Masculine Domination

I was pleased with the price and condition of the item. I read it for a class for school. It was difficult to understand until the professor discussed it with the class. Really good and valuable book for anyone to read.

Despite the interesting nature of the book, much of the power of the book is lost in translation. English is not French and the sexism blatantly apparent in French is nuetered by the nature of English. Even so, considering a book unreadable is more a critique of the reader than the book even if the reader states their true opinion of the book. That's pretty obvious isn't it? One fun thing with this book is the frequency PB's comments are a reflection on the language he is using and since the English has different characteristics than the French the points miss their mark. But this brings up the question, has feminism been more successful in English speaking countries precisely because English uses neuter for most nouns? If PB is right about French, then what does that say about English? German? Spanish? Reading this book makes more sense when you are familiar with the French or can at least realize in French the self-referential nature of many of the points make sense while simply being baffling in English.

Bourdieu presents a wonderful analysis of the way our culture is currently shaped in terms of gender roles. He also presents a few ideas on how we can work to change the society we live in, and who has the most ability to do this. Despite what the other reviews say, the language is a little weighty, but understandable. Overall a great read.

bourdieu applies his theoretical toolkit to one more field, and, as the hateful reactions of other reviewers testify, it hurts. this is indeed not talk radio and you will need to gather some philosophical/sociological resources to follow bourdieu, but it is completely worth it. in a small book, the foundations are laid of a systematic exploration of gender as a locus of symbolic domination.here is to hoping bourdieu's numerous students will build on these foundations.