Beginning ~ with nostalgia

The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much? ~ by Leslie Bennetts, 2007, women's studies

"My grandmother made the world's best rhubarb pies and sewed extraordinary silk garments with exquisite craftsmanship worthy of a French couturier.  Raised to devote her all to marriage and family, she worshipped her talented husband, doted on her children, and baked homemade bread whose enticing aroma drew every one to the kitchen.  Although she lived for nearly eighty years, she never worked outside the home or held a paying job.

"Such latter-day paragons of traditional femininity often make people nostalgic for bygone times, but even then, the truth was frequently a lot darker than the champions of conventional gender roles like to admit.  Although my grandmother's life adhered faithfully to the old-fashioned stereotypes so often held up as a modern ideal, the result was a disaster, not onlly for her but also for her children and relatives."  (p. xv)

This book has been on my shelf for at least two or three years, and I've finally decided to take a look at it.  I'm trying to sort through books I want to keep and books I'm willing to discard, even if I haven't yet read them.  This one looks like one I'll try first.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.