Book Description
Throw out the Stereotypes!
Just like a woman! The very phrase is a put-down, echoing the
long-entrenched stereotypes of what it means to be female.
From earliest recorded history, women have been cast in terms
of males: lesser versions that are frailer, smaller, dimmer,
less competent, defective. Never again. This lively,
meticulously documented book turns the dismissive old
catchphrase inside out.
It is only in the past few years that researchers in many
fields have actively focused on what being female really
means. Their startling conclusion: almost every assumption
made about women--physical, medical, historical,
psychological--turns out to be untested, unproven, or untrue.
Rather than classifying women only by their biology (as the
medical establishment has), or denying they are biological
creatures (as some feminists have), Just Like a Woman
presents the cutting-edge findings in anthropology,
physiology, psychology, neuroscience, endocrinology, and
medicine that are redefining what a woman is.
These findings reveal the complex interconnections between
all aspects of a woman's life from infancy to old age. Gender
science is confirming that the female of the species is not
the second sex but the separate sex. She is as powerful as
the male but with different strengths: intuitiveness,
adaptability, durability, sensitivity, sensuality. Her brain
is smaller but more densely packed with neurons, her senses
of smell and hearing more acute, her core body temperature
higher. She processes emotions and perceives pain
differently; she sleeps more lightly; she is more vulnerable
to certain mental disorders and more resistant to others; her
body reacts differently from a man's to many medications; and
the rhythms of her monthly cycles shape not only her
fertility but her mood, her creativity, and her resilience.
These are only some of the special aspects spelled out in
this book, and all of them are crucial to a woman's
understanding of her body, her mind, her spirit, and her
relationships with those she loves. From conception on, she
is female to the core.
This stereotype-shattering book lays out what it means to
live in a woman's body, think with a woman's brain, drink in
the world with a woman's senses, and react with a woman's
sensibility to the stresses and elations of her multiple
roles. Refreshingly free of ideology, Just Like a Woman
offers a stunningly liberating message that expands our
concept of human potential and will forever change the way
every woman views herself.
