They called them the Culture Wars. It is a battle to decide who you are and how you can live your life. As of today any adult can get legally married in California. Soon it will be everywhere. Forty years after the US Supreme Court’s Loving decision and a month after the California Supreme Court’s decision, any adult of any race or gender can get married. On that note here is a grab bag of books relating to the subject. Text from DJCline.com.
Sperm Are From Men, Eggs Are From Women
By Joe Quirk
The web is full of it and Joe Quirk can tell you why.Text from DJCline.com.
Joe Quirk’s new book is a frank, ribald and funny take on Human Evolutionary Reproductive Behavior (HERB). He did lots of research and determined that men think about just one thing, and women too. In fact, it drives human behavior to evolve huge brains just so we think about it all the time. Even more, it determines how societies are organized. Many of our laws and customs are to control this behavior.
After the published reports of Kinsey and Skinner, I have few illusions about human behavior. I always worry that a book about human behavior will give people excuses for bad behavior. I’d like to think that we are more than the monkeys we evolved from, but Quirk says no. When less enlightened people talk about unnatural behavior, they need to take a look at the natural world. Did you know that whales go through menopause? This might explain why they migrate from arctic to tropical waters. They are just trying to get comfortable. Did you know gay black swans adopt other eggs and raise them as their own? Wait till they find that out in Florida.
I’m curious if humans will ever triumph over their desires. Will they be human anymore? What happens if they evolve into machines of some sort? Will they wage war for space on hard drives? Will they send each other poetry? Will our seeds of creation will be our seeds of destruction? DNA or software, we must be more than the sum of our code.
When God Was A Woman
By Merlin Stone
Apparently the culture wars have been going on for centuries. Most of us were just caught in the middle.Text from DJCline.com.
Civilization Of The Goddess: The World Of Old Europe
By Marija GimbutasText from DJCline.com.
An archaeological catalog of Bronze Age Europe with excellent maps and examples of female centric art. I can only imagine what archaeologists will think when they dig up an old copy of Vogue magazine.
When I first heard about this book, I thought of Saturday Night Live and Nora Dunn’s sketch “Women Good, Men Bad”. The sketch boiled down a whole genre of books describing men as jerks. She made her point and now Schlain makes his.
Schlain is a doctor who traveled the world and began seeing patterns and came to startling conclusions. He believes the physical limitations of our evolution created brains that perceive the world differently from other animals and specifically between sexes. These ways of perceiving the world vary from to person to person, but generally men focus on seeing one thing at a time and women see things all at once.
It is fairly obvious to anyone that the gender polarities are imposed by tradition. Where does this tradition come from? He shows how images and words struggle for cultural dominance throughout history. For Schlain, the tipping point for patriarchal societies was the development of alphabets. The linear thinking favored by confirmed heterosexual left-brain dominant men resulted in monotheism, taxes, property, slavery and the subjugation of women. Schlain presents his ideas as images in one of the best slide shows I’ve ever seen. He shows images of goddesses being replaced by gods over time.
At this point his argument is not so much about gender as it is about different ways of seeing the world. While linear thinking has given us language and math, it is at war with art and creativity. This explains why conservative religions are always talking about the “Word” and try to ban or control images. Their gods have no images because their brains can literally not perceive images the way others can. They fear any redefining of gender roles will undermine their authority. Schlain is hopeful that new visual technology from photography to the Internet will create alternative ways to communicate ideas.
Will there be a more balanced view of the world around us? While linear thinking has brought us science and technology, it can now allow millions of people to express themselves visually.
I’ve seen this over the years as I struggled to get clients to include more pictures in documentation. Management usually said that the cost was prohibitive. They were usually men or women with limited perception. It was comical to hear non-visual people talk about the big picture. As they started going overseas they began to see that paying a hundred dollars to translate one word cost more than one picture. One picture really is worth a thousand words. I had to translate a right-brain solution in a way left-brain managers could understand.
