Helen's Thoughts on Ideal Women

Below an excerpt from an essay on her website http://fascinatingwomanhood.net/.


"The teachings of Fascinating Womanhood center around a study of The Ideal Woman, From Man's Point of View. I say "A man's point of view" because men and women view things differently. A man judges with a different set of values. This ideal woman is partly angelic and partly human. What I want to emphasize in this issue of the Internet is that a man never really loves a woman unless she is a good person, a person with angelic qualities worthy of respect and adoration. He may be attracted to her and even fascinated with her but his feelings will not include the deeper feelings of love. True love is a holy feeling, and a man simply cannot feel it unless aroused by a woman of character."

Joanna Brooks in Fascinating Womanhood Documentary

This begins a series of profiles on the various interview subjects in Fascinating Womanhood the Documentary.

Dr. Joanna Brooks is Department Chair of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State
University and a writer and blogger at Ask Mormon Girl (hosted by Feminist Mormon Housewives). She is the author of the forthcoming Book of Mormon Girl: Memoir of an American Faith, which discusses Mormonism's place in American society and her own evolving place within Mormonism.

Dr. Brooks grew up in Orange County, CA, and reports that her mother and her mother's friends owned copies of Fascinating Womanhood. So, while Brooks offers a historical framework to understand the success and reception of Andelin's book, she also speaks from personal experience about how she saw the ideas in the book shape women's perceptions about themselves and the changing social forces around them.

Dr. Brooks is also senior contributor at the online magazine ReligionDispatches.org. You can read her most recent article here.