Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her

by Susan Griffin

In this famously provocative cornerstone of feminist literature, Susan Griffin explores the identification of women with the earth—both as sustenance for humanity and as victim of male rage. Starting from Plato’s fateful division of the world into spirit and matter, her analysis of how patriarchal Western philosophy and religion have used language and science to bolster their power over both women and nature is brilliant and persuasive, coming alive in poetic prose.

Griffin draws on an astonishing range of sources—from timbering manuals to medical texts to Scripture and classical literature—in showing how destructive has been the impulse to disembody the human soul, and how the long separated might once more be rejoined. Poet Adrienne Rich calls Woman and Nature “perhaps the most extraordinary nonfiction work to have merged from the matrix of contemporary female consciousness—a fusion of patriarchal science, ecology, female history and feminism, written by a poet who has created a new form for her vision. ...The book has the impact of a great film or a fresco; yet it is intimately personal, touching to the quick of woman’s experience.”

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Nature, Philosophy, History, Womens, Poetry

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Susan Griffin is an award winning poet, writer, essayist and playwright who has written nineteen books, including A Chorus of Stones, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Named by Utne reader as one of the top hundred visionaries of the new millenium, she is the recipient of an Emmy for her play Voices, an NEA grant and a MacArthur Grant for Peace and International Cooperation. Her latest work, Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy, on being an American Citizen has been called "fresh, probing" and "incisive" by Booklist.

Reviews

[Mo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not often you read a book that discards every rule, convention, and structure of narrative and analytical writing and yet remains narratively gripping and analytically piercing. Woman and Nature is a sort of book-length prose poem. The first part details the development of masculine Western thought about women, nature, and the relationship between the two, interspersed with fragments of the feminine perspective. The second part is the response of women, making sense of their own experience. The book is filled with reinterpretations of the human relationship to nature expressed in profoundly beautiful language. Example:

"and the sunlight in the grass enters the body of the bird, enters us, she wrote on this paper, and the sunlight is pouring into my eyes from your eyes. Your eyes. Your eyes. The sun is in your eyes. I have made you smile. Your lips part. The sunlight in your mouth. Have I made the sun come into your mouth?"

It's of course true that when you look into someone's eyes, photons are reflecting off them into your retinas. And if they open their mouth to smile, sunlight is filling their mouth, which is why you can see it. But it probably wouldn't occur to you to think about it that way. It occurred to Susan Griffin! One of the most fun bits about reading radical writers is that since they reject the existing paradigm wholesale, they have to come up with entirely new things to replace it. The results, like this book, are often immensely creative.

[jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the most extraordinarily vehement and beautifully composed texts in the entire feminist canon.

"...she reads stories that have never been written. sees whole cities grow up, and the new growth of forests that were razed long ago. she sees all kinds of marvels far beyond what we ask her to see, things, she says, we could not even dream. we would think her raving, but she speaks to us so sweetly of what she says can be, that we too begin to see these things. we know her clarity for our own, and as for the way things are now, we grow most impatient."

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Perhaps if I read this book in a context outside of required reading for a college class, I may have enjoyed this book. But I doubt it. I am a proud and vocal feminist, but this book is painful. I am one of the students for whom this was a “tough read.” Even after being prepared that I was to read this text as “images and feelings,” I could not enjoy any aspect of the book - its style, its ideas, its themes. Really, just nothing. It is a collection of creative writing essays that portray women as helpless victims. It was a 200+ page long whimper and ended with a foot stomp. Only the quotes that lead into each section are annotated, so it is impossible to tell from which sources the author derives her statements. She uses quotations but then doesn’t cite where the quotations come from. For example on page 24, she writes “‘Nature is the art of God,’ it is declared.” She uses quotation marks but then doesn’t write where the quote came from. Where is it declared? In whose speech was it declared? In which text was it written? Is it in the bible? Am I supposed to just recognize the quote as common knowledge as if it is “We hold these truths to be self-evident”? Additionally, the repetitive nature of the writing with the “it is said,” “it is declared,” “it is explained,” blanket statements and the stream of consciousness style are unpleasant to read. Opening to a random page (38), the repetitive style of “it is said” or similar phrase was used thirteen times ON ONE PAGE. It is difficult for me to derive any useful ideas from the text because I cannot get past the tedious writing style. I cannot wait to leave this book in a random cafe for someone else to pick up and hopefully they can give this book the kind of love and admiration that I just cannot muster for it.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up


Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley, courtesy of Open Road Media.
This book is not going to be to everyone’s tastes. It is part fiction, part fact, part essay, part poem. Griffin’s style, at least in this volume, reminds one of Eduardo Galeano’s style when writing about the discovery of the Americas. It is almost episodic, but no less powerful for that.
The book links women to nature, drawing upon what various philosophers, rulers, and historian wrote or said. Of course, the majority of these writers are men. Griffin, however, takes it further; she compares the domestication of nature to the role of women. One of the most powerful sequences is about horses and dressage. It’s an interesting concept. While the casual reader might think that Griffin makes up most of her information, this is far from the case. The book also includes notes, which can be quickly adapted into a further reading list.
While Griffin’s book didn’t teach me anything new about women in history, her writing is powerful and compelling.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have read in a long time. Susan Griffin's writing is poetic, haunting, visceral. The history and experience of women, revealed so beautifully and juxtaposed elegantly with the development of scientific thoughts about the universe, are unforgettable and significant for anyone interested in "expos[ing] the hypocrisy of standard assumptions of gender and the environment."

[Harper Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cant even really put this book into a review, or really put my thoughts about it down in a concise way. I love this book, it was a challenge to get through and it did not help me out of the deep hole I’ve dug for myself of looking at every damn thing through a feminist lens but I guess who says that’s a bad thing?

There are full passages of this that I keep thinking about and coming back to and I just thought the book was so beautifully written and so cutting. Since it’s so abstract, or prose-heavy rather than a regular book of essays, I do think it has a hard time feeling like there are solutions or exceptions to these problems which I believe there are. I also think that maybe the solution wasn’t really the goal, more just calling out the patterns and how they relate to both women and nature.

A problem I do have with this book/argument is that it doesn’t really do much to imply that men should have more connection to nature, which I disagree with. I think that yes there is an obvious connection to women and nature; women and nature being less than, and controlled by, men. However I don’t think men are like aliens out on earth that don’t get to be a part of nature. That also exempts them from the problem which I don’t think is valid.

Anyway I really enjoyed this and I think I will be coming back to it for a long time and maybe even getting a tattoo inspired by a passage in it if that means anything to you.

[Fadillah · Rating 4 out of 5]

