Please God, Kill her now (A Return to Modesty - Wendy Shalit)

Member Name: sottovoce1982

Product:	A Return to Modesty - Wendy Shalit
Date:	14/01/08 (96 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy enough for children...

Disadvantages: ... but it's supposed to be for adults?

A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue
By
Wendy Shalit



I certainly did not choose to read a book called A Return to Modesty; I had to read it for I needed more material on the subject of modesty which it obviously tackles. To start with, I have nothing against religious on modest people; on the contrary, I admire those who have the guts to admit they are religious in an age in which this is considered a sin; probably this is why I like people like T. S. Eliot who celebrated spirituality in an age of despair.



In this book, the American writer Wendy Shalit obviously tries to prove why women's modesty is the solution for many of her and the society's problems. Yes, only women's modesty, for men are vulgar by nature, and we shouldn't compete with them in vulgarity; they always win.



In all seriousness, and away from sarcasm, what's wrong with being modest? There's absolutely nothing wrong with it; rather the contrary, it makes us easier for us to raise our children without having to explain many things to them. Expressing the idea more seriously I would say, there are certain things that you might not want your children to see, right? But, this modesty should be in the right way and for the correct reasons. Shalit does her best to make seemingly logical arguments, like: "As Norman Lamm points out: 'You meet a person who is always bragging, always talking about his own achievements, boasting of his attractiveness or intelligence or talent or wealth, and you know intuitively that you have just met a person who despises himself.' In this light, it makes sense that so many studies should find early sexual intercourse for girls to be correlated with low self-esteem, and waiting until you're older to be a sign of self-worth." And the perfectly justifiable question here is: what exactly in Norman Lamm's words prove to the writer that girls in particular, and not men, shouldn't have early sexual encounters?



Shalit's style is very easy to understand, her examples are mostly from real life and from women's magazines, and her similes are somewhat childish. She says, for instance: "Some things are frightening, but necessary. Like when you have to dress up as something scary on Halloween in order to get candy." What is more basic than that? It is all for our fragile little minds to comprehend the grave issue.



My last word for the writer: listen sweetheart, you seem to be a nice girl; let me simplify things for you. Woman have been suppressed for thousands of years (religion tells us they are thousands and not millions), so it's normal for them to be more embarrassed and shy than men at times; this does not prove anything. Why don't you consider writing a book in which you urge both men and women to be modest if you want? I know that you think men and women are not equal, and I disagree with you but don't have a problem with this, the thing is you separate them with a terribly huge gap, and this is not what we need right now.



<<< Price and Book Info >>>


Price: £6.99 from Amazon (or you can simply borrow it from any public library and never return it; they won't charge you or ask for it)
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Pocket Books; New Ed edition (7 Mar 2000)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0684863170
ISBN-13: 978-0684863177
Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 13.7 x 2 cm

Summary: I thought I never could say this about a book. Recommended? Hell, no.