Review of "Seductress"

Note: I'm putting this review here in my portfolio because the Product Reviews section does not allow you to separate paragraphs (as far as I can tell). I will likely do this for future reviews as well.


Betsy Prioleau's "Seductress: Women who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love" has been described as a self-help book masquerading as a well-researched history book, but this is misleading. It's actually a feminist tract -- disguised as a history book disguised as a self-help book -- with all the attendant weaknesses and strengths.

The meat of the book is an anthology of mini-biographies of "true seductreses." You won't find Marilyn Monroe or Madonna here, but you will find Mae West and Catherine the Great, plus some names you might not know as well, such as journalist Martha Gellhorn or "homely siren" Pauline Viardot. All are women who shattered the stereotypes of desirability. Most were neither beautiful nor submissive, and Prioleau categorizes them by type: scholars, artists, adventurers, political leaders.

Many of these women are inspirations. But in her rush to prove this, Prioleau makes some missteps. She holds up as "self-actualized" women who cheated on their husbands, kept multiple lovers, and left callous trails of broken hearts. (Having your pick of men is admirable, but the most intuitive conclusion is that you might eventually actually pick one.)

In choosing this view, Prioleau slips into the trap of many modern feminists: that a woman finds liberation by behaving just as terribly as the worst male cad. Indeed, Prioleau makes some uncomfortable generalizations about men: They cheat, fear women's sexuality, and "binge out on casual infidelity, wife trade-ins, and hit-and-run sex." This hardly seems fair, and the book is best read while sharply aware of this bias.

But darn if it isn't an interesting read. The women's lives are fascinating, if not always admirable, and Prioleau's writing sparkles with unexpected word choices: She descirbes Marilyn Monroe as "eaten and colonized" and states that "compliant, eager-to-please yes girls not only give off the BO of need, they fail men at a gut level."

Taken holistically, Prioleau's message is revitalizing and deeply gratifying. Women don't have to swallow themselves to succeed at love; every unhappy woman who has let others make her feel too unattractive, too fat, too nerdy or too weird to find a man would do well to heed her advice: "Heterosexual love isn't supposed to be the stuff of confiscated egos, stunted careers, 4:00 a.m. panic attacks, tears, and ice cream binges. We're meant to prevail in sexual relations and cash in on our full gender payoff: erotic primacy and combined success in love, work, and life."