AM I A WOMAN? A Skeptic's Guide to Gender
Cynthia Eller, . . Beacon, $24 (146pp) ISBN 978-0-8070-7508-1
After 121 pages of Eller mining her life for examples of how she is or isn't a "real" woman, she finally concludes, "It doesn't matter. Because whether gender is biological or socially constructed, absolutely determinative or a barely self-consistent fiction, it's reasonable to both want and expect social change where sex inequality is concerned." What begins as a self-focused, slightly academic look at the truth about gender eventually evolves into one more book by a feminist scholar trying to prove that we still have work to do. Boiled down, Eller argues that human sexual dimorphism (the belief that anatomy defines women and men) is law, but that all the nasty little rules that go along with the labels "man" and "woman" are limiting. Women may have the right to cast a vote and grow old and disgruntled in a boardroom, but they still suffer disproportionately from sexual abuse, violent attack and unrealistic social expectations, says Eller. Although the message isn't particularly fresh, it is told, as are Eller's other books, including
Reviewed on: 05/19/2003
Genre: Nonfiction
Paperback - 146 pages - 978-0-8070-7509-8