Fascinating Womanhood: How the ideal women awakens a Man's Deepest Love and tenderness Mass Market Paperback – January 1, 1990

This is a graduation gift for a young lady. I am 80 years old and I'm going to tell her I have had two successful marriages following the principles set forth in this book.

This is my all time favorite book other than the Bible. I was raised with a lot of shame around feminity and this book healed parts of me. This is an amazing book if you want to understand men, become more feminine and have a traditional marriage. It is honestly the best book on marriage I have ever read. It gives practical application for each insight and steps to complete. I don't agree with 100%, but unless you're the author, you probably won't 100% agree with any book. Overall, I would definitely recommend. There's also no sugarcoating. She will call you out, so just be prepared for that if you have a sensitive ego. This was written in the 1960s.

Informative

I read this book thinking it would give me the validation to divorce. It isn't pretty hearing the advice you need when you've been in the wrong, but I was grateful there was some hope. The knowledge and advice found in these pages saved my marriage and everyone else's that I lend it to or tell to purchase. It doesn't require your husband to do a thing! You start the changes and the ripple effect take care of the rest. I had read countless marriage books before, tried everything imaginable, and had everyone's admonition to seriously consider ending the marriage. Every other book's and counselor's advice required my unwilling spouse to change. This book is perfect because truly the woman has the power to change all around her. I didn't understand that before because I was trying to change things with force, manipulation, and the all time favorite, deafness inducing--nagging.This book has 14 chapters just on understanding men. It has not only resurrected my marriage, but helps me parent my son (and daughter) more effectively as I understand masculinity (and therefore femininity) and cherish it rather than mock it senseless.I reread this book when the marriage (or parenting) isn't as enjoyable as I like it (or when I get it back after loaning it out) and sure enough, I gain some insight I have forgotten. I have been reading and experimenting with the principles taught in this book for 4 years. I am still amazed when it works just like the author says, even though I have yet to prove anything invalid in it. It is so contrary to every current trend, philosophy of thought, and media opinion on marriage, but current media and philosophies don't really produce lasting marriages anymore. It shows unbounded courage for the author to say it like it is and give us insight on what makes a marriage relationship work, despite what is popular and what people want to hear. What we want to hear isn't working.To me, it is priceless having a marriage that is life giving instead of life draining. I'm so thankful for the second chance this book gave me to make my marriage blissful, rediscover my best friend, and become my best self.

New Review: I reread this book every few years and it means something different to me every time. In this case, I've been recently applying the idea of soft power dynamics (often used in diplomacy) to literature and history (college professor) and came to some very unexpected conclusions.For those who are new to the subject: hard power commands and coerces; soft power attracts and inspires. Obviously, the very idea of someone actively cultivating their soft power instantly negates it, as active manipulation is a factor of hard power and inherently unattractive and counterproductive to cultivating soft power. (In this way, teaching a generation of submissive women how to cultivate their soft power without realizing they are doing so may actually qualify as a significant work in feminist literature, but that's really another topic altogether.)Summary: This book inherently teaches how to win in a battle of wills against someone with more hard power than you do - Hard power among individuals consisting of physical strength, earning potential, ability to gain respect and obedience from peers.When you attempt to sway someone who tends to rely on Hard Power, it generally comes down to who has more power. [When this book was written, that answers was nearly always unequivocally "men" but regardless of whether that is innate or instilled, it simply isn't true that all men have more Hard Power than all women, and therefore this book cannot be taken as a hard and fast rule for relationships, especially since the average man today is quite different than the average mid-century male, both hormonally and experientially. (Specifically, the typical male of today don't necessarily use brute force and over-confidence as often to get what they want from people, probably because feminism has required many men to think of alternative routes to success as they encounter women with higher Hard Power quotients than they do.)] In such a case, instead of resigning oneself to being on the "losing" side until one can improve their Hard Power levels, one could instead cultivate a different type of power - one that isn't measured on the same scale as Hard Power and therefore, could possibly be used to an advantage.Developing a Soft Power as an individual has the goal of increasing your ability to get what you want *without even asking for it.* We see this in politics all the time as soft power tends to have a lot more "hearts and minds" techniques than straight "nation-building techniques." This book is a very good read for understanding the mindset that must be applied to fully utilize soft-power to one's personal advantage.While I discourage the use of this book as any type of "handbook," the applications for such techniques are so vast, it must be discussed. This technique can be used by either gender (more than likely, but I've yet to hear results from men) and in many professional relationships, specifically in cases of friction and inequity. Please consider the following steps before applying the technique:1) Use the Andin technique on any relationship where your Hard Power is constantly measuring less than the other person's (I.e. You constantly lose or draw every argument or aren't confident to adequately voice complaints in the first place)2) Be careful to analyze if this relationship is worth potentially lowering your Hard Power perception among those who are exposed to you utilizing this technique.3) Reduce your Hard Power entirely around this individual and slowly increase your use of Soft Power (Andelin) techniques as rapidly as possible while remaining imperceptible to the subject.My next publication will likely be to analyze the last election in light of this book as it is quite obvious that the populace favored Soft Power for perhaps the first time in American history.Old Review: "For Last Resorts" (2 Stars) If you're in a position to say that your relationship is the only thing wrong in your life, then maybe give this book a try. If you are willing to sacrifice literally anything to fix your marriage then give it a tryQuite honestly, this book shouldn't be used except in extreme circumstances -- possibly a good response to a midlife crisis or other severe and long term depressions, but as a "handbook," this book is not your friend.Still something I gift to all of my women seeking marital counseling. It's the napalm version of help, but help nonetheless.