Of Homunculus Born: A Short History of Invisible Women - Hardcover

Bonnekessen, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0761857583 ISBN 13: 9780761857587

Publisher: University Press of America, 2011

Synopsis

Contemporary anti-women’s organizations have had great success in recasting a fertilized ovum as a “preborn” or “unborn baby,” fueling opposition against abortion and birth control such as the Pill and the IUD. Their imagery of “baby at conception” and their frequent use of the male pronoun are strongly reminiscent of the homunculus, the image Nicolaas Hartsoeker drew in 1694 of a little man coiled in a sperm. Throughout Western history, a clear thread of male thought has placed “his” baby into her uterus, justifying male and governmental control over the whole woman. This book examines the history of male opinion about women’s participation in procreation and explores the status of women in classical Europe, the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, and today’s American procreative policies.

About this title

About the Author:

Barbara Bonnekessen earned her doctorate in cultural anthropology from the University of Kansas. She is currently on the faculty at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, where she teaches courses in cultural anthropology and women’s and gender studies and directs the Women’s Resource Center.

Review:

Those who might not ordinarily be drawn to anthropology may be pleasantly surprised by this compact book that takes on Western culture's marginalization of women....Most of all the book shows that the myths about who we are, how our bodies work, how we love - or how someone else thinks we should do all these things - are worth paying attention to. (Conscience)

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of America
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0761857583
• ISBN 13: 9780761857587
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 156