Notes from an Incomplete Revolution: Real Life Since Feminism - Softcover

Maran, Meredith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553374893 ISBN 13: 9780553374896

Publisher: Bantam, 1998

Synopsis

Notes From an Incomplete Revolution defies political correctness and anti-feminist pieties to reveal just how far we have come--and how far we have to go--since "women's lib" upended our culture a quarter-century ago.

"I'd marched for reproductive rights, but I still mourned the baby I aborted when I was twenty. I'd been in a lesbian relationship for eleven years, but when my car broke down I still longed for a husband. I'd picketed beauty pageants, but I'd been secretly dieting for fifteen years...."

Through the intimate eye of her own experience, Maran speaks to the passionate concerns of women today: from breast cancer and sexual abuse to the challenge of raising children in a violent world. But she also finds much reason for rejoicing. And whether she's reminiscing about "free love" in the '60's, talking shoe styles with a transvestite, or learning how not to play racquetball "like a girl," this is writing to celebrate: alive with feeling and deeply engaged with the life of our times.

About this title

Review

Meredith Maran is a bisexual feminist, a veteran of the antiwar protests of the 1960s, a former Marxist, and currently an adviser to green businesses. So when she challenges some of the most sacred tenets of feminist theory, people sit up and take note. Notes from an Incomplete Revolution asks some tough questions about the way women live, as opposed to the way feminism tells them they should live. Is there a biological underpinning to the different ways women and men think and behave, she wonders, or is it purely the result of social conditioning, as some feminists claims? Why, even in an age of unprecedented opportunity for women, do so many opt for jobs and lifestyles that allow motherhood to be their top priority?

Maran asks these and other questions, but she doesn't always answer them. Leaving the problem of biology vs. conditioning as the determinant in our lives, she focuses her attention on the real issue of interest to her: the gap between feminism and real life. As in any political or social movement, feminism has its orthodox faction, and perhaps it is this sect to whom Maran directs her reminder, "The point of feminism was to give women choices, not to dictate what those choices should be."

From the Publisher

Advance Praise for Notes from an Incomplete Revolution

"Amid the clatter of debate about what feminism is and isn't, Meredith Maran's funny, poignant stories reveal, in real-life terms, the battles we've won and those we're still fighting."
--Marie C. Wilson, President, Ms. Foundation for Women, and co-author of Mother Daughter Revolution

"As guys, we're just glad we had this chance to consider all the heart-opening, provocative questions Meredith raises about women--and men--today."
--Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, co-founders, Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc.

"This honest and necessary accounting from the front lines of how we live now should be read by anyone who cares about women and the future of the family."
--Marita Golden, author of Saving Our Sons: Raising Black Children in a Turbulent World

Critical acclaim for Maran's previous work, What It's Like to Live Now

"Unexpectedly compelling...fascinating, and heartening."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Meredith Maran captures all the heartbreak and glory of coping in difficult times."
--Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City

"A delight...a West Coast, distaff Woody Allen, with a good dollop more compassion."
--Los Angeles Times

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0553374893
• ISBN 13: 9780553374896
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 272