Book Reviews: Women Abuse Publications

In this review of two books, each casts an interesting light upon the other..

"Possessing the Secret of Joy" by Alice Walker

A fictional work that traces the life of an African woman. She is befriended by Western missionaries when still a young girl, and because of the various circumstances of her life, she is not forced to undergo the customary female circumcision practiced by her tribe.

However, once she grows into young womanhood, she presents herself voluntarily for this female genital mutilation and allows her labia and clitoris to be hacked off. She does so in order to affirm her cultural bonds with her tribe and to make herself acceptable to her kinsfolk.

"Sacrificing Ourselves for Love" by Jane Hyman and Esther Rome

This a US health resource and self-help manual for women, and is subtitled "Why women compromise health and self-esteem ... and how to stop." The experiences of hundreds of women are drawn upon to illustrate and inform the text of this book and it is divided into three sections.

The first covers the health hazards relating to dieting and cosmetic surgery, the second and third discuss some of the more life-threatening consequences of domestic abuse, rape and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

"Sacrificing Ourselves for Love" does not only investigate the problems facing women, it also offers a number of solutions. There are chapters on overcoming eating disorders, improving our body image, what to do if raped or abused domestically and also suggestions on how to negotiate on safe sex with one's partner.

In the introduction, the authors comment on how common it is to find that many women's health problems are the result of our willingness to conform to cultural traditions, regardless of how harmful these might be.

They discovered that women are often willing to risk their health and their fertility, sometimes even their lives (by starving themselves into thinness, by chancing the risks of implants and cosmetic surgery, by neglecting to insist on safe sexual practice) in order to be pleasing to others.

To quote: "As we researched our topics, we saw that women's willingness to risk their health in order to be agreeable to others is a result of three intertwined forces: the caring attitude that characterises many women; centuries of subordination; and cultural traditions about how we should look, behave and be treated."

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