Laura Kipnis

Five stars is probably too much for this; in truth it's at three and a half stars. But for me, this book had an impact that can't be denied: I discovered this book whilst taking a Marxist politics course in my first year of uni. I was distinctly unimpressed by the Marxist politics, but this book managed to perfectly state my uneasy feelings about the complacency so many of my friends and colleagues had toward the idea of love and marriage as an unshakable moral code.

Kipnis frankly states that she is not, really, against *love* (the title is muckraking more than anything else). Really, she's against the perception that marriage should be a lifelong bond that can never be broken; that affairs or feelings of infidelity are somehow immoral, unnatural and should be grounds for dismissing someone from public office; and other such ludicrous strains of "moral fibre" which permeate our society.

A couple of the chapters, which attempt to mix in Kipnis' own Marxist beliefs, go a bit too far. Not because of the Marxism, but because they dilute her central argument and - to be honest - feel like chapters from another book altogether. However, I heartily recommend this book even if you'll end up disagreeing with a lot of it! No one says you have to change your opinion because you read "Against Love"; but who wants to go through life not even having heard the other side of the debate?… (mehr)

Such clear vision! Laura Kipnis manages to look, open-eyed, at all the things women do to each other, as well as those things we allow to happen to us, in defining ourselves as a gender. Yet, this isn't a heavy read - it's fun and full of humour, both gentle and sharp. Kipnis is a well-known writer on so-called women's issues, and here she lays it on the line, asking why we take on the responsibility for housekeeping, why we wallow in envy and vulnerability instead of being strong, why we allow the depiction of our normally womanly functions as dirty.
Way back when I was breastfeeding my babies, one of my associates shuddered with horror at the thought. "That's disgusting," she said, "My breasts are for my husband." I wondered then, and still wonder now, how such wonderfully useful appendages became only appropriate for sexual satisfaction. It's easy to say it's because men wanted it that way, but, as Kipnis says, they've been aided and abetted by women.
I highly recommend this book for some true "aha!" moments and many wry laughs as you recognize yourself in the pages. It's something all women should read, and then leave around for the men in their life to read. The lessons are many, but the writing is so delightful you barely notice them going down...… (mehr)