We Have One Job - A Woman's Manifesto for the Post-Feminist Age
By Sara Hart O'Brie
I'm going to start off by admitting that I don't think this qualifies as a Christian book, since the only mention of anything Biblical is a passing allusion to the Holy Trinity in the subchapter about Wu Zetian of China. Then again, neither was We Want for our Sisters What We Want for Ourselves and that was reviewed here, so I suppose this one is a legitimate topic for a review here, considering that its subject matter is relevant to Patriarchal Values.
To begin with, let me say that when my Husband first got me this one I was a little uncomfortable. I have never been shy about admitting that in the eyes of Adonai Elohim I am my Husband's possession, I have a successful career and hold twin doctorates. In other words, I always felt like I chose to be submissive. I've always squirmed at the idea that I was simply "supposed to." I guess the best way to put it is "I choose not to be a feminist but always took some comfort in knowing I could have been." And this is the most unabashedly, unequivocally, unapologetically anti-feminist book by a woman that I have ever read, and considering that I've read everything Phyllis Schlafly ever wrote, that's saying a lot. Once you get past the "oh wow, could that skirt get any shorter" cover art, the very first page begins with the sentences "I'll get straight to the point. Western society for roughly a century and a half now has been plagued, saturated in fact, by an ideology of hate." The same page ends with a two-word sentence: "It's Feminism."
No beating around the bush in that intro, was there?
The author then goes on to assert that she is out to refute the classic "I can do anything a man can do" mindset with an ironclad "uh... no you can't." But once the author has laid this point out, she goes on to make an even gutsier statement. "This book will not contain an opinion. Only demonstrable fact." From there, the author goes on to make the case for Patriarchy and the indictment against Feminism, not using philosophy or religion but using history, psychology, and biology to demonstrate that of all the creatures known to inhabit the Earth, the Human female is one of the ones least designed for a leadership role within her species.
To recap, the author is stating outright "women should not lead," and she prefaces this by saying "nothing here is an opinion. Only facts." If you know of another anti-feminist book that comes close to being that gutsy, please let me know because so far I haven't read one.
Like every book I've reviewed here, it has its flaws. Chapter 5 (I won't include spoilers but it's the short one where the author starts citing genetic studies) still made me raise both eyebrows and go, "hmmm... I'm not sure about this one." Considering it was the shortest chapter in the book, I wonder if the author was either. Still, by the time the author reaches her simple, blunt, five-word thesis at the end of the book, she has made her point so resoundingly that it is pretty hard to come to any other conclusion using the evidence she has studied. All-in-all, it's a stake through the heart of Western feminist ideology, and a high-caliber round aimed at the Jezebel Spirit in all its forms, and when I closed the back cover and put it down I found myself with nothing to say other than "Honey, would you like a foot massage before I go back to the kitchen?"
No doubt this was exactly what my Husband was going for when he bought me the book.
By Sara Hart O'Brie
I'm going to start off by admitting that I don't think this qualifies as a Christian book, since the only mention of anything Biblical is a passing allusion to the Holy Trinity in the subchapter about Wu Zetian of China. Then again, neither was We Want for our Sisters What We Want for Ourselves and that was reviewed here, so I suppose this one is a legitimate topic for a review here, considering that its subject matter is relevant to Patriarchal Values.
To begin with, let me say that when my Husband first got me this one I was a little uncomfortable. I have never been shy about admitting that in the eyes of Adonai Elohim I am my Husband's possession, I have a successful career and hold twin doctorates. In other words, I always felt like I chose to be submissive. I've always squirmed at the idea that I was simply "supposed to." I guess the best way to put it is "I choose not to be a feminist but always took some comfort in knowing I could have been." And this is the most unabashedly, unequivocally, unapologetically anti-feminist book by a woman that I have ever read, and considering that I've read everything Phyllis Schlafly ever wrote, that's saying a lot. Once you get past the "oh wow, could that skirt get any shorter" cover art, the very first page begins with the sentences "I'll get straight to the point. Western society for roughly a century and a half now has been plagued, saturated in fact, by an ideology of hate." The same page ends with a two-word sentence: "It's Feminism."
No beating around the bush in that intro, was there?
The author then goes on to assert that she is out to refute the classic "I can do anything a man can do" mindset with an ironclad "uh... no you can't." But once the author has laid this point out, she goes on to make an even gutsier statement. "This book will not contain an opinion. Only demonstrable fact." From there, the author goes on to make the case for Patriarchy and the indictment against Feminism, not using philosophy or religion but using history, psychology, and biology to demonstrate that of all the creatures known to inhabit the Earth, the Human female is one of the ones least designed for a leadership role within her species.
To recap, the author is stating outright "women should not lead," and she prefaces this by saying "nothing here is an opinion. Only facts." If you know of another anti-feminist book that comes close to being that gutsy, please let me know because so far I haven't read one.
Like every book I've reviewed here, it has its flaws. Chapter 5 (I won't include spoilers but it's the short one where the author starts citing genetic studies) still made me raise both eyebrows and go, "hmmm... I'm not sure about this one." Considering it was the shortest chapter in the book, I wonder if the author was either. Still, by the time the author reaches her simple, blunt, five-word thesis at the end of the book, she has made her point so resoundingly that it is pretty hard to come to any other conclusion using the evidence she has studied. All-in-all, it's a stake through the heart of Western feminist ideology, and a high-caliber round aimed at the Jezebel Spirit in all its forms, and when I closed the back cover and put it down I found myself with nothing to say other than "Honey, would you like a foot massage before I go back to the kitchen?"
No doubt this was exactly what my Husband was going for when he bought me the book.
