BACK TO THE BRA?

Press, 31 May 1980, Page 17

BACK TO THE BRA?

The MsTaken Body. By Jeannette Kupfermann. Robson Books, 1979. 147 pp. $19.50.

(Reviewed by Genevieve Forde) As one who converted to Germaine Green 10, years ago I found Jeannette Kupfermarin’s short book interesting, if heretical. It seems that in 10 years we have come full circle. Bras are back, biology’ is destiny, motherhood is in, and the woman’s place is in the . . . woops, I can’t go that far; but at least women who seek salvation through sterilisation, “real work” (i.e., work outside the home) and who leave their children in day care centres are on the wrong track. They . will not only cause the breakdown of their own bodies, but the body of society as well. When she uses the word “body”, Ms Kupfermann (a social anthropologist, former model and actress, married to a painter, and mother of two) includes physical and emotional aspects. She deplores the Cartesian split, - a consequence of which, she believes, is the image of the body as a mechanical entity which has parts replaced when it runs down. The technological, secular society,, with lack of belief in an afterlife, and thus a growing horror at the ageing process, exacerbates the situation, in her estimation.

Ms Kupfermann sees women's liberation as a Marxist movement which has led to a mechanised view, of sex.

The author also . maintains that the women’s movement has led to a loss of difference between the . sexes, “sexism” being one of the dirtiest words in the language right now. “We are The first civilisation in the historv of mankind to attempt to eliminate all differences between the sexes; A Berlei survey has found that women’s shape is changing from the curvy egg-timer one, to one loosely resembling a thickened broomhandle.” The movement has also led to bisexuality becoming more fashionable. “The increasing blurring of. sexual lines is nowhere reflected as strongly as-in the promulgation of bisexuality as the norm.” And it has led to more rape and battery’. “Women in society want

to get rid of menstrual taboos altogether, but they also seek independence arid the right to be protected from violence. . . if to jettison the taboos means to invite direct violence (which is what I suspect is happening — witness the statistics of rape and battering) what solution is left to women?” The current prophets — not only Germaine Greer, but Erica Jong, Masters and Johnson, Simone r de Beauvoir and Shere Hite— all take a beating. Instead Ms Kupfermann warmly refers to the Arapesh tribe in New Guinea, where sex is not seriously conceived of outside marriage and rape : is unknown. She quotes Margaret Mead on the tribe; “Sex is a serious matter, a matter that must be surrounded with precautions; a matter above all w)iich the two parties must be of orie mind.” In another New Guinea tribe, the Gusii, who have a higher incidence of rape than Britain does, there are no strong taboos attached to sex before marriage, as in our society. Ms Kupfermann also quotes the cleansing rites of the orthodox Jewish wife, in a culture “where a woman has virtually no status until she is a mother, where all things have a male and female aspect and women a well defined place.” . - / The Jewish family purity laws mean separation of the husband and wife for five days during and seven days after menstruation, after which the wife takes a ritual bath which symbolises physical and spiritual cleanliness. This is the “cornerstone of married life” and Jewish women, “much despised by their more liberated .sisters,” say the separation keeps their marriages “fresh and alive.”

“No one could survive togetherness all the time.” one is quoted as saying. “This way we have a break and it’s so much better when we get back together again.” /'■.. / “This book is for the third wave of feminists who tell me they want to reclaim their bodies,” says Jeannette Kupfermann. A book to be read by thinking women everywhere. The trouble is, I can just hear my mother saying, “I told you so.”