Best of
Womens-Studies

1998

Secrets of an Irresistible Woman


Michelle McKinney Hammond - 1998
    Michelle McKinney Hammond calls on Scripture, her own experiences, and the wisdom of others to help every reader become the woman God created her to be--beautiful, gracious, loving, and desirable. Women will discover... what true love really looks like ways to enhance their natural beauty and strengthen weak areas what to look for and what to avoid when dating Includes an insightful study guide readers can use to better understand themselves and how they relate to God and others.

After Silence: Rape & My Journey Back


Nancy Venable Raine - 1998
    The words shut up are the most terrible words I know. . . . The man who raped me spat these words out over and over during the hours of my attack--when I screamed, when I tried to talk him out of what he was doing, when I protested. It seemed to me that for seven years--until at last I spoke--these words had sunk into my soul and become prophecy. And it seems to me now that these words, the brutish message of tyrants, preserve the darkness that still covers this pervasive crime. The real shame, as I have learned, is to consent to them."After Silence is Nancy Venable Raine's eloquent,  profoundly moving response to her rapist's command to "shut up," a command that is so often echoed by society and internalized by rape victims. Beginning with her assault by a stranger in her home in 1985, Raine's riveting narrative of the ten-year aftermath of her rape brings to light the truth that survivors of traumatic experiences know--a trauma does not end when you find yourself alive.        Just as devastating as the rape itself was the silence that shrouded it, a silence born of her own feelings of shame as well as the incomprehension of others. Raine gives shape, form, and voice to the "unspeakable" and exposes the misconceptions and cruelties that surround this prevalent though hidden crime. With formidable power and in intimate detail, she probes the long-term psychological and physiological aftereffects of rape, its tangled sexual confusions, the treatment of rape by the media and the legal and medical professions, and contemporary cultural views of victimhood.        For anyone, female or male, who has suffered from or witnessed the shattering effects of rape, After Silence inspires and points the way to healing. This landmark book is a stunning literary achievement that is a testimony to the power of language to transform the worst sort of violation and suffering into meaning and into art.

At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist Thirst


Carol Lee Flinders - 1998
    In this brilliant exploration of the apparent conflicts and tensions between feminism and contemplative spirituality, Carol Lee Flinders uncovers how a life of meaning, self-knowledge, and freedom depends on both.In 'At the Root of This Longing'

Poems and Selected Letters


Veronica Franco - 1998
    This collection captures the frank eroticism and impressive eloquence that set her apart from the chaste, silent woman prescribed by Renaissance gender ideology. As an "honored courtesan", Franco made her living by arranging to have sexual relations, for a high fee, with the elite of Venice and the many travelers—merchants, ambassadors, even kings—who passed through the city. Courtesans needed to be beautiful, sophisticated in their dress and manners, and elegant, cultivated conversationalists. Exempt from many of the social and educational restrictions placed on women of the Venetian patrician class, Franco used her position to recast "virtue" as "intellectual integrity," offering wit and refinement in return for patronage and a place in public life.Franco became a writer by allying herself with distinguished men at the center of her city's culture, particularly in the informal meetings of a literary salon at the home of Domenico Venier, the oldest member of a noble family and a former Venetian senator. Through Venier's protection and her own determination, Franco published work in which she defended her fellow courtesans, speaking out against their mistreatment by men and criticizing the subordination of women in general. Venier also provided literary counsel when she responded to insulting attacks written by the male Venetian poet Maffio Venier. Franco's insight into the power conflicts between men and women and her awareness of the threat she posed to her male contemporaries make her life and work pertinent today.

Surrealist Women: An International Anthology


Penelope RosemontGisèle Prassinos - 1998
    Indeed, few artistic or social movements can boast as many women forebears, founders, and participants-perhaps only feminism itself. Yet outside the movement, women's contributions to surrealism have been largely ignored or simply unknown. This anthology, the first of its kind in any language, displays the range and significance of women's contributions to surrealism. Letting surrealist women speak for themselves, Penelope Rosemont has assembled nearly three hundred texts by ninety-six women from twenty-eight countries. She opens the book with a succinct summary of surrealism's basic aims and principles, followed by a discussion of the place of gender in the movement's origins. She then organizes the book into historical periods ranging from the 1920s to the present, with introductions that describe trends in the movement during each period. Rosemont also prefaces each surrealist's work with a brief biographical statement.