We dreamed we were the daughters of evil. But you are mistaken, we cried, there has been some mistake. And we cried to be accepted for our true identity. We produced documents. The testimony of our parents. But the documents were changed. And our parents said things were different from what we had thought. Did you lie to us? we questioned. But they would not speak to us. No one would speak to us. We were in rooms by ourselves. We were under the sheets. No one had accused us. We dreamed we were the daughters of evil, because we knew we were. We had been hiding this secret all our lives. We dreamed we were speaking in tongues. That all we had ever felt, our whole lives, became clear to us. That language was beautiful. Lyrical. That we were singing. That we wept to recognize ourselves in these voices. But when we awakened, we dreamed, we could only remember babble, and all language was foreign. We dreamed we traveled at the speed of light. And our flesh vanished to nothing. We were in the void. But before we reached this void we saw a glimpse. There was the world we always knew possible. In our fleshless bodies we felt our hearts drop infinitely. To see what we had given up. In our terror. In our desire to speed as fast as possible. To be away from the terrifying roar, the blinding light, the cataclysm, we had sped into the world of impossibility. But there, behind us, green and still living, was this possibility day's walk back into a future we could have touched: Such tenderness,
such joy.
- Nightmares : Woman and Nature - The roaring inside her by Susan Griffin
.
Everything written in the book is an assault to my senses in the most provocative yet enlightening way. The first half of the book literally made me wanted to burn the world to ground. What those men has done to a women from 14th century up to 17th century (which some of it were recorded - but what about those who are not recorded?). Since the beginning of time, women has been a victim of patriarchy and misogyny that our great grandmothers, grandmothers and mothers defended it thinking that it was normal, that it was the way of life and women should be grateful for whatever things granted by men. Susan griffin challenged us to grasp the concept of ‘otherness’ and how women has been trying to reclaim the space and to feel belonged in this man’s world.
- [ ] There are no institutions, no politics, no government, where my sex and I have not been dominated, subdued and robbed of our potential and talents as we are excluded from patriarchal privilege. What then does it mean for a woman to be loyal in patriarchy? - KATHLEEN BARRY, "Did I Ever Have a Chance"
The book is unconventional, written in the prose and poetry-like manner whereby it accounted details of how women has been treated since the beginning of time - be it in their own house, in the industry where they tried to thrive, in the religion they professed , in the culture they’re born in and even in the history where they’re supposed to be remembered of. I bought the book thinking that it will be about how women manifesting their feminine energy and channeled it to the nature and environment but what i got is even better. Its a feminist text, through and through. The book offered an apt analysis on how men emphasised their masculinity and used it to propagate misogyny agenda in religion, science and academia.
- [ ] It is obvious that we cannot instruct women as we do men in the science of medicine; we cannot carry them into the dissecting room. - WALTER CHANNING, Remarks on the Employment of Females as Practitioners in Midwifery, by a Physician
One may find the book as a peculiar given how it was done in a sort of nonlinear way. You may got confused in the beginning but you got used to the style once few pages has passed. The way the book was written felt like it was some sort of reminder that upon a Millenia, we women have encountered injustice yet until now, it was not over. We are still fighting for our body autonomy, fighting for medical field to get it right - that the medicine and surgery is not out to get women by telling us that period pain is all the same and we should toughen up, that our role is not just baby-making machine, that our voices mattered and not being shushed by ‘not all men’ or ‘you are trying to incite gender wars’.
- [ ] When I think of women, it is their hair which first comes to my mind. The very idea of womanhood is a storm of hair-black hair, red hair, brown hair, golden hair, and always with a greedy little mouth somewhere behind the mirage of beauty. - FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, My Sister and I
The book was laborious read , and i do believe that it needed to be read more than once, however as a text, it is profound and compelling. The author did not make up any of this (sure, if you want to defend that it was a different time / century that it was normalised to see women as so and so). She provided details and notes of how male philosophers, rulers, and historians has been undermining and scoffing women (some even hating on the femininity). She also highlighted the timeline of men succeeding in science alongside the suppression of women in the form of witch trials which quite chilling seeing how many women were killed simply for
disobedience (we know damn well they are not a witch, men simply cannot tolerate unruly women.
- [ ] Who were those for whom we fought? I seemed to hear them in my cell, the defenseless ones who had no one to speak for their hungry need. The sweated workers, the mothers widowed with little children, the women on the streets, and I saw that their backs were bent, their eyes grown sorrowful, their hearts dead without hope. And they were not a few, but thousands upon thousands. - LADY CONSTANCE LYTTON, on her conviction for"disorderly behavior with intent to disturb the peace," 1909
Overall, while i would recommend everyone to read this book, feminist or not, i know for a fact this is not going to be for everyone. It’s a gripping and emotional read but it can get tedious in some parts. For that reason alone, i am giving this one 4 instead of 5 stars.
- [ ] “The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world”. - Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, Seneca Falls, 1848

[Bryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I realize this is considered a classic in feminist literature, but it is not anything like what I was expecting and I found Griffin's stream of consciousness style to be very distracting. This is not a coherent narrative of any sort, and might more properly be described as "prose poetry," at times somewhat in the direction of beat poetry. There were parts I found quite profound, when some aspects of traditional misogyny were contrasted, by free association, with cows and other domesticated animals. Women have traditionally been subjugated in ways that make them more animal than human in terms of the way that men seem to view their role, and this is where Griffin speaks powerful truth. My problem is that these moments of insight were lost in the tangle of, at times, numbing tumble of words and ideas.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a man, this book has been incredibly insightful to me. Susan Griffin uses words to weave images beyond the words itself in order to illustrate a feminine perspective on our world and society. Beautifully crafted and communicated. This book not only moved me, but brought me wisdom and newfound respect for the feminine.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

