When God was a Woman by Merlin Stone
The scholarship is somewhat wonky, but the author gets her point across. The Divine wasn't always seen as a man, and indeed there is strong evidence that the Ultimate Divine was once considered female.
Due to the reductionism inherent in their written form, alphabet cultures have lacked unity. Fractured lands, fractious governments, and schismatic religions have mirrored their written languages, which have splintered into hundreds of different vernaculars and written forms. War and strife associated with intransigent political and religious ideologies have been their lot. Rarely would a single government be able to rule them all.
When I first saw the title of this thread, this is the book I thought about!(http://www.divshare.com/img/midsize/6053442-96d.jpg)http://www.amazon.com/When-God-Woman-Merlin-Stone/dp/015696158X
Here's that lovely snakegoddess!!
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-8/1210035/ladywsnakes.gif)
And her wardrobe!!
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-8/1210035/sm_minoan_bodice_shrug_skirt.jpg)
Thank you Mikeala, that one definitely goes on my Wish List. I heard that a new book has just been published called Her Story, which recounts history adding the feminine back in. One woman that is profiled is Catherine Greene, wife of the revolutionary general Nathaniel Greene, who, they say, actually invented the cotton gin, although the credit went to Eli Whitney. Another woman who should get more credit is Madame Messier, who identified quite a few of the objects in the sky that her husband took credit for.
Who cooked the Last Supper? by Rosalind Miles
Great book on a woman's POV of history. Witty and sardonic. I love it.
(http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j266/thisiskaty/51qLA2iK9dL_BO2204203200_PIsitb-sti.jpg)
The chapters are all just two or three pages, each presenting some double standard with a catchy name, describing the problem and suggesting a remedy. Some examples (in addition to the title one):
He's a man, she's a mom.
He's chill, she's on the pill.
He's tough, she's a tomboy.
He's gay, she's a fantasy.
He's the boss, she's a bitch.
He's manly, she's Sasquatch [regarding hair removal].
He's lucky, she's Lolita.
He's distinguished, she's driving Miss Daisy.
He can be a beast, she must be a beauty.
And so on. I don't think I agree that all of them predominate all the time, but they are thought-provoking. (If any need further explanation, let me know). At Amazon, as you can see, you can look inside the book. I saw it in a bookstore and could not resist.
Let us gather a shelf full of essential books for today's woman! In my humble estimation, there are two books which every enlightened woman should own: Women Who Run With the Wolves, and The Alphabet Versus the Goddess. The first book, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, retells some folk and fairy tales and uncovers the ancient truths and archtypes within them.
As post-trauma specialist, she began her work in the 1960s at hospitals caring for severely injured children, 'shell-shocked' war veterans, and their families. Her teaching of writing in prisons began in the early 1970s at the Men's Penitentiary in Colorado; the Federal Women's Prison at Dublin, CA, and in prisons throughout the Southwest. She ministers in the fields of childbearing loss, surviving families of murder victims, as well as critical incident work. She served at natural disaster sites, developing post-trauma recovery protocol for earthquake survivors in Armenia, and teaching citizens deputized to do post-trauma work on site. She recently served Columbine High School and community after the massacre, 1999-2003. She works with 9-11 survivor families on both east and west coasts.
She is controversial for proposing that both assimilation and holding to ethnic traditions are the ways to contribute to creative culture and to a soul-based civility. She successfully helped to petition the Library of Congress, as well as worldwide psychoanalytic institutes, to rename their studies and categorizations formerly called, among other things, "psychology of the primitives," to respectful and descriptive names, according to ethnic group, religion, culture, etc.
Who cooked the Last Supper? by Rosalind Miles
Great book on a woman's POV of history. Witty and sardonic. I love it.
I'm tempted to get it for the title alone.
A stunningly illustrated book that celebrates the power of food throughout American history and in women's lives.
Filled with classic recipes and inspirational stories, A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove will make you think twice about the food on your plate. Here is the first book to recount how American women have gathered, cooked, and prepared food for lovers, strangers, and family throughout the ages. We find native women who pried nourishment from the wilderness, mothers who sold biscuits to buy their children's freedom, immigrant wives who cooked old foods in new homes to provide comfort. From church bake sales to microwaving moms, this book is a celebration of women's lives, homes, and communities. Over fifty recipes, from Federal Pancakes to Sweet Potato Pie, are beautifully presented along with over one hundred images from artists, photographers, and rare sources. A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove is the shared history of all American women...
The topic of cooking made me think of this book...
A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove: A History of American Women Told through Food, Recipes, and Remembrances
by Laura Schenone
Shlain contrasts the feminine right-brained oral teachings of Socrates, Buddha, and Jesus with the masculine creeds that evolved when their spoken words were committed to writing. The first book written in an alphabet was the Old Testament and its most important passage was the Ten Commandments. The first two reject of any goddess influence and ban any form of representative art.
A quote from the book The Alphabet Versus the Goddess:
I was rereading the book last nite about the story of Joseph (he of the technicolor dreamcoat). Joseph was ambushed by his brothers and left for dead, but he was sold into slavery in Egypt. His talents were recognized by the ruling class in Egypt so instead of being a slave he became one of the most trusted and powerful assistants to the Pharoah. When a famine came to the land, he welcomed his brothers and other Hebrews into Egypt and they became powerful and influential, but were not trusted and began to be persecuted. Eventually they were led out of Egypt by Moses and went back to the Promised Land. However, in later periods of history, similar things happened to the Jews again.
What was the talent that Jews were simultaneously admired and reviled for? Literacy. . . the alphabet.
Bell Hooks, is my suggestion. It is an african-american women who writes about thinking about how it is to be a women, and what is love. In her books she gives you new perspectives about life, marriage, love and being a women. My favorite book by her is All about love.
Interestingly enough, a poster on another thread I went to (he was male) wondered if there were any movies or books written about women that were not about men or love relationships with men or family or children. He said you could find many books/movies about men that are about men (war/action/political) where such issues - if they were present at all - were a side item but not the overall focus of the book. I have to say I agree. I am a woman, but not really interested in marriage or family or children, so I am always thrilled to find a story/movie about a strong woman who is in other situations.
Interesting point, Del. Of course there is plenty of nonfiction by women authors that deal with subjects outside the domestic sphere. And there is lots of juvenile fiction featuring girl protagonists who are involved in other things (Nancy Drew, for example!). But not as much adult women's fiction, and women writers (as a group) have been criticized for this.
Here's a famous essay about this issue that Francine Prose wrote for Harper's 10 years ago. It's a pdf, and fairly big to download, so I'd advise opening it only if you're interested. She's defending women writers against criticism by Norman Mailer.
http://f02.middlebury.edu/AL260A/Readings/_notes/Scent%20of%20a%20Woman%27s%20Ink.pdf (http://f02.middlebury.edu/AL260A/Readings/_notes/Scent%20of%20a%20Woman%27s%20Ink.pdf)
I'm going to try to think of some exceptions to this women's fiction rule, and will post them as they come to me.
Bell Hooks, is my suggestion. It is an african-american women who writes about thinking about how it is to be a women, and what is love. In her books she gives you new perspectives about life, marriage, love and being a women. My favorite book by her is All about love.
Sounds interesting, Jo. What do you remember about what it said? Why do women let men get their way?