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An accessible and provocative look at how we decide who is a woman—and why we find it important
Let’s face it: we live in a time that is highly ambivalent, if not downright schizophrenic, about what it means to be a woman. On the one hand, most women claim to be committed to sexual equality. On the other, feminism has become the new f-word, we venerate the impossible domestic vision of Martha Stewart, and the government invests our tax dollars in science aimed at discovering intrinsic biological differences between men and women.
In this smart, intimate, and conversational book, Cynthia Eller asks what it is that really makes a woman a woman. Is a woman defined by her anatomy? Does she perceive the world differently from men? Is it her behavior that somehow marks her as inescapably female? Or is it a matter of how others evaluate her? Eller’s answers demonstrate that the whole business of deciding who is a woman and who is not—and why—is far more complicated than it at first appears.
Cynthia Eller, an apparently textbook-case woman, is author of The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory (Beacon / 6793-8 / $16.00 pb) and Living in the Lap of the Goddess (Beacon / 6507-2 / $20.00 pb). She is assistant professor of women and religion at Montclair State University in New Jersey.
“In this breezy, funny treatise, Eller draws from her own ‘normal’ life to demonstrate the myriad mundane ways in which gender is not cut and dry. Behind this provocative inquiry is her hope to bridge the gap between women who call themselves feminists and the ones who (believe in dignity, independence, and equality, but...) don't.”—Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, co-authors of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future
“This is the perfect book to give to your cousin, grandpa, or childhood friend who's not quite convinced about feminism, or who otherwise doesn't quite get it. Am I A Woman? is a compelling, engaging, and witty primer on gender—and its uses and misuses—that demystifies exactly what's in those boxes marked ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine.’” —Lisa Jervis, publisher, Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture
| Ch. 1 | What is a Woman? | 1 |
| Ch. 2 | Under the Axis: The Physiology of Sex | 19 |
| Ch. 3 | Feeling for Others: Women and Emotion | 40 |
| Ch. 4 | Walking the Walk: Acting Like a Woman | 66 |
| Ch. 5 | Who's Looking? The Judgment of Others | 95 |
| Ch. 6 | Why This Matters | 124 |
| Notes | 137 | |
| Acknowledgments | 139 | |
| Index | 143 |
Overview
An accessible and provocative look at how we decide who is a woman—and why we find it important
Let’s face it: we live in a time that is highly ambivalent, if not downright schizophrenic, about what it means to be a woman. On the one hand, most women claim to be committed to sexual equality. On the other, feminism has become the new f-word, we venerate the impossible ...