i can say with such confidence that this is my favorite book. this is the best thing ever written. this is every single i thought i have ever had. woman and nature contains the most beautiful, poetic, and real prose about women and nature and how they are treated by men that i have ever laid my eyes on. this rambling, and i mean that in the very best sense of the word (i love rambling), is poetry. the amount of effort and research that susan griffin put into this book to make it all-encompassing is truly admirable. i don't even know where to start with talking about this book because every single page was just as good as the last.

among the wide topics discussed in here are the oedipus and electra complexes, castration, rape, violence against women, exploitation of nature and animals, freud's concept of female penis envy (god), 20th century “scientific” findings about women, mother-daughter relationships, father-daughter relationships, birth, c sections, miscarriages, death due to childbirth, sexism (obviously), and a lot of female rage.

in the first book, griffin talks about how men regard and make use of women and nature. how women are passive. how women want to be devoured. how women are observed to be closer to nature than men. but how because heaven is above us that means that the ground we stand on is evil and "the demon resides in the earth... in hell, under our feet." and if the earth is evil and nature is unforgiving then women are just as horrible. that women are synonymous with sin and carnal lust and represent everything evil. that "women being moved to anger are more envious than a serpent, more malicious than a tyrant, more deceitful than the devil." all sin originated "in the flesh of the body of a woman and lives there." "there is no wickedness that compares to the wickedness of women." that "her body is a vessel of death. her beauty is a lure. her charm a trap... she will eat the flesh she appears to love. her hunger is never satisfied... inside her body is hell... at the gate of her womb is a wound which bleeds freely. it is a wound that will never heal. she is mutilated. she is damaged. she will never forgive existence for this. her every act is an act of mutilation, of distortion, she is a plague. a disease... she loves blood. she asks for slaughter. she asks for sacrifice. her sinister wish is for castration. for more wounding, for endless mutilation. her vulva has teeth. her womb is a grave. she cannot help herself. she devours even herself." that nature is violent and will kill with no mercy and that it is all our fault: "nature lives and breathes by crime. hungers at her pores for bloodshed. aches in her nerves for sin. yearns for cruelty. that she kindles death out of life, and feeds with fresh blood the innumerable and insatiable mouths suckled at her milkless breast. that she takes pain to sharpen her pleasure. that she stabs, poisons, crushes, and corrodes... that she labors in the desire for death." that women are emotional, for the world "hysterical" comes from the word "hyster," which means womb, because the womb is the seat of emotions and women are more emotional than men, and this is used against men, to manipulate, and to bring out sexual urges. that by making nature his own man can control it and can therefore control women. that "there is power in words, it is said, and it is put forward that by knowing the names of natural things, man can command them, that he who calls the creatures by their true names has power over them. (thus it is decided that earth shall be called land; trees, timber; animals to be called hunted, to be called domesticated; her body to be named hair, to be named skin, to be called breast, vulva, clitoris, to be named womb.)" mother earth is violent and "this earth was formed not by one cataclysm, but by cataclysm following cataclysm." therefore it is all justified. therefore this violence against us is justified. man discovered land and called it his, but this land was unkind to him. it was harsh and dangerous, so he cut down all her trees and killed all of her animals. he put chemicals in her soil and made her bear crops even when she couldn't anymore. he cut down any tree that was old, for it was useless timber and lumber. he used the cows, the mules, the horses, until they could no longer stand.

