Boston Marriages: Romantic but A sexual Relationships Among Contemporary Lesbians is an interesting addition to the varied discourses on devising and defining lesbian relationships and sexualities. Rothblum and Brehony provide a collection of theoretical articles and personal narratives which open a discussion of the centrality of sex to the definition of lesbian relationships. This discussion implicitly challenges what has been the definitive moment for the category lesbian. It also offers an opportunity to think about the links (and the ruptures) between sexual activity and intimacy in lesbian relationships.Although this book is aimed primarily at psychologists and psychotherapists, the project of finding ways to redefine or to expand existing definitions of "relationship," "intimacy," and "sexuality" in the lives of lesbians is of interest to any of us who live and theorize in, around, and through the boundaries of those definitions. Taking a critical look at the meanings of the terms "sexuality," "intimacy" and "relationship" has profound implications for our lives, loves and politics, especially since such an examination necessarily calls the hegemonic meanings associated with these terms into question.Rothblum and Brehony suggest that we reclaim the nineteenth-century term "Boston Marriage" as one means to discuss intimate, but not sexually active, committed relationships without resorting to terms which would pathologize that sexual (in)activity. Many of the essays in the introductory and theoretical sections suggest inadequate and inaccurate language to describe lesbian sexualities and/or lesbian relationships. Indeed, the complex and various meanings associated with the terms of reference disrupt rather than connect the theoretical perspectives. The terms of the language, and the meanings attached to a "Boston Marriage" seem to muffle rather than clarify the voices of women trying to tell their own stories.The inadequacies of language are a problem of this text as well as a problem for this text. Although many of the authors give lip service to the need to rethink these terms, they often do not take this rethinking very far, nor do they provide any working consensus for how we should redefine these terms. The brunt of the blame for our inadequate language is levelled at the "patriarchy" for its role in erasing some original (essential) positively-valued feminine sexuality. What seems to be going on in many of the "theoretical" pieces here is a series of assumptions that this reader was not willing to leave unchallenged. For the most part, the term "sex" gets defined (implicitly and explicitly) as some form of genital contact which culminates in one or both partners having an orgasm. This definition produces an "event-driven" model of sex. In this model, pleasure is all but erased (subsumed by the orgasmic "moment") and the model itself is strongly rooted in what could be characterized as a phallogocentric and/or heterosexist conceptualiz
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Paula Caplan, in her book Lifting a Ton of Feathers: A Woman's Guide to Surviving in the Academic World, outlines the myths and dilemmas that plague women's entrance into (and success in) academia. While sobering, the information provides a handy map to the pitfalls and mines that currently impede women's progress in academia. Most crucially, she exhorts female academics not to blame themselves for these impediments, but rather to recognize their familiar faces in the anecdotes and stories detailed in this book. Through flowing narrative and fascinating examples, Caplan provides an easily read and pragmatic profile of the current difficulties and delights that should be carefully entertained before a woman (or person of minority status, or both) considers a career in academia.This book resulted from an initiative by the Council of Ontario Universities' Committee on the Status of Women, and was inspired by a desire on the Committee's part not only to offer data supporting discrimination against women in academia, but also to offer solutions. As a result, Dr. Caplan was asked to create a book that had three overall objectives: first, to document the under-representation and mistreatment of women in universities in Canada; second, to speculate upon the causes of these adversities, and third, to offer suggestions to both the individual and the system which address these problems.For the data addressing under-representation, Caplan offers within Appendix 1 ("The Data on Gender Bias in Academia") a rich, three-dimensional look at the studies and work that have been conducted to document the lack of support available to women academics as they climb the professorial ladder. For information on the mistreatment of women, Caplan interviewed women of colour, women with disabilities, aged, lesbian and bisexual women, white, able-bodied, younger and heterosexual women, both during a workshop and individually. She also conducted extensive literature searches and consulted with experts in the field. The information gathered in this way formed the nucleus for her documentation of women's mistreatment (see Appendix 2, "The Maleness of the Environment") as well as for the presentation of sources and guises of the current gender biases, and their possible solutions.Chapter 1, entitled "The Good, the Bad, and the Perplexing," offers reasons why women should try to overcome the obstacles meticulously documented throughout the rest of the book. The joys and reasons for waging the academic career battle are presented in a clear, compelling manner. Like Caplan, I too would recommend not only starting with this chapter, but returning to it if some of the later material becomes too disheartening.The next four chapters, "Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man? or The Maleness of the Environment" (Chapter 2), "Unwritten Rules and Impossible Proofs" (Chapter 3), "The Myths" (Chapter 4), and "Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don't" (Chapter 5), are presented to familiarize aspir
