The Social Sex: A History of Female Friendship
2.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
“Fascinating . . . The Social Sex is a paean to companionship. Share it with a bosom friend.” —NPR
From historian and acclaimed feminist author of How the French Invented Love and A History of the Wife comes this rich, multifaceted history of the evolution of female friendship
In today’s culture, the bonds of female friendship are taken as a given. But only a few centuries ago, the idea of female friendship was completely unacknowledged, even pooh-poohed. Only men, the reasoning went, had the emotional and intellectual depth to develop and sustain these meaningful relationships.
Surveying history, literature, philosophy, religion, and pop culture, acclaimed author and historian Marilyn Yalom and co-author Theresa Donovan Brown demonstrate how women were able to co-opt the public face of friendship throughout the years. Chronicling shifting attitudes toward friendship—both female and male—from the Bible and the Romans to the Enlightenment to the women’s rights movements of the ‘60s up to Sex and the City and Bridesmaids, they reveal how the concept of female friendship has been inextricably linked to the larger social and cultural movements that have defined human history.
Armed with Yalom and Brown as our guides, we delve into the fascinating historical episodes and trends that illuminate the story of friendship between women: the literary salon as the original book club, the emergence of female professions and the working girl, the phenomenon of gossip, the advent of women’s sports, and more.
Lively, informative, and richly detailed, The Social Sex is a revelatory cultural history.
Marilyn Yalom
Marilyn Yalom is Senior Scholar at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University and author of A History of the Wife (2001), A History of the Breast (1997), Blood Sisters: The French Revolution in Women's Memory (1993), and Maternity, Mortality, and the Literature of Madness (1985). Laura Carstensen is Professor of Psychology and the Barbara D. Finberg Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University. She has published more than eighty articles and chapters on life-span development, marriage, and emotion.
Read more from Marilyn Yalom
The American Resting Place: Four Hundred Years of History through Our Cemeteries and Burial Grounds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Matter of Death and Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A History of the Wife Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Birth of the Chess Queen: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Social Sex: A History of Female Friendship Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow the French Invented Love: Nine Hundred Years of Passion and Romance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In My Mother's House: A Daughter's Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInnocent Witnesses: Childhood Memories of World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Social Sex
Related ebooks
A Passion for Friends Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Thinking Woman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Period. End of Sentence.: A New Chapter in the Fight for Menstrual Justice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Truth About M(O)therhood: Choosing to be Childfree Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Between the Sheets: Nine 20th Century Women Writers and Their Famous Literary Partnerships Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letters to a Young Feminist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women: Essays on Art, Sex, and the Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-first Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Modern Women, Modern Work: Domesticity, Professionalism, and American Writing, 189-195 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYou Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, & Other Mixed Messages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Majority Finds Its Past: Placing Women in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A History of the World in 21 Women: A Personal Selection Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shrewed: A Wry and Closely Observed Look at the Lives of Women and Girls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Worth of Women: Wherein Is Clearly Revealed Their Nobility and Their Superiority to Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Dark Science: Women, Sexuality and Psychiatry in the Nineteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Blondes Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Feminism or Death: How the Women’s Movement Can Save the Planet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Desire in the Renaissance: Psychoanalysis and Literature Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Gender Threat: American Masculinity in the Face of Change Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyday Ethics and Social Change: The Education of Desire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Better Half: On the Genetic Superiority of Women Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Relationships For You
How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All About Love: New Visions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dumbing Us Down - 25th Anniversary Edition: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Book of 30-Day Challenges: 60 Habit-Forming Programs to Live an Infinitely Better Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries with Kids: How Healthy Choices Grow Healthy Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Girl's Guide to Great Sex: Creating a Marriage That's Both Holy and Hot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Workbook: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5ADHD: A Hunter in a Farmer's World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covert Passive Aggressive Narcissist: The Narcissism Series, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Your Brain's Not Broken: Strategies for Navigating Your Emotions and Life with ADHD Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Loving Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The ADHD Effect on Marriage: Understand and Rebuild Your Relationship in Six Steps Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Codependence and the Power of Detachment: How to Set Boundaries and Make Your Life Your Own Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Social Sex
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I received this book from GoodReads in exchange for an honest review.This is kind of a difficult book to rate. While the text is informative, the overall narrative feels as though it is lacking. Part of the issue is clearly a lack of historical texts to use in order to determine changes in female friendship. This is mostly a history of white middle class friendship with a brief look at various "other" friendships such as "Friendship in the Workplace, Third-World Style", an unfortunately flippant title. Again, this is partly due to the lack of documentation outside of the dominant group, but I think the missing pieces were crucial to this history. The historical connections to feminism were interesting, especially the chunk of the book dedicated to Eleanor Roosevelt, but as a whole the book felt a bit dull. The text was broken up well into digestible pieces, but some areas were heavier than others, leaving some sections unsatisfying thin. The section on modern friendships was incredibly short with very little depth. A decent book, but the lack of concentration in certain areas left me unsatisfied as a whole.