Feminist Theory: A Reader


Wendy Kolmar - 1998
    Selections are organized into five historical periods from the 18th century to the mid-1990s. The book includes key feminist manifestoes to help students see the link between feminist theory and application, as well as clear, concise explanations of 12 key concepts that characterize the development of feminist thought since its inception.

A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America


Darlene Clark Hine - 1998
    At the greatest moments and in the cruelest times, black women have been a crucial part of America's history.  Now, the inspiring history of black women in America is explored in vivid detail by two leaders in the fields of African American and women's history.A Shining Thread of Hope chronicles the lives of black women from indentured servitude in the early American colonies to the cruelty of antebellum plantations, from the reign of lynch law in the Jim Crow South to the triumphs of the Civil Rights era, and it illustrates how the story of black women in America is as much a tale of courage and hope as it is a history of struggle.  On both an individual and a collective level, A Shining Thread of Hope reveals the strength and spirit of black women and brings their stories from the fringes of American history to a central position in our understanding of the forces and events that have shaped this country.

Evil Sisters: The Threat of Female Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Culture


Bram Dijkstra - 1998
    Explores the historical perception of woman as the seductress whose influence undermines the power of the white male.

The Herbal Home Remedy Book: Simple Recipes for Tinctures, Teas, Salves, Tonics, and Syrups


Joyce A. Wardwell - 1998
    Joyce A. Wardwell shows you how to build your own all-natural home medicine cabinet, providing simple recipes for soothing tinctures, salves, tonics, syrups, teas, and lozenges. With gentle, plant-based solutions to ailments ranging from muscle cramps and indigestion to dry skin and sore throats, this comprehensive guide is full of natural remedies that will keep your whole family healthy.

Articles of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars


Cynthia Gorney - 1998
    Wade (1973) and William L. Weaver v. Reproductive Health Service (which brought the issue before an anti-Wade court in 1989), Cynthia Gorney draws on 500 interviews, as well as previously unexplored archival material, to present an intimate look at the passions, commitment, and political savvy that propel individuals on both sides. She traces, in particular, the paths of a nurse who runs an abortion clinic in St. Louis, and a member of the right-to-life movement, who came face to face in the Supreme Court during the Weaver decision.

Amelia Earhart's Daughters: The Wild And Glorious Story Of American Women Aviators From World War II To The Dawn Of The Space Age


Leslie Haynsworth - 1998
    Army Air Force enlisted a handful of skilled female aviators to deliver military planes from factories to air bases--expanding the successful program to include more than one thousand women. These superb pilots flew every aircraft in the U.S. Army Air Force--including B-26s when men were afraid to--logging more than siz million miles in all kinds of weather. yet when World War II ended, their wartime heroism was left unheralded.In 1961, with the dawn of the space age, a handful of top female pilots took part in a new program termed "Women in Space." Subjected to the same rigorous tests as the Mercury astronauts, thirteen women--top-notch pilots--were admitted to the program. Once again women had reason to dream...that at least oneof them would be the first of their sex in space. The matter went as far as Congress, where dramatic hearings included testimony from astronauts John Glenn and Scott Carpenter. But their hopes were dashed. These skilled aviators had the "right stuff" at the wrong time, and again women were denied their place in history. This is their story, one of courage, ferocity, adn patriotism.

The Mind: Its Projections and Multiple Facets


Harbhajan Singh Khalsa - 1998
    It details the interplay of the positive, negative, and neutral parts of our mind with our nine aspects and twenty-seven projections. Yogi Bhajan's lectures provide a practical approach to the Science of Humanology, and encourage you to meditate to enlist your mind as your friend and servant rather than your master.The meditations apply to the various aspects we embody, such as Defender, Manager, Artist, Producer, Strategist, Teacher. You can select from 42 meditations, including: Creating Art by Projecting into the Future; Pursuing the Cycle of Success; Deep Memory of a Past Projection; Interpretations of All Facets of Life; Pursuing the Cycle of Artistic Attributes; and Creating Art by Environmental Effects.

