The Submissive Female front cover

by Anthony Parr, Ph. D.
Published in 1971 by The Dolphin Press

Reading this book left me with one unanswerable question: why are Danes so hairy?  Don’t get me wrong, I like some hair down there.   In fact, it creeps me out when there isn’t hair down there.  The desire for hairlessness seems like the purview child molesters.  Creepy.

I don’t know why, but I frankly never imagined the Danish as hirsute.  Part of me is curious to search the internet for modern Danish porn to see if Danish women have discovered the necessity of pubic grooming.  But the other part of me is scared nothing’s changed, so I’ll continue in blissful ignorance.

The hairy sex pictures were really the highlight of the Submissive Female.  In this book, Parr sets out to trace the lowly social status of women throughout history.  He begins with conjecturing about the status of females in pre-history assuming they were only valued for their ability to bring males pleasure.  Subsequent chapters focus on the status of women in Greek and Roman societies, 17th century England, Russia, and France.

As he traces through these societies, Parr often focuses on women of high status and relates how they cruelly treat their slaves and servants. He credits this behavior to their identification with their own abusers, but shows no evidence to back up this claim.

There really isn’t much to recommend here.  There are a few titillating passages which merit some interest.  Unfortunately, I can’t help but think the original stories which Parr cites are vastly more entertaining and informative than his presentation of them.