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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
It was only when I was reading the second edition afterword that I realised how old this book is, and I was surprised. 2002 for the second edition. That's 16 years old from when I am reading it now. And so much hasn't changed, in fact a lot of what she's writing about is just cyclical, and could apply to current events today just as much as what she is describing in her book. Although the kind of changes I want to see are going to take generations.
Anyway, this looks like a naughty book you'd take great joy in reading in public places just to make people's eyebrows go up. And really it's just a body part. This is a feminist rant book, and being written by an American from the west coast, that is the focus and style of the book. So it's not always my thing, not always feeling so relevant, and also, to be honest it makes me glad I live in the country I do. Not that things are perfect here by any long shot, but with my northern British sensibilities, I am more at home here. I don't really do vague vague west-coast goddess rambling talk.
But one of the points (I think) is that we need to reclaim this old Anglo-Saxon word. Here in the UK it is a really crude and loaded word that you can use as the ultimate insult to anyone of any gender. You don't have to have one to be called one. But how is that ok that a female body part is the ultimate insult? And in fairness, it's not just an English language thing. I don't know so many languages, but for instance I know it's a similar case in Swedish and Finnish.
So it's about the biology, reclaiming control (there's a foreword by a woman called Betty Dodson, who says she's been running workshops on masturbation for 25 years. What? That just boggles my mind in so many ways. Again, I'm glad I live where I live), about power control and repression forced by the white male (although not every single man in the world is a hate object), periods, abortions, lesbians, sex shops, prostitutes and all the usual. I found it a little strange that she was so in awe of prostitutes, going on about goddess temples and how these women are so in tune with their bodies and it's all wonderful. Prostitution doesn't have the same positive connotations here; it's more about repression and use of woman as throw away commodities, earning money for male pimps, being controlled by drug addictions, and let's not even get onto the subject of human trafficking. And when it's not all about that, it seems when you find yourself in a disaster area, the charities that come to "save" you will be expecting a little something in return. At least that has been one of the recent scandals in the news.
I'm not sold on the idea of only support/buy from women artists, businesses etc. I guess I'm an idealist, but I'd rather have a world with equal opportunity and equality and diversity. Rather than picking one group and giving them exclusivity as though they're better than everyone else, I'd rather see a massive mix of talent and thought coming from all corners of human society. I don't want to be supported just because I have certain organs. Just as I don't want to be categorised due to one body part. Which I have been dismissed as - still makes my blood boil. To be informed by a former employer that "women" are just a problem to employ because they are "always" going off having babies. I guess he was lucky that as a man he can get the little ladies to go off and do that for him, so he doesn't have to feel bad or like he's letting the side down by wanting to have a family.
Anyway, this is one woman's opinions and thoughts on the matter, and no one's supposed to agree with every single word. But if it gets you thinking, then it's worked. And you've got to admire her enthusiasm. I also really enjoyed her afterword for the second edition. There were times reading the main book when I thought, hey, what about... and those things popped up in the afterword.
In the afterword there's a section when she's writing about the American government that felt poignant, and one could be forgiven for forgetting that this was actually written 16 years ago:
"Americans remind me of survivors of domestic violence. There is always hope that this is the very, very, very last time one's ribs get re-broken again.
There is another way in which this situation reminds me of domestic violence. One of the most popular tactics of an abuser is to isolate their victim from the community. The abuser belittles family, friends and neighbours until they just stop coming around." (p297)
Community - rest of the world. She's talking about the Bush administration. But I was thinking of Trump when I was reading this. I do wonder what she would have written if the afterword was coming today, thinking was what has happened with Trump coming into power, all the sex scandals coming out of Hollywood... Sad to think nothing's changed yet.
Anyway, this looks like a naughty book you'd take great joy in reading in public places just to make people's eyebrows go up. And really it's just a body part. This is a feminist rant book, and being written by an American from the west coast, that is the focus and style of the book. So it's not always my thing, not always feeling so relevant, and also, to be honest it makes me glad I live in the country I do. Not that things are perfect here by any long shot, but with my northern British sensibilities, I am more at home here. I don't really do vague vague west-coast goddess rambling talk.
But one of the points (I think) is that we need to reclaim this old Anglo-Saxon word. Here in the UK it is a really crude and loaded word that you can use as the ultimate insult to anyone of any gender. You don't have to have one to be called one. But how is that ok that a female body part is the ultimate insult? And in fairness, it's not just an English language thing. I don't know so many languages, but for instance I know it's a similar case in Swedish and Finnish.
