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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
I want all the men I know to read this book.
My favourite take away from this book is that the perfect answer to an inappropriate question that is designed to take your power away or topple you is: Why are you asking me that?
I think the beauty of her writing is that she's worked hard to rewrite any anger out of her words so it’s all perfectly reasonable and logical - until I start arguing the points she’s raised in public and I get all angry and defensive. That’s when you see how much effort it must have taken her to write like this.
I found it so interesting to read what she’d written about rape cases. Especially in relation to the Belfast rape case.
‘The law and rapists are not so different. Rape cases bring victims into court where they are treated as untrustworthy, attacked with intrusive, irrelevant and prurient questions, often about her sexual history. Legal authorities often express more concern over the future of rapists than that of victims....
women are instructed that their value is low.’
This too:
‘Female porn users are less likely than others to intervene or recognise when seeing if another woman is being threatened/assaulted and slower to recognise when they’re in danger themselves.’
The other huge takeaway was from David Morris's book on Trauma. Rape victims and soldiers have much in common. Trauma disrupts memory into shards that will not be recognised as a credible story even by the teller. Trauma is often unspeakable so survivors of rape and other atrocitires emerge with fractured stories that are seen as evidence of their unbelievability.
Despite the fact that rape is the most common form of trauma the bulk of PTSD research is directed towards war veterans. Most of what we know about trauma is from men.
On anti abortionists:
"legislation that pretends to focus on the rights of the unborn over the rights of the women in whom the unborn is situated is actually focussed on the rights of men and the state over women's bodies.’’
All in all a gripping, necessary read.
She may need to amend the Louis CK references in the next edition but the Amy Poehler and Bill Cosby references are still spot on.
My favourite take away from this book is that the perfect answer to an inappropriate question that is designed to take your power away or topple you is: Why are you asking me that?
I think the beauty of her writing is that she's worked hard to rewrite any anger out of her words so it’s all perfectly reasonable and logical - until I start arguing the points she’s raised in public and I get all angry and defensive. That’s when you see how much effort it must have taken her to write like this.
I found it so interesting to read what she’d written about rape cases. Especially in relation to the Belfast rape case.
‘The law and rapists are not so different. Rape cases bring victims into court where they are treated as untrustworthy, attacked with intrusive, irrelevant and prurient questions, often about her sexual history. Legal authorities often express more concern over the future of rapists than that of victims....
women are instructed that their value is low.’
This too:
‘Female porn users are less likely than others to intervene or recognise when seeing if another woman is being threatened/assaulted and slower to recognise when they’re in danger themselves.’
The other huge takeaway was from David Morris's book on Trauma. Rape victims and soldiers have much in common. Trauma disrupts memory into shards that will not be recognised as a credible story even by the teller. Trauma is often unspeakable so survivors of rape and other atrocitires emerge with fractured stories that are seen as evidence of their unbelievability.
Despite the fact that rape is the most common form of trauma the bulk of PTSD research is directed towards war veterans. Most of what we know about trauma is from men.
On anti abortionists:
"legislation that pretends to focus on the rights of the unborn over the rights of the women in whom the unborn is situated is actually focussed on the rights of men and the state over women's bodies.’’
All in all a gripping, necessary read.
She may need to amend the Louis CK references in the next edition but the Amy Poehler and Bill Cosby references are still spot on.
Hay que leer a Rebecca Solnit. Qué lista es. Es el primer libro suyo que leo pero no será el último
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
From the essay "Men Explain Lolita to Me":
"The Western world has held up a mirror to [straight white men] for so long-and turns compliant women into mirrors reflecting them back twice life size, Virginia Woolf noted. The rest of us get used to the transgendering and cross-racializing of our identities as we invest in protagonists from Ishmael and David Copperfield to Dirty Harry and Holden Caulfield. But straight white men don't so much. I coined a term a while ago, privelobliviousness, to try to describe the way that being the advantaged one, the represented one, often means being the one who doesn't need to be aware and, often, isn't. Which is a form of loss in its own way."
Solnit, intersectional feminist journalist and advocate for social justice, returns with a series of essays that-calmly, fairly, and with wit-point out that institutional oppression harms each of us in different ways. I always emerge from one of Solnit's books feeling both instructed and galvanized, with a new list of authors to explore and a reminder that every voice matters. It's a necessary balm, as the statistics cited in her works are devastating, and yet we cannot give up hope that there is a better way of living and loving and relating, and it is possibly within reach.
"The Western world has held up a mirror to [straight white men] for so long-and turns compliant women into mirrors reflecting them back twice life size, Virginia Woolf noted. The rest of us get used to the transgendering and cross-racializing of our identities as we invest in protagonists from Ishmael and David Copperfield to Dirty Harry and Holden Caulfield. But straight white men don't so much. I coined a term a while ago, privelobliviousness, to try to describe the way that being the advantaged one, the represented one, often means being the one who doesn't need to be aware and, often, isn't. Which is a form of loss in its own way."
Solnit, intersectional feminist journalist and advocate for social justice, returns with a series of essays that-calmly, fairly, and with wit-point out that institutional oppression harms each of us in different ways. I always emerge from one of Solnit's books feeling both instructed and galvanized, with a new list of authors to explore and a reminder that every voice matters. It's a necessary balm, as the statistics cited in her works are devastating, and yet we cannot give up hope that there is a better way of living and loving and relating, and it is possibly within reach.
An interesting collection of essays by Solnit that sharpened my use of the feminist lens.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
What a legend. Favourite essays were "The Mother of All Questions" and "A Short History of Silence". I want to read everything Solnit has ever written but she's too damn prolific.
4.5 stars mainly because the ideas and topics get repetitive after a bit. Otherwise, intense and interesting!