I'm a wife, a mom, a friend, a daughter, a sister and a follower of Jesus who is learning how to love God and people better. Scroll down to take a look at some of my adventures!

5.24.2010

Eve's Revenge, Chapters 1-3

After reading JR.'s book review of Eve's Revenge, I decided to take a look at it myself to see what I thought. Being a woman, I am obviously interested in what others have to say about women, the body, and spirituality. I'm a woman who is not easily stereotyped-- I grew up liking dresses and getting perms, but loved to play "cops and robbers" and climb trees outside with my neighborhood friends. I loved reading ultra-girly books- The Baby-sitter Club (well, this set wasn't so girly), Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley High and Sweet Valley University. I was incredibly boy crazy from a ridiculously early age and also began my first quest for the ideal body at a ripe age of 10. Dieting and a fairly severe eating disorder plagued my entire high school and early college years. I have had my bouts with make-up wearing and hours in front of the mirror hair-doing, and hundreds of dollars of clothes buying each new "season". I now wear make-up once a week, rarely spend more than 20 minutes in front of a mirror, and am so out of fashion that it would have made my former self cringe. I love having kids and feel it's important for me to procreate, but I also have a hard time being a full-time stay-at-home mom for any length of time. So, I feel like I can easily understand women from different variations on several spectrums because I've been there or am there now.

All this said, I have been enjoying Eve's Revenge because I feel like I'm whole-heartedly agreeing with her in one part, while in the next paragraph, rolling my eyes at her. I think the book represents a dialogue that has been going on in me for awhile.

I'm not going to touch on everything she talks about (go pick up the book to find out!) BUT, I'd like to highlight a few ideas:

* Men are not to entirely blame for our bad self-image. Women are very very critical of one another, and of ourselves. Have you called Hilary Clinton frumpy? What standard are you holding her up to? Do you comment on how other women look overweight, too thick of eyebrows, too big (or little) of breasts, etc.? Do you tell yourself that? Do we really need to be jerks to one another? We're a little over half the population -- if we really hated the cultural image of beautiful that is "put upon us", I think we wouldn't have to accept it.

* We have to embrace a spirituality that connects our soul with our bodies, but does not reduce us to only a body.

* Our body informs who we are. Many people these days like to say that our physical parts have nothing to do with "who we are". But, they do. We can let our bodies inform us of who we are and embrace this instead of fighting it (Chapter 3 is a must read in this - she makes a good case).

0 comments: