Another historically focussed feminist book which caught my eye: Immaculate Forms, Uncovering the History of Women’s Bodies by Helen King, is a fascinating description and analysis of how (particularly Western) society has represented women’s bodies over the historical period – from the Greeks onwards.
[from the dust cover] ‘What ‘makes’ a woman? She has been called the weaker sex, the fairer sex, the purer sex. More often than not, she has very simply been ‘not a man’.
Today, we are more aware than ever of the complex relationship between our bodies and our identities, but throughout history this relationship has never been uncomplicated and there has rarely been consensus.
Immaculate Forms probes the ways in which religious scholars, medical men and – occasionally – women themselves have moulded our thinking on the female form. It explores how the womb has been understood as both miraculous and polluted; uncovers how breasts have been viewed as maternal or sexual, but seldom both; probes the mystery of the disappearing hymen; and asks, did the clitoris need to be ‘discovered’ at all?’
Another challenging read (see Naked Feminism), maybe especially so for a man! But also really interesting regarding the accumulated influence of Christianity over two millennia (building on previous ancient Greek ideas) on our view of women, especially the Eve/Mary or Mother Mary/Mary Magdalen bipolar view of women.
