Women Respond to the Men's Movement: A Feminist Collection

Ms. magazine founder Steinem sets the tone in her foreword for this excellent collection of essays: ``Make no mistake about it: women want a men's movement.'' As the nearly 20 articles by some of today's prominent feminists (bell hooks, Rosemary Radford Reuther, Ursula Le Guin) reveal, however, contemporary women are very particular about the kind of men's movement they desire--not the drum-thumping ``wild man'' movement espoused by Robert Bly and his ilk. Women want, as Starhawk points out, a movement in which men give up domination in favor of creative partnership. They want a movement in which men seek not a ``kinder, gentler patriarchy,'' as Hagan calls it in her brief but pointed introduction, but to get in touch with their feminine side. The dynamics of the Bly-type movement are carefully analyzed here (e.g. Margaret Randall's deft analysis of how Bly blames women for the ``softness'' of contemporary men). By far the best contribution in the volume is that of Jane Caputi and Gordene A. MacKenzie, who show how images of women are manipulated or even excluded from much of our popular culture. Hagan wrote Prayers to the Moon. (Sept.)