Kathy E. Ferguson

In this thought-provoking account of the author's four-month stay on a kibbutz in Israel, she, her Israeli-born husband, and their two small sons have come from their home in Hawaii for an extended visit with relatives. Thus begins her struggle to understand the complexity of social and political life in Israel, and how this will ultimately impact her family. From an "outsider yet insider" point of view, she wrestles daily with the inconsistencies that make life in Israel at once so vital and so unsettling, simultaneously exposing the parochialism of Israeli perspectives and the sheltered existence of many white, Christian Americans.

"Turning on its head that familiar "woman question," this innovative work poses masculinity as a problem that requires explanation. Ferguson rebukes the sense of coherence contained in patriarchal theory in the name of a voice that both calls upon and challenges the category woman. Stepping back from the opposition of male and female, she artfully loosens the hold of gender on life and meaning, creating and at the same time deconstructing a women's point of view. Posing the "man question" provides a way not only to view male power and female subordination but also to valorize and problematize women's experiences, thus destabilizing conventional notions of man and woman."--Back cover.