.D. in the interdisciplinary program in social psychology at the University of Michigan, and ever since has sought to bring research from the many fields of psychology to the public. She is author of The Mismeasure of Woman, which won the Distinguished Media Contribution Award from the American Association from Applied and Preventive Psychology, and the Heritage Publicati...more
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