Silent Images: Women in Pharaonic Egypt


Zahi A. Hawass - 1998
    But despite the multitude of objects and texts that have survived, questions abound, particularly about the true role of women in Egyptian society. This wonderfully illustrated, brilliantly researched book draws on unpublished material from author Zahi Hawass' own excavations as well as new analyses of older evidence to penetrate the silent images and paint an astonishing picture of women's lives.Hawass contrasts the stereotype -- inspired by such symbols of femininity as the queens Nefertiti and Nefertari -- with a more realistic view of the common woman's everyday involvement in matters ranging from family life to dress and adornment to the workplace and the legal system. Lavish photographs of places and objects, many made especially for this book, round out an enthralling, richly textured work.

No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship


Linda K. Kerber - 1998
    Looking closely at thirty telling cases from the pages of American legal history, Kerber's analysis reaches from the Revolution, when married women did not have the same obligation as their husbands to be "patriots," up to the present, when men and women, regardless of their marital status, still have different obligations to serve in the Armed Forces.An original and compelling consideration of American law and culture, No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies emphasizes the dangers of excluding women from other civic responsibilities as well, such as loyalty oaths and jury duty. Exploring the lives of the plaintiffs, the strategies of the lawyers, and the decisions of the courts, Kerber offers readers a convincing argument for equal treatment under the law.

Women and the Making of the Modern House


Alice Friedman - 1998
    It explores the challenges that unconventional attitudes and ways of life presented to architectural thinking - and to the architects themselves. Among the houses examined are Hollyhock House, the Farnsworth House, the Schroeder House and the villa, Les Terrasses.

Quintessence...Realizing the Archaic Future


Mary Daly - 1998
    "Suffused with her inimitable word play and stunning intelligence, and embodying a balance of mysticism and critical theory, Daly's clarion call to uncover the quintessence of the universe is quite an intriguing tune." -On the Issues

Which Lilith?: Feminist Writers Re-Create the World's First Woman


Enid Dame - 1998
    Mentioned in the Talmud and elaborated on in the Midrash and Kabbalistic writings, Lilith is said to be Adam's first partner. While the figure of Lilith may be as old as Jewish culture itself, until recently her stories were told primarily by men and their depiction of Lilith was consistent: she was a witch, a temptress, a dangerous, evil woman. This anthology offers a vivid, provocative, and enlightening sampling of Jewish women's responses to the Lilith myth.

Equal Justice Under Law


Constance Baker Motley - 1998
    Board of Education in 1954 and the fight to implement it-and its implications for affirmative action and black poverty today.A black woman who moved in the corridors of power in the middle of this century, Constance Baker Motley has been a pioneer in both black civil rights and women's rights. As the key attorney assisting Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, she argued a dozen cases before the Supreme Court (winning all but one), and her representation of James Meredith in his bid to enroll in the University of Mississippi made her famous. Subsequently, as Manhattan borough president and a U.S. district court judge, she has fulfilled the highest aspirations of our legal and political system.This book, the most detailed account to date of the legal conflicts of the civil rights movement, is also an account of Motley's struggle, as a black woman, to succeed, a record of a life lived with great courage and responsibility.

Impossible Purities: Blackness, Femininity, and Victorian Culture


Jennifer DeVere Brody - 1998
    Brody’s readings of Victorian novels, plays, paintings, and science fiction reveal the impossibility of purity and the inevitability of hybridity in representations of ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and race. She amasses a considerable amount of evidence to show that Victorian culture was bound inextricably to various forms and figures of blackness. Opening with a reading of Daniel Defoe’s “A True-Born Englishman,” which posits the mixed origins of English identity, Brody goes on to analyze mulattas typified by Rhoda Swartz in William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, whose mixed-race status reveals the “unseemly origins of English imperial power.” Examining Victorian stage productions from blackface minstrel shows to performances of The Octoroon and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she explains how such productions depended upon feminized, “black” figures in order to reproduce Englishmen as masculine white subjects. She also discusses H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau in the context of debates about the “new woman,” slavery, and fears of the monstrous degeneration of English gentleman. Impossible Purities concludes with a discussion of Bram Stoker’s novella, “The Lair of the White Worm,” which brings together the book’s concerns with changing racial representations on both sides of the Atlantic. This book will be of interest to scholars in Victorian studies, literary theory, African American studies, and cultural criticism.

Handmade Herbal Medicines: Recipes for Potions, Elixirs, and Salves


Christopher Hobbs - 1998
    Drawing on his considerable experience as an herbalist and as an herbindustry consultant, author Christopher Hobbs delivers a useful and illustrative resourcefor making herbal preparations in the home.Providing easy-to-follow instructions in a recipe format, Handmade Herbal Medicines isinfused with equal parts chemistry and common-sense. Written for the layman, thiscompact reference ensures that herbal medicines can be enjoyed with a minimal outlayof cash and a moderate investment of time.

