Read the comments. People react strongly to Fascinating Womanhood, on many fronts. This is what our documentary hopes to account for---women who found Helen's books helpful and women who disagree profoundly with her strategies and suggestions.
As for myself, I have read several editions of Helen's book and I have tried to find ideas that are useful. Such as:
- You can't change people.
- You are responsible for you, so be the best person you can be.
- Treat the people in your life with kindness.
As a wise woman once told me, there's no commandment against common sense.
As for the rest of the book, ambivalence and heartburn abound when I read it. A friend just wrote to me her experience of the book, and I quote from her summary:
"But when you're scared, or overwhelmed, or lonely, or have tons of self-doubt, [the book] is a total siren song. I think the enduring popularity of this book is really just a monument to how many people do feel scared, overwhelmed, lonely, are crippled with self-doubt, or have a history of abusive relationships and don't know what love actually is. A monument to sad."
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