Reviews

Review: The Dialectic of Sex

Editorial Review - Kirkus Reviews

Young Women's Liberationist Shulamith Firestone, in an unevenly executed but extremely thought-provoking treatise, takes feminist analysis a giant step beyond protesting patriarchal attitudes (though there's still need for that) or condemning Marx and Freud for failing to perceive women's oppression (though there's still need for that). What she attempts to do is develop ""a materialist view of history based on sex itself,"" subsuming rather than rejecting the insights of both Marx and Freud. Accepting that the sex class system did originate in fundamental biological conditions and that the oppression of women (and children) was a historically necessary stage in human development, she can still argue for the need, now that conditions have ripened to the point of making biology irrelevant, for a revolution to eliminate the biological (and nuclear) family and truly liberate both women and children. The biological (nuclear) family with its sexual imbalance of power is presented here as the basic source of many evils: class division, racism, power psychology, sexual repression. Firestone discusses the conditions of culture, love, and romance in contemporary society and finds them poisoned by the pervasive sexual dichotomy, the schizophrenic separation into male (rational, technological) and female (emotional, aesthetic). Having analyzed and explained the shortcomings of the early feminist and current Women's Liberation movements, the Russian revolution, the Israeli kibbutz system, the hippie philosophy, and the black liberation movement, she concludes with some prerequisites and propositions for ""the ultimate revolution"" and the liberated society. Pretty heavy stuff, with a style that's not calculated to win over the unsympathetic, but amidst the sound and fury there is much substance.

User reviews

Review: The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution

User Review - Sharmeen - Goodreads

Writing this because I'm thinking a lot of Shulamith Firestone's death tonight. A professor in media studies lent me his copy of Dialectic of Sex when I was 18 and i remember how it fundamentally ... Read full review

Review: The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution

User Review - Maya - Goodreads

Although I do not agree with some of the minutae of this book, it is impossible to overstate the importance (and relevance) of this book to Women's Liberation. As with Kate Millett's "Sexual Politics ... Read full review

Review: The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution

User Review - Paul - Goodreads

My first serious girlfriend was a feminist and through her I started to read and think about feminist arguments. Generally it is usual to start with De Beauvoir's The Second Sex or Germaine Greer's ... Read full review

Review: The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution

User Review - Jessalyn Wakefield - Goodreads

DOWN WITH CHILDHOOD Read full review

Review: The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution

User Review - peaseblossom - Goodreads

This book is total whiplash. Firestone is totally brilliant one moment, and totally ridiculous the next. Even though I agreed with many of her premises, and some of her conclusions, I was often ... Read full review

Review: The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution

User Review - Lindsey - Goodreads

Engaging but absurd. Read full review

Review: The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution

User Review - Holly - Goodreads

Wow. There's no unreading this. I wish someone put this in my hands about 5 years ago. Read full review

Review: The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution

User Review - Bob - Goodreads

This book's virtue is its relentless consistency, which culminates in a kind of madness. It's the kind of theoretical book that's profitable to read even if you disagree with it because it will ... Read full review