Not Just Race, Not Just Gender: Black Feminist Readings


Valerie Smith - 1998
    Williams, Black feminists have always recognized the mutual dependence of race and gender. Detailing these connections, Not Just Race, Not Just Gender explores the myriad ways race and gender shape lives and social practices.Resisting essentialist tendencies, Valerie Smith identifies black feminist theorizing as a strategy of reading rather than located in a particular subjective experience. Her intent is not to deny the validity of black women's lived experience, but rather to resist deploying a uniform model of black women's lives that actually undermines the power of black feminist thought. Whether reading race or gender in the Central Park jogger case or in contemporary media, like Livin' Large, Smith displays critical rigor that promises to change the way we think about race and gender.

Feminist Foundations: Toward Transforming Sociology


Kristen A. MyersCandace West - 1998
    This edited volume is an outgrowth of a discussion that began on the Sociologists for Women in Society Listserve, in which participants were asked to talk about key pieces in feminist scholarship that had particularly influenced their sociological thinking. Editors Kristen A. Myers, Cynthia D. Anderson, and Barbara J. Risman have chosen articles that fall into what they consider the intellectual genres that compose feminist sociology. This collection differs from others because the editors avoid organizing material by substantive specialty areas (i.e., family, race and ethnicity, criminology, or methods). Their vision instead sees sociology as an integrated discipline, where feminist contributions have systematically influenced the shape of the whole by similarly influencing the distinct parts. In addition to simply compiling a comprehensive list of important articles from the last two decades, the editors have invited major feminist scholars to comment and reflect on the articles in each section of the book. These reflections help provide the historical and social context in which feminist scholarship has taken place. This book will be of obvious appeal to feminist scholars and gender sociologists. Yet, as feminist thought rightfully takes its place away from the margins and toward the center of the discipline, this book stands as a rich and useful resource for any contemporary theory course.

Masking Selves, Making Subjects: Japanese American Women, Identity, and the Body


Traise Yamamoto - 1998
    Through an examination of post-World War II autobiographical writings, fiction, and poetry, Traise Yamamoto argues that these writers have employed the trope of masking—textually and psychologically—as a strategy to create an alternative discursive practice and to protect the self as subject.Yamamoto's range is broad, and her interdisciplinary approach yields richly textured, in-depth readings of a number of genres, including film and travel narrative. Looking at how the West has sexualized, infantilized, and feminized Japanese culture for over a century, she examines contemporary Japanese American women's struggle with this orientalist fantasy. Analyzing the various constraints and possibilities that these writers negotiate in order to articulate their differences, she shows how masking serves as a self-affirming discourse that dynamically interacts with mainstream culture's racial and sexual projections.

Barbie Millicent Roberts: An Original


Valerie Steele - 1998
    Here is Barbie as she was meant to be seen and celebrated, clothed in Mattel's now impossible-to-find ensembles that were copied from the original designs of the great couturiers -- Chanel, Balenciaga, and Dior among them -- and photographed by the foremost toy photographer at work today.No other book on Barbie shows her as she is seen here. In image after breathtaking image, her hair, her accessories, her outfits are all styled to perfection. This is how her creators intended for her to look to the millions who saw in Barbie the embodiment of their dreams of beauty and glamour.Beautifully printed and bound, this is a book that will appeal to Barbie collectors and to anyone who is, or ever was, a Barbie adorer.

Whether a Christian Woman Should Be Educated and Other Writings from Her Intellectual Circle


Anna Maria van Schurman - 1998
    From her early teens, Schurman garnered recognition and admiration for her accomplishments in languages, philosophy, poetry, and painting. As an adult she actively engaged in written correspondence and debate with Europe's leading intellectuals. Nevertheless, Schurman refused to regard herself as an anomaly among women. A supporter of the female sex, she argues that the same rigorous education that shaped her should be made available to all Christian daughters of the aristocracy.Gathered here in meticulous translation are Anna Maria van Schurman's defense of women's education, her letters to other learned women, and her own account of her early life, as well as responses to her work from male contemporaries, and rare writings by Schurman's mentor, Voetius. This volume will interest the general reader as well as students of women's, religious, and social history.

