Reproductive Wrongs
Reproductive Wrongs: A Short History of Bad Ideas About Women , by Sarah Ruden I've really liked what I've read of Sarah Ruden in the past, so I was looking forward to this book! Ruden is a classicist/historian/translator, and also a Quaker, and she often focuses on the intersection of Christianity and classicist discipline -- territory few have dared to tread. This work is a survey of 'bad ideas about women,' especially about child-bearing, through Western history, studied through seven texts: Poetry of Ovid Timothy and Titus St. Augustine Malleus Maleficarum Dickens, especially "The Chimes" Eugenics texts! Gianna Super-interesting, quite depressing and rage-inducing, but enlightening. Best chapter was definitely the one on witch-hunting and the Malleus Maleficarum .