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4.38 AVERAGE
4.38 AVERAGE
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Must read, clear and sharp. But for me the information wasn’t new, and the book was a bit binary. Still important and interesting though
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
reflective
fast-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
It was speedy, but an informative read on gender roles, particularly regarding the author's experiences in Nigeria. It uses very understandable prose, so I think this would be a good starter for someone who is just beginning to dip their toes into this subject. For me, it's a bit basic and surface level, so it doesn't leave much of an impression.
Did see a comment saying this author is a terf, so I will be looking into that now. If true, that's extremely disappointing considering the subject matter of this essay. I thought it was clear that gender was a product of human thought and is currently holding us back as a society.
Did see a comment saying this author is a terf, so I will be looking into that now. If true, that's extremely disappointing considering the subject matter of this essay. I thought it was clear that gender was a product of human thought and is currently holding us back as a society.
*The man by Taylor Swift is playing...*
"Of course much of this was tongue-in-cheek, but what it shows is how that word feminist is so
heavy with baggage, negative baggage: you hate men, you hate bras, you hate African culture, you
think women should always be in charge, you don’t wear make-up, you don’t shave, you’re always
angry, you don’t have a sense of humour, you don’t use deodorant."
"If we do something over and over again, it becomes normal. If we see the same thing over and
over again, it becomes normal. If only boys are made class monitor, then at some point we will all
think, even if unconsciously, that the class monitor has to be a boy. If we keep seeing only men as
heads of corporations, it starts to seem ‘natural’ that only men should be heads of corporations."
"Each time they ignore me, I feel invisible. I feel upset. I want to tell them that I am just as human as the man, just as worthy of acknowledgement."
"We spend too much time teaching girls to worry about what boys think of them. But the reverse is
not the case. We don’t teach boys to care about being likeable. We spend too much time telling girls
that they cannot be angry or aggressive or tough, which is bad enough, but then we turn around and either praise or excuse men for the same reasons."
"But by far the worst thing we do to males – by making them feel they have to be hard – is that we
leave them with very fragile egos. The harder a man feels compelled to be, the weaker his ego is.
And then we do a much greater disservice to girls, because we raise them to cater to the fragile
egos of males. We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller."
"Why should a woman’s success be a threat to a man?"
"We make them feel as though by being born female, they are already guilty of something. And so girls grow up to be women who cannot say they have desire."
"I was going to say that perhaps women are born with a cooking gene until I remembered that
the majority of famous cooks in the world – who are given the fancy title of ‘chef’ – are men."
"I am trying to unlearn many lessons of gender I internalized while growing up. But I sometimes still feel vulnerable in the face of gender expectations."
"Some people ask, ‘Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?’ Because that would be dishonest. Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general – but to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender."
"All of us, women and men, must do better."
"Of course much of this was tongue-in-cheek, but what it shows is how that word feminist is so
heavy with baggage, negative baggage: you hate men, you hate bras, you hate African culture, you
think women should always be in charge, you don’t wear make-up, you don’t shave, you’re always
angry, you don’t have a sense of humour, you don’t use deodorant."
"If we do something over and over again, it becomes normal. If we see the same thing over and
over again, it becomes normal. If only boys are made class monitor, then at some point we will all
think, even if unconsciously, that the class monitor has to be a boy. If we keep seeing only men as
heads of corporations, it starts to seem ‘natural’ that only men should be heads of corporations."
"Each time they ignore me, I feel invisible. I feel upset. I want to tell them that I am just as human as the man, just as worthy of acknowledgement."
"We spend too much time teaching girls to worry about what boys think of them. But the reverse is
not the case. We don’t teach boys to care about being likeable. We spend too much time telling girls
that they cannot be angry or aggressive or tough, which is bad enough, but then we turn around and either praise or excuse men for the same reasons."
"But by far the worst thing we do to males – by making them feel they have to be hard – is that we
leave them with very fragile egos. The harder a man feels compelled to be, the weaker his ego is.
And then we do a much greater disservice to girls, because we raise them to cater to the fragile
egos of males. We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller."
"Why should a woman’s success be a threat to a man?"
"We make them feel as though by being born female, they are already guilty of something. And so girls grow up to be women who cannot say they have desire."
"I was going to say that perhaps women are born with a cooking gene until I remembered that
the majority of famous cooks in the world – who are given the fancy title of ‘chef’ – are men."
"I am trying to unlearn many lessons of gender I internalized while growing up. But I sometimes still feel vulnerable in the face of gender expectations."
"Some people ask, ‘Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?’ Because that would be dishonest. Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general – but to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender."
"All of us, women and men, must do better."