In Search of the Lost Feminine

June 15, 2006
Lawyer Barnes ("Growing Up True: Lessons from a Western Boyhood") takes the reader on a historical journey from the Minoan era to modern times, describing how myths and institutions arose that led to the oppression of women, suppressing nature-based beliefs that honored female principles of fertility and rebirth in favor of war and conquest. The book is best read as a trial document that highlights selected pieces of evidence to persuade the reader that its particular narrative is correct. While the author acknowledges that interpreting myth as history, reading art as ideology, and postulating the mentality of prehistoric people are difficult tasks, this does not stop him from doing so, which leads to simplistic or highly speculative conclusions. For instance, while he sees the monstrous female figures that Ulysses must overcome as representing male domination, he fails to take into account the monstrous male figures (e.g., Polyphemus) that Ulysses also encounters. As a result, this work does not fulfill the need for a sympathetic yet evidentially grounded study of the history of women's spirituality. Not recommended." -Dan Harms, SUNY at Cortland"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.