So it's about the biology, reclaiming control (there's a foreword by a woman called Betty Dodson, who says she's been running workshops on masturbation for 25 years. What? That just boggles my mind in so many ways. Again, I'm glad I live where I live), about power control and repression forced by the white male (although not every single man in the world is a hate object), periods, abortions, lesbians, sex shops, prostitutes and all the usual. I found it a little strange that she was so in awe of prostitutes, going on about goddess temples and how these women are so in tune with their bodies and it's all wonderful. Prostitution doesn't have the same positive connotations here; it's more about repression and use of woman as throw away commodities, earning money for male pimps, being controlled by drug addictions, and let's not even get onto the subject of human trafficking. And when it's not all about that, it seems when you find yourself in a disaster area, the charities that come to "save" you will be expecting a little something in return. At least that has been one of the recent scandals in the news.
I'm not sold on the idea of only support/buy from women artists, businesses etc. I guess I'm an idealist, but I'd rather have a world with equal opportunity and equality and diversity. Rather than picking one group and giving them exclusivity as though they're better than everyone else, I'd rather see a massive mix of talent and thought coming from all corners of human society. I don't want to be supported just because I have certain organs. Just as I don't want to be categorised due to one body part. Which I have been dismissed as - still makes my blood boil. To be informed by a former employer that "women" are just a problem to employ because they are "always" going off having babies. I guess he was lucky that as a man he can get the little ladies to go off and do that for him, so he doesn't have to feel bad or like he's letting the side down by wanting to have a family.
Anyway, this is one woman's opinions and thoughts on the matter, and no one's supposed to agree with every single word. But if it gets you thinking, then it's worked. And you've got to admire her enthusiasm. I also really enjoyed her afterword for the second edition. There were times reading the main book when I thought, hey, what about... and those things popped up in the afterword.
In the afterword there's a section when she's writing about the American government that felt poignant, and one could be forgiven for forgetting that this was actually written 16 years ago:
"Americans remind me of survivors of domestic violence. There is always hope that this is the very, very, very last time one's ribs get re-broken again.
There is another way in which this situation reminds me of domestic violence. One of the most popular tactics of an abuser is to isolate their victim from the community. The abuser belittles family, friends and neighbours until they just stop coming around." (p297)
Community - rest of the world. She's talking about the Bush administration. But I was thinking of Trump when I was reading this. I do wonder what she would have written if the afterword was coming today, thinking was what has happened with Trump coming into power, all the sex scandals coming out of Hollywood... Sad to think nothing's changed yet.
i love you inga!!! ballsy (haha), amazing, honest book. funny and enlightening. if you can get somewhere to hear inga read, do it. you won't be sorry. this was an important book in my life.
One star is doing Muscio a favor at this point. I hate the author as much as I hate the book.
Beginning with the fact that she literally is spreading misinformation about abortion and confusing emergency contraceptives with abortion pills, which is like handing the GOP their ammunition for being "pro-life."
Not to mention she participates in trans-erasure completely and in the second edition published in 2002, she puts a mention in the afterword, treating them like a complete afterthought and othering the entire trans experience. She is also completely and totally ableist, on more than one occasion, and it occurs blatantly.
Inga Muscio is very grossly misinformed, and a lot of the "guidance" she spews in this aside from the tips about alternative DIY feminist articles, this book is a gigantic problematic bible for the average clueless person looking to get into feminism. It is only going to disservice anyone who reads it hoping to come out of it being more progressive and educated. Not to mention she displays a very racist tendency to use words that aren't hers to use at all. She is not at all candid in her transmisogyny and altogether exclusion of trans experience from the larger context of feminism or even existence in general.
If you want to read this book and find out for yourself how irrelevant her writing and her ideas are, don't buy the book. Find it somewhere from someone, borrow it from the library. Don't make the mistake I made of getting your own copy. I threw mine in the garbage as soon as I was finished reading.
Beginning with the fact that she literally is spreading misinformation about abortion and confusing emergency contraceptives with abortion pills, which is like handing the GOP their ammunition for being "pro-life."
Not to mention she participates in trans-erasure completely and in the second edition published in 2002, she puts a mention in the afterword, treating them like a complete afterthought and othering the entire trans experience. She is also completely and totally ableist, on more than one occasion, and it occurs blatantly.
