"and also, that things are a lot more complicated then women are communicative, gentle non-warmongering and men are scum."
lol
Well I think it said that women's lib failed at the first hurdle BECAUSE feminism and feministy are incompatible; that there is an 'inner woman' whose urges to be feminine in order to acquire certain things are not compatible with the feminist agenda of basically being more like men.
I wasn't wholly convinced by the dirt argument. I'm not sure that the cleaning imperative comes from a desire to scrub out one's own filth. If I had written that chapter I would have said it is more about imposing external order where there is internal disorder - i.e. a coping mechanism for internal dissonance and dissatisfaction. I.e. 'this tea-towel is out of place and I will put it IN place because I can control THIS and it is a symptom of the powerlessness that I cannot control.'
BUT I might be totally transferring my own housework drivers onto the rest of womankind.
I found last night's sex-while-menstruating discussion MOST interesting. It is not something I had thought about. I have never felt uncomfortable about period-sex and I have never been aware of any of my partners' discomfort about this. It LITERALLY never entered my head, other than as a we'll-be-needing-a-towel situation. I don't have that YUCK response. I don't know where that YUCK message comes from. I am very concerned now not to pass it onto my own girls.
(Having said that, I do understand the YUCK response to "women's bits and their emissions" in general, and the desire to eradicate all unpleasantness and be minty-fresh and lemon-scented.)
I am just on the final chapter which I am looking forward to, as I am interested in her interpretation of the Naomi Wolf/Bloom "scandal".
But overall, I was very convinced by the "feminism vs. feminity" argument and it gave me a LOT to think about.
I have ordered her other book (on 'marriage') which I'm sure I shall HUGELY enjoy.