BOOKED Solid

Culling through archived materials from the Library of Congress and Vassar College that contained hundred of personal letters and were opened to scholars in 2001, historian Lois W. Banner has produced a dual biography of two eminent twentieth-century American women—Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict. Banner’s book examines the professional and personal relationship between the two women.

Let me say up front that this biography is not one to loll around with on the beach this summer. It would be a much easier read if you were a scientist schooled in the many theories of anthropology. It’s a hefty book, physically and intellectually, that takes an in-depth look at the work both women did in the field of anthropology. They were, in many ways, pioneers in that male dominated discipline, and their ultimate influence blazed a trail for many young women to follow. Their contributions have made an indelible mark in the fields of social sciences.

Through no fault of her own, Banner’s efforts on trying to pin down the sexual component of Mead and Benedict’s relationship could probably be compared to trying to nail jello to a wall. They were infatuated with one another, lovers, inverts turned homosexuals, reverting to bisexualism and ultimately to lesbian and omni-sexual. I think. Whatever the label, this much is undeniable: they remained the strongest of friends, and respected and loved each other deeply through all stages of their adult lives. Such loyalty and devotion through so much is awe-inspiring.

Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead met in 1922, at Barnard College in New York City. On the surface the two were not alike. Benedict was older by fourteen years, introspective, insecure, and sometimes described by friends as calm, shy, with a slight stutter and a somewhat expressionless demeanor. By contrast, Mead was a high energy, dramatic young woman with a direct and inquisitive manner who lived her life in the grand-opera mode.

They met in Mead’s Senior year when she took an introductory course in anthropology with Franz Boas. Benedict was his teaching assistant. It was not love at first sight. Benedict met each week with her students at the American Museum of Natural History. At first Mead was unhappy with the class and her first impression of Benedict was less than positive: "Benedict wore the same dress every day and what seemed to Mead an unstylish hat; her hair was mousy and unkempt. Mead didn’t know that she wore that dress as an act of feminist rebellion against the male professors at Columbia, who always wore the same suit." In spite of this inauspicious start, the two became lovers two years later. By then they each were each unhappily married to men.

Both women doubtless read and discussed the many works on gender and sexuality that were so prevalent among philosophers and sexologists of the time. They focused on Havelock Ellis who felt homosexuality was a genetic anomaly, much as being color-blind and also his summaries of others, such as Richard von Krafft-Ebing who labeled homosexuality a perversion. Through their readings and discussions they both arrived on the doorstep of the free-love movement where little was out of bounds. Mead, for the most part, had a much wider interpretation of "free" than Benedict. While she was unhappily married to one man, and engaged in an affair with Benedict, Mead fell head over heels with another man. Benedict resigned herself and gave grudging approval of Mead’s varied relationships and throughout her own life had many of her own affairs, though exclusively with women.

Banner more thoroughly examines all aspects of their professional lives: the books and papers they wrote, the lectures they gave and their positions on race and gender that were, in most instances, ahead of their time. Add to this the examination of romantic "smashing" among women against the Victorian backdrop of the times and the cultural shift as that system inevitably gives way to the modern and you have a book that is illuminating of the times and the totally intertwined lives of two brilliant, loyal women.