{"title":"Lifting a Ton of Feathers: A Woman's Guide to Surviving in the Academic World // Review","authors":"P. Caplan","doi":"10.2307/3340734","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/3340734","url":null,"abstract":"Paula Caplan, in her book Lifting a Ton of Feathers: A Woman's Guide to Surviving in the Academic World, outlines the myths and dilemmas that plague women's entrance into (and success in) academia. While sobering, the information provides a handy map to the pitfalls and mines that currently impede women's progress in academia. Most crucially, she exhorts female academics not to blame themselves for these impediments, but rather to recognize their familiar faces in the anecdotes and stories detailed in this book. Through flowing narrative and fascinating examples, Caplan provides an easily read and pragmatic profile of the current difficulties and delights that should be carefully entertained before a woman (or person of minority status, or both) considers a career in academia.This book resulted from an initiative by the Council of Ontario Universities' Committee on the Status of Women, and was inspired by a desire on the Committee's part not only to offer data supporting discrimination against women in academia, but also to offer solutions. As a result, Dr. Caplan was asked to create a book that had three overall objectives: first, to document the under-representation and mistreatment of women in universities in Canada; second, to speculate upon the causes of these adversities, and third, to offer suggestions to both the individual and the system which address these problems.For the data addressing under-representation, Caplan offers within Appendix 1 (\"The Data on Gender Bias in Academia\") a rich, three-dimensional look at the studies and work that have been conducted to document the lack of support available to women academics as they climb the professorial ladder. For information on the mistreatment of women, Caplan interviewed women of colour, women with disabilities, aged, lesbian and bisexual women, white, able-bodied, younger and heterosexual women, both during a workshop and individually. She also conducted extensive literature searches and consulted with experts in the field. The information gathered in this way formed the nucleus for her documentation of women's mistreatment (see Appendix 2, \"The Maleness of the Environment\") as well as for the presentation of sources and guises of the current gender biases, and their possible solutions.Chapter 1, entitled \"The Good, the Bad, and the Perplexing,\" offers reasons why women should try to overcome the obstacles meticulously documented throughout the rest of the book. The joys and reasons for waging the academic career battle are presented in a clear, compelling manner. Like Caplan, I too would recommend not only starting with this chapter, but returning to it if some of the later material becomes too disheartening.The next four chapters, \"Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man? or The Maleness of the Environment\" (Chapter 2), \"Unwritten Rules and Impossible Proofs\" (Chapter 3), \"The Myths\" (Chapter 4), and \"Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don't\" (Chapter 5), are presented to familiarize aspir","PeriodicalId":82477,"journal":{"name":"Resources for feminist research : RFR = Documentation sur la recherche feministe : DRF","volume":"61 1","pages":"71"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1993-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/3340734","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69362385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Change Within Tradition is a recent addition to the literature surrounding the experiences of Jews living in the Arab world. Unfortunately, like many books in its genre, it appears to be written by a European whose ideological framework reinforces ethnocentric attitudes towards Arab Jewry. This is a particularly painful insight for me as reviewer, as I am a Jew of both Polish and Libyan extraction. Interestingly, both my grandmother and cousins appear in the book.Before offering specific examples of the author's Eurocentrism, it is important to elaborate on an apparent underlying political agenda. Right wing Zionists often claim that it is acceptable to remove Palestinians from their homes because Arab Jews were refugees from their countries of origin. In the minds of some Zionists, this constituted a "population exchange." It is therefore in the interests of this particular faction to portray Arab lands as particularly dangerous and anti - semitic. This is not to say that anti - semitism did not exist in Arab lands. It did. The point is that Zionists emphasize its existence in Arab lands in order to justify the oppression of Palestinians. It is perhaps for this reason that Rachel Simon takes eight pages to describe a few incidents of Jewish women being kidnapped by Muslim men. In contrast, she takes only a one - and - a - half pages to detail Jewish women voluntarily marrying Christian men.A pro - Zionist bias also informs Simon's understanding of what precipitated certain changes in Libyan Jewish society. Early in her book, Simon states that Italian Zionist groups introduced the notion of gender equality. This is a rather outrageous assertion, particularly in view of recent writings by Jewish women about the early Zionist feminist movement. Not one Zionist theorist advocated equal rights for women.(f.1)Ashkenazis, Jews of European origin, created the myth that Arab Jews were "uneducated" and that it was the Zionist enterprise that "civilized" them. Simon perpetuates this myth by referring to women as "illiterate" and "uneducated" again and again throughout her book. She does not, however, examine the possibilities of an oral tradition nor its potential wealth. Much Libyan Jewish history was passed down by women in the form of song and stories.While Simon does mention the practice of hand painting with henna, she does not present it as an art form butrather as a folk practice performed at weddings. She relegates a non - European cultural practice to the margins of her analysis. She does not, for example, offer descriptions of some of the designs. Nor does she consider the loss of this skill among modern Jewish Libyans living in Israel in her discussion on "change within tradition. …
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