[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by NickyWithNook

In defense of The Second Sex, it influenced a great number of women, and was part of a change in the world, including things as much a part of everyday life as family structure. A lot of people are women. Something can be written for and influence just women and still change the world.

Looking through the thread, only two people mentioned that book at all:

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've never heard of the following:

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Scripture

Unless "Scripture" is supposed, perhaps, to refer to the Judeo-Christian Bible, which would be flagrant cheating.

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

The Second Sex, Beloved and A Sand County Almanac seem to me to be of a PC selection persuasion or otherwise representing the pet favorites of the list makers rather than being based on a strong knowledge of literature, the sciences, political science, economics, etc. For example, the Second Sex and Beloved are both feminist oriented (so were the book choosers unbiased?), and who knows anything of The Sand County Almanac beyond environmental activists? They are also not well known (as HarryT has alluded to).

I would suggest that there are multitudes of books that have changed the world more than those with respect to feminism; I will swerve away from a definite nomination due to my compromised position of being a rather dated male but I see books that I would have thought have been more influential, and certainly much better known than The Second Sex.

[...]

Are you insinuating that those posts were preempted by misogynism/devaluation of women? (Sorry, just confused why you seem to feel it needs to be defended with the statement "A lot of people are women. Something can be written for and influence just women and still change the world.")

I would think at least AnotherCat went to specific lengths to explain why he believes that as a work which influenced womenit was not world-changing enough even in that area compared to far more worthy books.

I confess I know little about that topic altogether, but a constant theme of this thread is that people don't seem to believe these specific books were nearly as important in their own field or out of it, to merit being on that list.


Many, many, many books changed the world in some way. The question is, if a Top-10 list is to be meaningful, some effort must be taken to attempt, at least, to determine which are the, well, top 10.
With that in mind, why don't you tell us in what way you believe the specific existence of The Second Sex has changed the lives of women everywhere, moreso than other books of its kind, and how that changeset impacted the world enough to qualify on a Top-10 list.