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jude_holmes_'s review against another edition
4.0
3.5ish A fairly comprehensive insight into the main arguments for why women have it worse, with a few things you might not have had evidence for beforehand and woven together in a messy/incomplete-but okay with it - narrative that revels in not having worked out al the answers yet. While I really enjoyed the style, I think a common criticism will be that it’s neither a “fact-upon-fact-in-your-face tome of non-fiction, nor a sedate story-like memoir-esque thing, but I think it does well somewhere in the middle - accessible with backup.
No book can address all the issues in one fell swoop, however I feel that the nods to intersectional issues of racism and ableism don’t quite do it justice when discussing the next waves. (For those interested, Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race is a good intro to racism and Disability Visibility is a fantastic collection of essays about many facets of living your life with disability). The same theme of neglect runs through discussions of trans people, where it sounds like she doesn’t actually know anyone who is trans, though I suppose there is a part of her that is trying to “stay in her lane” and only discuss things that she has personal authority over, but it’s left me conflicted, perhaps as a difficult woman should?
As is natural with all writings of this type, I found myself resonating with much of it while also reading sentences I disagree with - she states late in the book that feminism is for half the population, I happen to think it is for us all and would have phrased it differently, but I think that’s splitting hairs and overall I would love to hand this book directly to a specific colleague - let’s hope secret Santa is in my favour this year!
No book can address all the issues in one fell swoop, however I feel that the nods to intersectional issues of racism and ableism don’t quite do it justice when discussing the next waves. (For those interested, Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race is a good intro to racism and Disability Visibility is a fantastic collection of essays about many facets of living your life with disability). The same theme of neglect runs through discussions of trans people, where it sounds like she doesn’t actually know anyone who is trans, though I suppose there is a part of her that is trying to “stay in her lane” and only discuss things that she has personal authority over, but it’s left me conflicted, perhaps as a difficult woman should?
As is natural with all writings of this type, I found myself resonating with much of it while also reading sentences I disagree with - she states late in the book that feminism is for half the population, I happen to think it is for us all and would have phrased it differently, but I think that’s splitting hairs and overall I would love to hand this book directly to a specific colleague - let’s hope secret Santa is in my favour this year!
eviereadsallthetime's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
mrslsmith's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
purplewaterbottle's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
I really enjoyed the writing style and the topics discussed in the book, however after reading some of the reviews I found out about some rather problematic beliefs the author has, which made my rating drop a bit. There was a sequence in the book (more or less in the middle) where she started kind of whining about people calling her out and making her look like a bad person. Honestly I think in that situation you just aknowledge it and accept to be held accountable. I haven't found a lot about her past transphobic comments, but some sections about gender did sound controversial.
On a completely useless but worth mentioning side note, I've read the Italian translation and the cover is really pretty
On a completely useless but worth mentioning side note, I've read the Italian translation and the cover is really pretty
majaisabella's review against another edition
2.5
*sigh* this would’ve been a five star read if it hadn’t been for the transphobia and dismissal of POC criticisms of white feminism. Incredibly interesting and engaging but I couldn’t in good conscience rate it any higher than this
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
dystopia's review against another edition
3.0
I feel very conflicted about this book. I didn’t know about the author and her other works or her “controversial” (transphobic) politics before starting this book and it was mostly a good book - the women we learnt about was interesting and chapter topics well chosen - but the “love” chapter put a bad taste in my mouth - I found it heavily cherry-picking a transphobic argument that won’t leave many readers as well informed about the topics covered as they should be.