The Female Thing: Dirt, Envy, Sex, Vulnerability

The "most sexually vulnerable population in America at this point in history is not women, but the incarcerated." The Department of Justice crime stats reveal, "men are far more likely than women to be crime victims." Despite these facts, "subjective vulnerability [evidently] doesn't correlate to either objective risk or variables in risk" -- and thus women continue to perpetuate the myth of female endangerment. The female plays the unwitting star in the "women-as-delicate-flower" narrative, and the libido is replaced by the susceptibility to a highly lucrative injury. But are these accounts of "injured sisterhood" serving a public purpose for gender equality, or are they, through their emphasis on female vulnerability, inadvertently sustaining the idea of female inferiority?

This book is a valuable attempt to summarize the state of "the female psyche...in the aftermath of second-wave feminism and partway to gender equality." After a brief preface, Kipnis explores the paradox of female compliance/complicity existing simultaneously with feminism's demands for equality. This exploration unfolds within four chapters, which compose what Kipnis calls "a catalog of fetters, a chronicle of impasses." Holding a professorship in media studies at Northwestern University, Laura Kipnis is known for her aggressive humor and honesty regarding gender issues. Some reviewers, perhaps most notably Alexandra Jacobs in the New York Times, have criticized this book for its brevity and lack of theoretical density, but these critics are imposing inapplicable standards of judgment. An earlier book--Against Love: A Polemic--offers a way to understand Kipnis' intention in this new book. She is less interested in constructing an air-tight logical case than in using selective logic to reveal the ambivalence and indecision that many women feel about "the female situation." The chapter entitled "Envy" offers a hilarious parody of the cult of femininity while still challenging the tendency to focus all female disappointments on men (as the scapegoats) and raising the possibility that feminism inadvertently aided "scorched-earth labor practices." In "Sex," Kipnis explores some willingly forgotten realities about the history of medicine (e.g., genital massage as a treatment for unhappy/depressed women). In "Dirt," she shows how the cult of domesticity coupled with the association of home-and-body cleanliness with virtue traps women (and men) in a no-win situation. "Vulnerability," the last and most controversial chapter, walks an argumentative tightrope. Kipnis argues persuasively that living with the constant awareness of rape inevitably shapes female behavior and psychology. On the other hand, she examines whether female victimization rhetoric is blinding many people to the possibility that "as many men as women are probably raped every year in the United States, and possibly more." As Kipnis writes, "Okay, most of these men are incarcerated at the time--but it's still rape." Armchair Interviews says: This book offers a provocative introduction to the debates percolating in many households and classrooms.

As a man, there were many parts of this book that caused me an eye-roll or two. But I had to concede by the end that I found "The Female Thing" to be an enjoyable and enlightening read on balance. Guys will be able to read this because it has ample doses of humor and doesn't take itself so deadly seriously as most women's books do. Kipnis examines four topics in women's culture (a term introduced to me by Kipnis herself, just what the heck is women's culture?) :Envy, Sex, Dirt and Vulnerability. Women want more. More of what, they are not sure but they want more of it; and men seem to have it, whatever it is. Power seems like a good thing to have and money seems to be the key to power so maybe women should get more money. But that just feeds capitalism and that can't be good (eww!) And if women earn more and men relatively less and women continue to rate men based on how much they make, won't women thus be denied one of the very things they've always wanted i.e. rich men? What women really want is not to feel inadequate. Or maybe just for men to feel inadequate too. Maybe if men started worrying about tummy fat and laugh-lines and their hair and using the right lotions and...wait a minute...metrosexuals... Never mind. Let's look at Sex. Women are faced with an uphill climb to sexual fulfillment, there are physical and social barriers to satisfying recreational sex. Or so Kipnis tells me. My own field research suggests that women who write books about women's sexual problems are over-thinking the thing but I will take her at her word (so to speak.) Then there is pregnancy and childbirth. The profound asymmetry between men's and women's participation and investment in procreation poses socially insurmountable barriers to an equitable distribution of rights and responsibilities. Only technological and legal changes can change outdated paradigms and...wait a minute...designer babies, family law crisis... Never mind. Let's look at Dirt. In what is by far the most readable section for men, Kipnis concedes what men have known all along: women are crazy. Okay, to be fair she offers a lucid examination of the economic, technological and social trends that have shaped modern women's feelings and attitudes toward hygiene and cleanliness and how those feelings and attitudes have presented an obstacle to women's equality (cukoo.) Kipnis fails to mention a well-known truth about the housework wars: A woman will be mad if her man does not enough housework, she will be ballistic if he does too much or does it too well or, worst of all, does it too publicly. Couldn't women ditch these images of feminine perfection and adopt a utilitarian mode of dress and hairstyle more like men's in order to...wait a minute...Rosie O'Donnell... Never mind. Let's look at Vulnerability. Kipnis wades bravely into the issue of rape (you didn't think she meant emotional vulnerability, did you?) Referring grudgingly to statistics, she goes on to talk about