the second book discusses women under men’s rule. how man separates woman from body. her will from her body. her self from her self. “the boy chases the doe and her yearling for nearly two hours, she keeps running despite her wounds. he pursues her through pastures, over fences, groves of trees, crossing the road, up hills, volleys of rifle shots sounding, until perhaps twenty bullets are embedded in her body… finally she is defeated and falls and he sees that half of her head has been blown off, that one leg is gone, her abdomen split from her tail to her head, her organs hand outside her body. then four men encircle the fawn and harvest her too.” “the boys, found of hunting hare, search in particular for pregnant females… once catching their prey, they step on her back, and they call this ‘ dancing on the hare.’” women convince themselves that they are imagining danger. “we are like an animal smaller and more vulnerable than any nature has ever created.” but we deserve it? “we dreamed we were the daughters of evil. but you are mistaken, we cried, there has been some mistake.” how because of this evil she deserves pollution, the bombs he drops on her, nuclear, atomic, and hydrogen, how she deserves carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, arsenic, lead, and mercury, but how they live in his dreams and stick to his bones.

the third book might be my favorite. it has two sections and both are my favorite pieces of writing ever now i think. within the first section, labyrinth, there is “the room of the dressing,” and it talks about woman’s journey through the labyrinth. how the labyrinth “has mirrors like the eye of men, and women reflect the judgements of the mirrors.” “where the women stand next to each other, continue dressing next to each other, speak next to each other as if men were still with them. as if men could overhear their words. the room of the dressing where women speak in code.” “the room where she teaches her daughter to put on makeup… her to do her hair… how to pull up her slip.. and the daughter will pass this on” the room where “women partly see each other… where they partly laugh. partly laugh at the shapes in the mirror and the girls once reflected there.””the room in which girls whisper secrets about each other… the room where the women deny she is anything like them… the room in which the women fear time. in which she is afraid of becoming her mother… the labyrinth in which women fear aging.” “the room of the dressing where the women are afraid to touch… where the women keep themselves at a distance… the women agree that women are dangerous. the room in which women lament the darkness of women. and stories are told about women. the room in which the women cover themselves. and put each other at a distance. the room of the dressing where the women tell each other they are happy and in which they look for secret unhappiness. the room where the women gossip. where the women complain about each other. and say they cannot stand the company of women. the room of women who laugh at women.” “the room of women who know about each other. whose looks are painful to each other. the room of women who have never really spoken. who cannot be close.” ”she says she is suffocating.” there is also “the room of the undressing,” which is a beautiful pairing to “the room of the dressing.” “she lets herself fall. fall into the room of her wants. the room where the demands of women are endless… this room is filled with herself… the room in which she does not mock herself… this place where she could finally breathe… this place which allows her to exist. where the women stare into each other’s eyes. where the daughter feels the life of the mother… this is the place where she finds her way.” GOD!!!!!!! SO BEAUTIFUL. that’s not even all of it. i didn’t include so much. so beautiful. the second section is called cave, and talks about woman as a void. it’s very beautiful too, but “the room of the dressing” and “the room of the undressing” are my favorite sections in this entire book.

the final book is about women reclaiming themselves. “what sleeps inside her? like a seed in the earth, in the soil which becomes rich with every death, animal bodies coming apart cell by cell, the plant body dispersing, element by element, in the bodies of bacteria… and back to the seed, this that grows inside her and that we cannot see… everyday she is closer to herself. and to this child within her, growing inside her… blood cleanses the wound and this place is slowly restored (and the forest reclaims what was devastated, and her body heals itself of the years.)” women enter a space that is “filled with the presence of mothers… where everyone is a daughter… ringing with the laughter of old lady friends… the place filled with the love of women for women. space shaped by the play of the littlest of girls.” “we stopped wanting, only we longed, and we grew so accustomed to the pain of longing that we called this our nature. we put it into our songs. we said disappointment was part of life. even in our imaginations, all our attempts began to fail. but one day this all changed” this book is also about healing and acceptance: “yes we are devilish; that is true we cackle. yes we are dark like the soil; and wild like the animals… we find it beautiful… we cease all hiding. nothing is secret; we display what they call evil in us. yes, we have horns on our heads, and our feet are cloven, and we are covered with fur.” “when she was small she asked ‘why am i afraid of the dark? why do i feel i will be devoured?’ and her mirror answered, ‘because you have reason to fear. you are small and might be devoured.’ … so she became large, too large for devouring.” “now we will let the blood of our mother sink into this earth. this is what we will do with our grieving. we will cover her wounds with mud. we will tear leaves and branches from the trees and together pile them on her body.” “we know ourselves to be made from this earth. we know this earth is made from our bodies. for we see ourselves. and we are nature. we are nature seeing nature. we are nature with a concept of nature. nature weeping. nature speaking of nature to nature… this earth, i will not forget what she is to me and what i am to her.”

