-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of B. Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 9:25 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: [lbo-talk] question for feminists on the list
> Pubic hair.
Check out Howard Eilberg-Schwartz and Wendy Doniger, eds., Off With Her Head! The Denial of Women's Identity in Myth, Religion, and Culture (1995).
Eilberg-Schwartz, Introduction: The Spectacle of the Human Head Doniger, "Put a Bag over Head Head": Beheading Mythical Women Lang, "Shaven Heads and Loose Hair: Buddhist Attitudes toward Hair and Sexuality Delaney, "Untangling the Meanings of Hair in Turkish Society Levine, "The Gendered Grammar of Ancient Mediterranean Hair" D'Angelo, "Veils, Virgins, and the Tongues of Men and Angels: Women's Heads in Early Christianity" Eilberg-Schwartz, "The Nakedness of a Woman's Voice, the Pleasure in a Man's Mouth: An Oral History of Ancient Judaism" Richlin, "Making Up a Woman: The Face of Roman Gender"
All very excellent essays. Although only a few of the essays deal with pubic hair, there is much to be said about the 'upward mobility' from the genitals to the head, and how one comes to symbolise the other. One of the great things about the book is that all the authors are aware that making generalisations about hair, gender, identity, and sexuality are problematic. What shaving ones' pubic hair means in Turkish sociey is different than in France and in the U.S... not to mention the internal differentiations within each of these regions, to say nothing of the individual meanings... Still, the essays in general observe that the head and hair are very much linked with sexuality in a cross-cultural way, even if this is rather diverse. I used the book last year when I taught "Women and Religion."
ken