Nowadays I try to encourage products that can be used with intuition. You will reach more customers who don’t read manuals, which is most of us. It is hard since most companies are built and financed by linear thinking. The ones that can make that leap will succeed.
In retrospect, I’ve been implementing Schlain’s ideas, I just never sat down and had my linear thinking side of my brain read his books. Now all my neurons agree he has a point. I should mention his lectures are also available on DVD.
Woman Of Valor: Margaret Sanger And The Birth Control Movement In America
By Ellen CheslerText from DJCline.com.
Everything that you ever wanted to know about Margaret Sanger. She stuck her neck out and the world is better place for it. Apparently at one point she had an affair with H.G. Wells. I can’t get the image out of my head. There are some things I wish I didn’t know…
The Pill, Pygmy Chimps And Degas’ Horse: The Remarkable Autobiography Of The Award Winning Scientist Who Synthesized The Birth Control Pill
By Carl Djerassi Text from DJCline.com.
He escapes Nazi occupied Europe as a teen and goes on a speaking tour. He becomes a world expert in biochemistry and creates a practical oral contraceptive. He produces a low-budget drive-in movie that is so bad it could not be shown at a drive-in… in the daytime. He collects bronze scultpture. This is only a sample of all the things that happen in his remarkable life.
The Women Who Wrote The War
By Nancy Caldwell Sorel Text from DJCline.com.
A culture war during a real war. A lost chronicle of WWII. Apparently regardless of orientation, you had to sleep with Ernest Hemingway. It was like visiting Paris, it was something everybody did.
How The Homosexuals Saved Civilization: The True And Heroic Story Of How Gay Men Shaped The Modern World
By Cathy Crimmins Text from DJCline.com.
A lighthearted dig at books like How The Irish Saved Civilization. Crimmins goes through every reference in langauage and the arts to show how the community influenced the larger culture.
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women
By Susan Faludi Text from DJCline.com.
It won a Pulitzer Prize and in this instance I agree. This a landmark text on obstacles and outright hostility toward people working toward basic human rights. Recommended.
My Point: And I Do Have One
By Ellen Degeneres Text from DJCline.com.
This was obviously written to meet some contractual obligations. It is very light comedy from her pre-puppy days. If you get that last joke you will get every joke in this book.
Out Of The Ordinary: Essays On Growing Up With Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Parents
Edited By Noelle Howey and Ellen Samuels
Preface By Dan Savage
Foreword By Margarethe Cammermeyer Text from DJCline.com.
There has been a lot of talk about the effects of growing up in LBGT families. Here are some actual accounts. Chekov said happy families are all the same, unhappy families are each unhappy in their own way. Why should they be any different?
Surface Tension: Love, Sex, And Politics Between Lesbians And Straight Women
Edited By Meg Daily Text from DJCline.com.
A collection of essays on the soft borders of orientation and porous gender identity. Things are more complicated than they appear. Some are well written, others are crass. A mixed bag.
You Can Do Something About Bigotry And Discrimination In Your Life
By Betty Berzon, Ph.D. Text from DJCline.com.
A rather militant approach to getting what you want. Stick up for your rights and say something. What’s fascinating is the accounts of discrimination within the community. There are people who seek advantage with conservative groups or companies to become tokens while pushing out the “visible” types. Roy Cohn did that and came to a bad end. Let’s hope those days are over.
Under The Banner Of Heaven: A Story Of Violent Death
By Jon Krakauer Text from DJCline.com.
The author who gave us Into Thin Air and Into The Wild now takes us out to the fundamentalist fringe. This is what happens when fundamentalists decide who gets married. It is an unflinching look at polygamists in the United States, Canada and Mexico. He is drawn to a 1980s Utah murder and how a family drifted into a such an extreme view of the world that they just snapped and went on a killing spree.
He points out that no matter what the religion the potential for violence is always there. He offers no solution for a world that must survive those who combine faith with force.
Copyright 2008 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj in Books, Reviews [929 Views]