i could go on but i think i should stop. my favorite sections were “the garden,” “her body,” “terror,” “the labyrinth,” “animals familiar,” “the lion in the den of the prophets,” “our labor,” “our nature,” “this earth,” and “forest.” also the prologue was also beautiful. so so beautiful. i know i keep using that word but it is the only way to describe this. i will constantly be chasing the high this book gave me. who was i before i read these words

1, 5, 8-1, 13, 20, 24, 27, 31, 37, 40-42, 44-46, 52-55, 58, 65, 67, 71-72, 76, 82, 83-91, 94, 97-100, 103-106, 111, 115-117, 120-122, 129, 133-135, 136-137, 147, 148-151, 155-161, 166, 168, 169-171, 176-177, 180, 184, 187, 193, 195, 196, 202-203, 206, 213-214, 217-221, 225-227

[Elnaz]

"we are the rocks, we are soil, we are trees...we are solid elements, cause and effect, determinism and objectivity...matter. we are flesh, we breathe. we are her body: we speak"

excerpt from the book

[littlebeesbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the hardest book I've ever had to get through...it took me 7 months off and on, AND IT IS SO GOOD

I feel like it took me so long because everything was so poignant and raw and I wanted to give every piece of it the attention and intention it deserved.

Most feminist literature makes me roll my eyes, not because I don't agree but that a lot of the time it feels like statements I have already heard, or not actually genuine, but for this book it is not the case. I feel so radicalized!

It's heartbreaking and so so raw and I get for some it can be hard to get through due to the stylistic writing choices, but I think in and of itself, the promotion of truly FEELING what you read in this, is a quiet form of self protest, for the writer and any reader who connects with it.

[Iris Kavanagh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book set the course of my life, my inner world and confirmed both my wildness, my essential spirit and my oneness with Nature, when, as a 19 year old, I read this in 1990.

Susan Griffin was ahead of her time in terms of what Western peoples were ready to accept about our own soul-less lives, having divorced ourselves from our roots and our humanity and, indeed, our very souls, in order to colonize the world over the past 500 years. Western culture is only now beginning to understand that the spirit and the science have always been one, that we are of nature, not above it, that nature is essential to our mental and physical health. We now "know" that trees communicate with complex root systems, yet Indigenous people have known this communication all along, we laughed and murdered them for these understandings, in the name of Christianizing the heathens, while stealing their lands, names, medicines and spiritual paths.

I am proud to pass this book along to my 21 year old, to show her what and where she comes from. TO teach her the words of Susan Griffin, and the roaring her own grandmother felt as she fought to save the wild places of this Earth from destruction and raised me to understand that I could speak with the trees, if only I allowed myself to listen.

And, it's time for me to read this book again, as I take up my Mother's role of Water, Land and Tree protector now that she has left her body behind, and became one with the Earth again.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a difficult read for me. There are many reasons for this - it is written in a poetic style (and I'm not big into poetry), it weaves in and out of topics (and I'm more linear), it is about a woman's nature being suppressed (and I am a man).

With all of that said, I am very glad I read this book. I wish I had read it earlier in my life, when it first came out, but I wasn't much into reading then. It is a very different lens with which to see the world and what it shows is important to see. I believe I learned, I definitely felt, and I plan to pursue some of the topics raised in future readings. Of particular interest is the very long history of witch burning and it's relationship to the suppression of strong women. I had no idea that this practice was so entrenched and went on for so long in western society (my history classes made it seem to be a short lived practice in Salem, MA).

I note that the reviews of this book by men are less enthusiastic than those by women. I believe that is due to the experiential and emotional nature of this book. Men in our society are much more limited in this regard. In other words, the reviews speak directly to the points Griffin writes about.

