I wasn't sure about the scientific material she used. I'm not entirely sure why she decided to defend bestiality, but it's not a choice I would have made. I found the second half of the book started to break down a bit with the sections on 'androgyny'. well, I'll have to read up on what was accepted at the time, but right now I have no idea where she got that from. What she often excels at is presenting horrific facts in quite a dispassionate fashion, which for me increases their impact. She's spot on when she talks about witch hunts and foot-binding. Her strengths definitely lie in literary analysis and interesting writing. I wish this was more accessible, I guess it's just been out of print for a while, but it's a shame because I think the world would be a much better place if more people read this book!! ( ) I was lucky enough to read a hard copy from my school's library (buying them is like 100 bucks!) and it's really cool to see all the notes in it from women who read it in 1976, it makes me feel like im part of a bigger movement I guess. I'm really sad that this book is so hard to find. At least I can't say the book didn't challange me like I did about intercourse LOL.

I know she changed her tune on a lot of that stuff later on and this was her first book so I take it all as a product of its time.

Like I was vibing the whole time, just nodding to myself, then at the very end she starts talking about how bestiality incest and pedophilia are good?! It was so dumb I took off a whole star but nah the rest of the book was 10/10 and should be required reading. I took off a star because the last like, 5 pages of the book are really strange.

It was gut wrenching and horrible to read and I wish I read it a lot sooner. A lot more readable and I felt like it made a lot more points cuz it wasn't hidden underneath literary criticism (except the 3 chapters she reviews some porn books). This was better than Intercourse by a lot.

Woman hating andrea