Perhaps the best way to educate an audience about a particular subject is to outline the uniqueness of its properties, which is most easily done by juxtaposing its essence alongside what it is not. Professor of Media Studies at Northwestern, Laura Kipnis, in her new book, The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability, uses this strategy to illuminate intrinsic female qualities via the four emblematic areas listed in the title. While it may sound rather popish, her brisk essays succeed in their goal. The author has produced a competent, intelligent, and valuable narrative. It may surprise conservatives that a book written by a leftist-feminist could possibly appeal to them, and undoubtedly some will disagree with this reviewer's assessment. Although, The Female Thing's central theme is key to my reasoning. Kipnis believes that it is their own "inner woman," as opposed to men or a global conspiracy, that acts as the biggest barrier to women realizing the progressive utopia they deserve--a utopia for which, the author concedes, many women are not even interested. Females have certain refractory predispositions and fascinations which cannot be propagandized away. This is revealed in the female longing for men, the way in which feminine personality types persist despite their sometimes being cloaked in feminist garb, and the world's assigning to women a higher worth based on their bodies. By identifying Woman as a free-thinking agent, Kipnis infuses the opposite sex with responsibility, and this immediately places her on a plane far above her peers. Hopefully, more non-equity feminists will agree that, socially and psychologically, our "respective anatomies produce different situations." That's not to imply that she is a biological determinist, however. What she does state is that, "what kind of anatomy you've been assigned invariably structures the female experience here on earth." These views are a major advancement for feminism as they eschew the lie that only social construction makes us who we are. The book's greatest strength are the arguments produced by the author's iconoclastic and insightful mind. Many novel ideas are on display. She clarified that women's empowerment came with a cost because much was lost in the process. Furthermore, has not femininity been on its own, from its earliest beginnings, an incredibly effective strategy for the acquisition of resources? From there, we turn to a major dilemma for the modern woman: one can't really be feminine and a feminist at the same time for they are mutually exclusive conditions. The former denies weakness and frailty while the latter promotes it. We find that the root of women's ever-increasing resentment of men--a resentment which is largely not reciprocated--is their own disavowal and self-deception. Their over expectations can be attributed more to a lack of personal fulfillment than to the inadequacies of men. While The Female Thing may not be a precise fit for conservatives

THE FEMALE THING is an irreverent look at the conflicted and contradictory female "thing" - that is, the female psyche. Achieving equality with and independence from the male of the species has been the goal for feminists for the last forty years, and while somewhat achieved, there is a sense of dissatisfaction, of things missing. At least for heterosexual women, men do have something that women want - the possibilities of love, etc. Apparently those needs have driven a tremendous consumption of advice and self-enhancing products and procedures, even among the most ardent feminists. Self-acceptance seems to be in short supply. Attaining financial independence by entering the workforce also has its problems: the loss of time and being subject to the rules of workplace regimes. Now in the name of empowerment, some younger women are opting for child-rearing - eschewing careers. The drive for equality and independence is indeed taking strange directions. Women are also conflicted over the nature of sex. According to the author the location of orgasmatic centers and the assignment of technical responsibility for achieving such is engendering debate among frustrated women. And then there's dirt. Women have been in charge of dirt ever since the rise of domesticity and men are generally oblivious. But the female anatomy itself has, through the centuries, been considered "dirty" by some elements creating no small amount of consternation even today. The author also considers the hysteria that can surround even the potential for rape, while acknowledging female vulnerabilities. She strongly questions a couple of well known feminists who have either forgotten their complicity in unwelcome advances or fabricated the same. Kipnis' appraisal of the female psyche, actually female sexuality, is intended to be provocative. Her writing is difficult, at times, to follow - just as in her other recent book, Against Love. But it's worth the effort. She forces a re-examination of issues that many may have thought to be settled.