THE UNOPPOSITE SEX: The End of the Gender Battle

by Elisabeth Badinter ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 19, 1989

From the author of Mother Love: Myth and Reality (1981), a controversial overview of relations between men and women, culminating in speculation about possibilities of men becoming pregnant and bearing children. When this book was originally published in France, the few pages concerning male pregnancy, added literally as a postscript, attracted much attention. In Fact, this is a carefully constructed review of how relationships between men and women have shifted from prehistory through the Middle Ages to the dawning of the 21st century. The sexes are seen first as complementary--separate but equal in preserving the species. Then came a brief' period of Female dominance exemplified in the worship of the Mother Goddess and fertility, followed by a slow shift to male control apparently stimulated by the growth of agriculture, when men began to plow the fields originally tended by women. The status of women continued to diminish through the Medieval period, as females came to be considered both property to be bartered and malignant spirits. Women began a slow climb back with the birth of humanism in the 18th century unlit, according to Badinter, patriarchy was undermined when the Pill was invented and women gained ""absolute control over procreativily."" With her opinions to this point somewhat supported by respected anthropological and sociological research, Badinter launches into speculation about where men and women are headed. Androeyny is her answer. As men take up women's roles in nurturing children, and as women inmate men in the marketplace, the two sexes begin to resemble each other emotionally and intellectually. But as long as only women can bear children, true androgyny is impossible. Hence, male pregnancy? Altogether, Badinter's speculations are provocative, if far-reaching. Also stimulating are her reflections on passion and sensuality (soon, she claims, to be extinct) and the evolution of marriage and family (solitude, she argues, may be preferable).

Pub Date: July 19, 1989

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1989

Categories: NONFICTION