[Veritsa Vuchkova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woman and Nature blurs the boundaries between prose and poetry. Rich in intertextuality, it weaves together quotes from scientific, religious, poetic, and personal sources to explore the historical and symbolic connections between women and the natural world.

The writing is lyrical, immersive, and deeply affecting. However, the book has an essentialist framing of “woman” which may have resonated in its time. It also lacks attention to gender diversity and overlooks more inclusive or intersectional perspectives.

[Magdelanye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its great to see this book now listed here as years ago i was unsuccessful in adding a number of the most important books i read back in the day.
It remains influential on my thinking today.
This is not an easy read and i remember it took me several months to devour.
I hope the world is now ready to read this important book.

[Maeve O'Brien · Rating 2 out of 5]

honestly it was good but nothing i didn’t know, not really transformative and very difficult to read at times. i will admit i skimmed parts of it because it was so redundant and doom like

[Jamie Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an incredibly intense and visual book. I found this really hard to read. I was super proud of myself when I finished it.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book got under my skin. I loved it. I hated it. It made me frighteningly angry and incredibly sad. It spoke to me. I'm not even sure that I would qualify it as a book, except for its traditional format of printed pages bound between covers. It's more a work of art, winding down staircases and through corridors that I never knew were in the deeper recesses of my mind. I recommend it if you're interested in the messages women internalize as part of living in a male dominated society, and especially if you're interested in their undoing.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a variety of different voices and a very poetic prose style, Susan Griffin shows the damaging effects of being female in a patriarchal society and calls women to reclaim their bodies and voices to forge a future that pays homage to the mothers who fought in the past and sets a path for the daughters who will come to fight until "no trace is left [of life under patriarchy]" (218). The first section of the book is a litany of hypotheses men in science have made throughout history regarding such diverse topics as forestry, gynecology and manifest destiny. Interspersed with these lists are narratives that show how these scientific assumptions relate to the perception of women and men's often misogynistic association of the female with nature. The effect of this style inundates the reader with man's superior attitude and is therefore similar to what Griffin asserts is the experience of being raised as a female overwhelmed by these negative messages. Subtly, this collage effect also reveals the amazing strengths and gifts that women, such as Sacajawea (50-51), contributed to society, while at the same time exposing how the system of patriarchy exploited these women's skills and often took credit for their accomplishments. The rest of the book explores the history of the women's movement, mapping it mostly through metaphoric passages evoking women's self-discovery and the forming of a community in which mothers and daughters can support and foster positive self-esteem for generations of women to come.
Overall, this book outlines the same material and comes to the same conclusions as Adrienne Rich's Of Woman Born, the only major difference being that Ms. Griffin uses less direct language and more poetic devices to show and not tell the reader about the experiences and conditions of women in the world today. Usually this is a positive strategy in writing, but in this case, I'm not sure my reading of this text would have been as immediately lucid had I not read Ms. Rich's exceptional book. There were many sections of Griffin's writing where its generalities and overuse of third person pronouns made it very easy to disengage from the text and its messages. Ultimately though, aside from this one distraction, this book is a valuable study in both its theme and style and peaks my interest to seek out other poetry and prose by this fresh and engaging author.

[Victoria Haf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro es una joya, una visión que abarca el todo del sufrimiento de la naturaleza y como se relaciona con el sufrimiento femenino. No está escrito de manera lineal sino muchas voces se entretejen, está dividido en varias partes donde vas viajando por el pensamiento occidental patriarcal, me gustó mucho el principio donde, mediante una línea del tiempo, empieza a comparar los acontecimientos históricos importantes y la idea que se tenía de las mujeres en ese momento (por ejemplo la caza a las brujas con el renacimiento, la mamá de Kepler acusada de ser bruja) y como el pensamiento cristiano va evolucionando en el pensamiento científico. Luego las voces del bosque, la tierra, las vacas, los caballos mezclada con las voces de las mujeres, la voz de la contaminación, de las consecuencias, de la interconexión, los elefantes. Es un libro que a veces resulta difícil por lo pesado que es el tema y por las múltiples tramas que están tejidas en un mismo párrafo pero también resulta esperanzador y muy bien investigado, la bibliografía es muy amplia y hay libros de todo tipo. Esta señora sabe escribir y sabe conectar y te hace sentir de todas cosas

