Anticlimax (book)

Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective on the Sexual Revolution
Cover of the first edition
Author Sheila Jeffreys
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Subject Sexual revolution
Publisher New York University Press
Publication date
 1990
Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages 360
ISBN 978-1742198071

Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective on the Sexual Revolution (1990; second edition 2011) is a book about the sexual revolution by lesbian feminist Sheila Jeffreys.[1] The book received positive reviews.

Summary

Jeffreys argues that the hidden agenda of the sexual revolution of the 1960s was to teach women to eroticize and enjoy their own subordination within heterosexual sex. She contends that heterosexuality is the root of women's oppression and therefore incompatible with feminist struggle. She also critiques recent developments in the women's movement: the mutual influence between gay and lesbian culture which, she believes, has led to the proliferation of role-playing, sado-masochism and lesbian pornography in the lesbian community. Her ultimate conclusion is that women's liberation will never be achieved without destroying the link between sex and power that underpins heteropatriarchy.[1] Among other topics, Jeffreys discusses pedophilia. She criticizes the activist Tom O'Carroll and his book Paedophilia: The Radical Case (1980).[2]

Publication history

Anticlimax was first published in 1990 by The Women's Press and New York University Press. In 2011, a second edition was published by Spinifex Press.[3]

Reception

Mainstream media

Anticlimax received positive reviews from Veronica Groocock in New Statesman and Society and R. W. Smith in Choice.[4][5] The book was also discussed by the feminist Julie Bindel in The Guardian.[6]

Groocock described the book as "comprehensive, timely and forcefully argued".[4] Smith wrote that the work was vigorously argued, and had a "Good bibliography and index".[5] Bindel credited Jeffreys with exposing "the myth of the 1960s sexual revolution".[6]

Feminist publications

Anticlimax received a positive review from Ann Jones in Ms magazine and a mixed review from Vera Whisman in the Women's Review of Books.[7][8][9]

Whisman described Jeffreys's views as "unreconstructed radical feminism". Though she granted that this position made some valid points, she also considered it "deeply troubled". She considered the last two chapters of the book, about "the feminist movement's organizing and theorizing around sex" lively and well-written, but argued that Jeffreys "misses a great deal by her refusal to admit nuance and paradox. If heterosexual intercourse has been forced on women by men—and their sexologist co-conspirators—then how can we talk about the fact that not all heterosexual couplings are equally blessed, equally enforced?"[9]

Evaluations in books

Jane Egerton, writing in The Sexual Imagination from Acker to Zola: A Feminist Companion (1993), described The Spinster and Her Enemies as a major work.[10]

References

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 Egerton 1993, p. 133.
  2. ↑ Jeffreys 2011, pp. 185–207.
  3. ↑ Jeffreys 2011, p. iv.
  4. 1 2 Groocock 1990, p. 35.
  5. 1 2 Smith 1992, p. 1306.
  6. 1 2 Bindel 2008.
  7. ↑ Jones 1992, pp. 58–60.
  8. ↑ Denfeld 1995, pp. 54, 285.
  9. 1 2 Whisman 1992, p. 17.
  10. ↑ Egerton 1993, pp. 132–133.

Bibliography

Books

  • Denfeld, Rene (1995). The New Victorians: A Young Woman's Challenge to the Old Feminist Order. New York: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86373-789-8.
  • Egerton, Jane; Gilbert, Harriett, Editor (1993). The Sexual Imagination from Acker to Zola: A Feminist Companion. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-03535-5.
  • Jeffreys, Sheila (2011). Anticlimax: A feminist perspective on the sexual revolution. North Melbourne: Spinifex Press. ISBN 978-1-74219-807-1.
Journals

  • Groocock, Veronica (1990). "Anticlimax (Book Review)". New Statesman and Society. 3 (January 12, 1990).  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Jones, Ann (1992). "Books: Backlash and beyond". Ms. 2 (4).  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Smith, R. W. (1992). "Anticlimax (Book Review)". Choice. 29.  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Whisman, Vera (1992). "Anticlimax (Book Review)". Women's Review of Books. 9.  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
Online articles

  • Bindel, Julie (November 12, 2008). "'Marriage is a form of prostitution'". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
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