Book Review

by Sheila (30-B-2) FPE

THE DISAPPEARING SEXES, by Robert P. Oldenwald, M. D. 175 pp., Random House, New York, $4.95.

1965.

This attractively titled little book was a great disappointment to me, and I'm sure would be to most of our readers. In all honesty, had I read the back of the jacket properly, I would have had some warning but it was a distinct shock when I got home to find that I had spent $5 on a piece of propaganda directed AGAINST most of my beliefs!

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The author is now deceased, but was for some years assistant professor of psychiatry at the Catholic University of America. As would be expect- ed from this title, his ability as a writer was high: and it is unfortunate that he used it for the pre- sent purposes, He does a masterly job of listing the REAL differences between the sexes and quietly slides in a few false ones tailored to fit his point. He notes the increasing freedom of men and women to do as they please rather than being forced into artificial poses, applauds this break from Victorian tradition - and then sets up arguments for return to Edwardian standards. (He must have been born about 1895 and acquired his outlook in the decade before World War I). The methods he uses can only be described as "expert sophistry", and he never fails to debase each argument with some bit of intellectual trickery,

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