[Atenea Reina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una belleza de libro, muy sencilla lectura y con argumentos absolutamente impresionantes. No cae en culparnos de encargarnos de todo pero si identifica los mitos sobre qué las mujeres estamos más cerca de o somos naturaleza y como han usado eso en nuestra contra. Muy recomendable. “La asociación entre las mujeres y la naturaleza no solo ha servido para oprimirlas, también ha funcionado como estrategia para negarnos” “Se declara que la mujer debe ser una esclava entusiasta del varón al que le ha entregado su corazón” “…temblamos de rabia, y porque temblamos de rabia ya no somos razonables” “Él se ha esforzado de todas las maneras posibles, para destruir la confianza que ella tenía en sus propios poderes” “Nunca nos contaron de la existencia de este movimiento. Creíamos que éramos las primeras en querer actuar. Pensamos que éramos las primeras en negarnos a someternos” “Se dijo de nosotras que no teníamos nada de valor que contar”

[Tatiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful and poetic. Griffin looks at the history of the oppression of woman, going back and forth between a patriarchal voice, and a female voice that slowly grasps its own power. Amazing revelations about the role of witch hunts in the destruction of women's knowledge and community, as well as the disturbing similarities between the treatment of women and that of animals.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is worth reading if only for the detailed timeline of men using science, religion, and academia to establish misogyny and anti-environmentalism in every traditional philosophy and institution in existence.

[Louise Hewett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this incredible book over two weeks and it cut me to the core. I was in the middle of writing my second book and it clarified so many things for me, encouraging me to write with my own voice without fear. A true gift.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woman and Nature was the first book of its kind that I read, and it had a great influence on me

[Rebecca Von Martens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay now hear me out, my low rating is primarily based on the fact that I had to stress read it for a course + personal preferences.

So with that said, I do not consider this book poorly written or a "bad" book. I feel the same way I felt like when I read The Satanic Verses by Rushdie, meaning that I can see that it is a well written book with interesting themes but also recognize that it wasn't an overall enjoyable read for me, personally.

As a person with ADHD I have a hard enough time focusing and reading paragraphs where three different stories and three different fonts where used was pretty nightmareish not gonna lie.

And trying to get a grip of one of the most complicated classical feminist works while preparing a presentation made me associate this book with panic and an impending fear of failure.

If I could point out something nice - I enjoy innovative concepts and some of the poetry prose was lovely when I was relaxed enough to be able to take it in.

[Paola D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uma poesia em prosa. Griffin associa mulheres e natureza, destacando a exploração comum a ambas, numa narrativa que é também um passeio pela história da filosofia ocidental. A primeira parte simula uma voz masculina, com declarações autoritárias (o "conhecimento universal"). Mais adiante, a narração se transforma em uma voz feminina que consegue escapar desse universalismo. É um livro cheio de sutilezas, uma leitura muito sensorial, que consegue ser repleta de referências culturais e intelectuais sem cair numa rigidez racionalista. Publicado originalmente na década de 70, algumas coisas obviamente ficaram de fora, mas a proposta não é dar conta de tudo. O livro cumpre com maestria aquilo a que se propôs.

[marciluna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book perfectly encompasses everything I feel towards nature and the beauty of the earth, which is why I gave it a four stars. Though, sometimes Griffin entangles herself within the details so much so that the main point of what she is trying to say is hard to figure out. As it reaches the end, we get more clarity in terms of what the point of the book is. The ending is a beautiful climax, and an ode to the true beauty of nature and it’s embedding into every single life here on earth.

[Teo Spengler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the first feminist books I read in my life. I recently reread it and found it just as powerful and subtly persuasive as I remembered it. Susan Griffin writes like the poet she is, presenting lists of words that are used for and by men, others that are used for and by women. If this word doesn't fill you with hot emotion, read it again. It is a truly great book.