Outrageous Women of the Middle Ages


Vicki León - 1998
    Others were cool and dangerous. All were incredibly courageous. Outrageous Women of The Middle Ages took on the challenge of their world--and didn't worry about ruffling a few feathers. Among the outrageous women you'll meet are: * Eleanor of Aquitaine--queen of France and later England, she led a group of women on the Second Crusade and created her own financial system * Lady Murasaki Shikibu--besides being a wife and mother, she learned the "forbidden" language of Chinese and wrote the world's first novel * Aud the Deep-Minded--a Viking wise woman and explorer who led her clan, grandchildren and all, on a risky voyage from Scotland to Iceland * Hildegarde of Bingen--the German nun who, late in life, became a composer, a botanist, and founded convents * Damia al-Kahina--a nomadic freedom fighter, skilled at peacemaking and war, who kept her North African homeland free

The Woman Awake


Regina Sara Ryan - 1998
    Throughout time, women inspired by all spiritual traditions have "awakened" to their essential female natures and expressed this awakening in poetry, art, service and healing, mystical writing, teaching and the day-to-day example of life lived with consciousness and elegance.

Looking Queer: Body Image and Identity in Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Transgender Communities


Dawn Atkins - 1998
    Looking Queer will give members of these communities hope, insight, and information into body image issues, helping you to accept and to love your body. In addition, scholars, health care professionals, and body image activists will not only learn about queer experiences and identity and how they affect individuals, but will also understand how some of the issues involved affect society as a whole. Dismantling the myth that body image issues affect only heterosexual women, Looking Queer explores body issues based on gender, race, class, age, and disability. Furthermore, this groundbreaking book attests to the struggles, pain, and triumph of queer people in an open and comprehensive manner. More than 60 contributors provide their knowledge and personal experiences in dealing with body image issues exclusive to the gay and transgender communities, including:exploring and breaking down the categories of gender and sexuality that are found in many body image issuesfinding ways to heal yourself and your communitydiscovering what it means to "look like a dyke" or to "look gay"fearing fat as a sign of femininitydetermining what race has to do with the gay idealdiscussing the stereotyped "double negative"--being a fat lesbianlearning strategies of resistance to societal idealscritiquing "the culture of desire" within gay men's communities that emphasizes looks above everything elseRevealing new and complex dimensions to body image issues, Looking Queer not only discusses the struggles and hardships of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons, but looks at the processes that can lead to acceptance of oneself. Written by both men and women, the topics and research in Looking Queer offer insight into the lives of people you can relate to, enabling you to learn from their experiences so you, too, can find joy and happiness in accepting your body.Visit Dawn Atkin's website at: http: //home.earthlink.net/ dawn_atkins/

The Colour of Resistance: A Contemporary Collection of Writing by Aboriginal Women


Connie Fife - 1998
    Contributors include Chrystos, Beth Brant, Joy Harjo and Lee Maracle.

Daughters, Wives and Widows After the Black Death: Women in Sussex, 1350-1535


Mavis E. Mate - 1998
    Mavis Mate believes that it was not the golden age for women so frequently assumed, and draws on material from Sussex archives and on current research to support her argument. A late age at marriage, in the mid twenties, common in urban areas, does not seem to have occurred in rural Sussex. Both the practice of ultimogeniture on much of Sussex customary land, and the ability to subdivide property, facilitated early marriage. Furthermore, although married women could supplement their income with brewing and intermittent paid labour (especially at harvest time), the increased size of holdings meant that most married women spent more time on unpaid work on their own land than had been the case before the plague. Legal changes brought mixed fortunes. While some widows succeeded to larger portions and a more secure title to land, others were deprived of any land at all. It is hard, in the author's view, to accept from the evidence available that in general a widow enjoyed more power and independence than at any other point in her life. Likewise, women's lives continued to be constrained by social factors, and matters of class remained by and large inflexible: the age at which women married, their social horizons, their power within the household, their vulnerability to rape, and sundry other matters, were all affected by social class. Professor Mate's study compels a rethink on women's lives in the late middle ages. Her alertness to economic fluctuations within the period gives particularweight to her arguments about the relationship between economic change and women's welfare, while her observations on aspects of social change have a value that extends beyond the confines of women's history. Professor MAVIS E. MATE teaches in the Department of History at the University of Oregon.