I really enjoyed that, but was in tears at the end. I think that's more about age though and seeing this strong vibrant woman coming to terms with ageing and moving to somewhere smaller. Having to give up that magnificent house and grounds and geese. Partly selfish pity I think as it highlights my own mortality (me me me) and my parents, but also that sadness is also about her and how we are all at the mercy of time.
She is quite enigmatic really. She articulates this vision of what being a woman shouldn't be but could be, but not really being clear what it is. The answer for her was a life that most women probably wouldn't want. Most women do want children and want more from men than just sex. I guess everyone will take bits from it that they want and leave the bits they don't. This is just my perception but she projects a heterosexual version of (radical) feminism that reaches a similar destination in some ways to lesbian separatist radical feminism yet at the same time different to the common ground of most heterosexual women's lives.
She's clear about not 'capitulating to the male' but never quite describes what this new life could look like that women can be 'architects' of. For her is it the life she has ended up living? I realised during this that maybe she resists being specific because it is for individuals to define that 'new life' for themselves of course.
Interesting when she describes relationships between men and women as 'picking at a wound'. She also says women should 'feel less'. If only it were as easy as that. Kind of a similarity here to calls to resist female socialisation (being nice to people so you don't upset them) but I don't think that was all she was getting at. She almost seemed to pity women for 'feeling' too much. She denounces any sort of sisterhood which highlights that difference and she clearly doesn't have any time for other feminists. It felt like she enjoys that fact that she offends feminists. I think a lot of what she says and writes is sincere but she has also made a living out of being deliberately provocative. She is quite the PR guru as well as an original thinker and intellectual.
I've planted violets (from the wild) in my own garden before so was really feeling her violet enthusiasm. I was also transfixed by her facial expressions, tone of voice and use of language. I guess that's part of what is meant by her 'charisma'. I've never read the female eunuch but that has really made me want to.