Inga Muscio is very grossly misinformed, and a lot of the "guidance" she spews in this aside from the tips about alternative DIY feminist articles, this book is a gigantic problematic bible for the average clueless person looking to get into feminism. It is only going to disservice anyone who reads it hoping to come out of it being more progressive and educated. Not to mention she displays a very racist tendency to use words that aren't hers to use at all. She is not at all candid in her transmisogyny and altogether exclusion of trans experience from the larger context of feminism or even existence in general.
If you want to read this book and find out for yourself how irrelevant her writing and her ideas are, don't buy the book. Find it somewhere from someone, borrow it from the library. Don't make the mistake I made of getting your own copy. I threw mine in the garbage as soon as I was finished reading.
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE should read this book. I think that women especially should read this book, and I am including biological women, transgendered, or those who identify as women. Inga Muscio writes in an engaging, and often laugh-out-loud way, and that writing style made it hard for me to put this book down. I absolutely LOVE this book, and I am going to recommend the hell out of it to all my cuntlovin' friends!
Changed my young life. Empowers my mid-life.
While this book was well written, the views and the words of this author is completely mindblowing and certifiably unhinged up there in the mental sphere. Too extreme for my liking.
I read this book for my Feminist Book Club. It was ok. I felt that the author could have gotten her point across in 1/3 the number of pages. However, it did bring up some good points that I am looking forward to discussing with my book club.
First off, she writes about an African woman's view of FGM vs what it means to be a woman in America. Though I did lots of research on FGM in college and hope to one day travel to Africa to work with women, I never thought of it the other way. Women in America have to live up to such high standards in beauty yet we are still victims of violence. I have to have my husband walk me from my car to the apt after 8pm because I can be assaulted. I can't walk down dark alleys or certain streets alone by myself. But I can be a lawyer, scientist, doctor, or police officer. And then there is the whole women who hate other women. I've seen it all over. In my family. At work. Among friends. We are so judgmental of each other, instead of being one big supportive family in this rat race. This book got me thinking, sometimes I would much rather be on the lookout for FGM and be taken care of by all the women in my family, than being a scientist and trying to be a size two while my family is constantly critiquing me.
I also thought of the time when my husband was nearly robbed on the Metro in Barcelona. Ever since then, he was so worried about our safety. I'm like, welcome to what it's like being a woman. We always have to watch for our safety, it's like second nature. We have to trust our gut and hope the creepy guy walking by us doesn't assault us!
Another thing she brought up that got me thinking. I bet you $100 the CEO of Tampax is a man. Enough said.
And lastly, why the power struggle in 2011? Why? I thought we were given rights a century ago? Why do men hate us so much?
First off, she writes about an African woman's view of FGM vs what it means to be a woman in America. Though I did lots of research on FGM in college and hope to one day travel to Africa to work with women, I never thought of it the other way. Women in America have to live up to such high standards in beauty yet we are still victims of violence. I have to have my husband walk me from my car to the apt after 8pm because I can be assaulted. I can't walk down dark alleys or certain streets alone by myself. But I can be a lawyer, scientist, doctor, or police officer. And then there is the whole women who hate other women. I've seen it all over. In my family. At work. Among friends. We are so judgmental of each other, instead of being one big supportive family in this rat race. This book got me thinking, sometimes I would much rather be on the lookout for FGM and be taken care of by all the women in my family, than being a scientist and trying to be a size two while my family is constantly critiquing me.
I also thought of the time when my husband was nearly robbed on the Metro in Barcelona. Ever since then, he was so worried about our safety. I'm like, welcome to what it's like being a woman. We always have to watch for our safety, it's like second nature. We have to trust our gut and hope the creepy guy walking by us doesn't assault us!
Another thing she brought up that got me thinking. I bet you $100 the CEO of Tampax is a man. Enough said.
And lastly, why the power struggle in 2011? Why? I thought we were given rights a century ago? Why do men hate us so much?
Pretty fun and engaging feminist thought for its time, but it needs an update because not all women have cunts and not all people with cunts are women. I read it slowly, over quite some while, quite a while back--don't really recall when--but I thought even then that it was sadly outdated by more modern and inclusive intersectional feminist theory.
I LOVE ladies, and I would say I am a feminist, but I am just not into some of the crazy things Inga is saying.