THE FIRST SEX

by Elizabeth Gould Davis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 1971

Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, men existed solely as sex objects and slaves. Ten thousand years before the Sumerians, according to the authoress of this highly fanciful voyage back to the Golden Era, the world was ""gynocratic"" -- and all was harmony, gentleness, and peace. Men, originally ""mutants"" and ""freaks"" who represent ""a degeneration and deformity of the female,"" pursued their ""hobbies"" of hunting and fishing while religion, economy, law, and family life were all women-centered. Then one evil day came the Dark Ages, the patriarchal revolution, violence, war, property-rights, and ""the rot of masculine materialism."" The degradation of woman was the revenge of the servile, resentful male chattels who enlisted the Christian Church to enslave the stronger sex. As mythical prehistory for Women's Lib, this may have some polemical value. Miss Davis has ransacked Medieval Christianity for every anti-feminist outrage from the chastity belt to St. Augustine's misogyny and there are horror stories aplenty of male sadism, bestiality, and lust. As for the colorful phantasmagoria of archelogy and myth (from Atlantis to the Druidesses) on which this remarkable feminist effusion rests -- well, you have to take it on faith since ""men took to rewriting history and destroying all records that could not be interpreted from a masculine point of view."" Miss Gould awaits the Aquarian Age and with it, the return of the Once and Future Queen.

Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971

Categories: NONFICTION