saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (02/05/84)
Book review time: Following Ms Magazine and a few of my friends' recommendation, I read "In a different voice" by Carol Gilligan & I think it is one of the best feminist books I have ever read. This books is about the difference between the feminine and masculine perception of the world and of morality. (again not every woman is like the "typical" woman and not every man is like the "typical" man, but overall, she believes this is true) She originally wrote this book because she noticed that women never fitted in very well in any theory of the psychological evolution of personnality, (mainly Freud's, Erikson's and Piaget's). The book tries to rehabilitate the feminine perception of the world as as valid (if not more (SQ)) as the masculine perception of the world. In short, the difference is that women see themselves as part of their surroundings and as intimately connected with them, whether men see themselves as disconneted from other people (and "maturity" is reached when one realises that disconnectedness). This is an overly-simplified view of the book and of psychology in general, so I would recommend reading the book before flaming about it on the basis of what I have just said. My experience reading the book was the following: I was more interested in the examples she put forward than in the theory she drew from these examples. I did not analyse whether she arrived at her theory by "scientific" means, and I couldn't care less because I was too busy dealing with the examples. I found myself really responding to the interviews of the wo/men and girls/boys My mind was constantly drifting off because most of these evoked some memories of things that have bothered me for quite a while because I was convinced that the way I dealt with those things was somehow "wrong". This made me realise that they weren't "wrong" or "right" but valid and different ways of looking at things. I think that each person will react to this book very differently, depending on their own experience. For me, it was especially meaningful because it made me question the validity of all the criticisms that have been directed at me by school, society, parents, boyfriends and myself, not the ones about how much of a slob or how lazy I am, but the ones about how "unlogical", "unrealistic", "unpractical", "un<anything>", "emotional" my way of thinking is. This book is definitely worth reading, both for people who have had such doubts about themselves or for those who have accused others of acting in such a way. (Note, Laura)