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_walter_ 's review for:
So You've Been Publicly Shamed
by Jon Ronson
Public Shaming: *exists*
Jon Ronson: "Hmmm...sound like something I could write about..."
Ronson's thesis: *having an existential crisis*
Definitive Conclusions: *taking a day off*
An alternative title for this book could have been: "Dispatches from the Land of Opprobria". As such, what you'll mostly find here are Twitter-centric stories told in an uninteresting voice, spun for consumption by a Millenial/Gen-Z crowd that is quick on the trigger in finding things offensive for sport. Granted, some of the stories recounted herein display a monumental lack of taste on behalf of the guilty parties, however, I get the sense some of these would have been brushed off in a time and/or culture much less obsessed with being the first to tweet.
One of the things that bothers me the most about this book is that for all the "research" Ronson did, and all the "experts" he talked to, he somehow managed to miss "the" story when it comes to public shaming: the Monica Lewinski scandal. This is an unacceptable oversight. For the life of me, I cannot comprehend why he would not deem it important to explore the shame dynamics in what was, and still is, a very disproportionate allocation of shame capital towards the woman in this story. Decades later, only one of the parties involved can be said to have successfully shaken the stigma. In a recent interview with John Oliver, Lewinski was asked if she ever thought about changing her name and why she ultimately didn't go through with it. To this, she responded that no one is asking Bill Clinton the same question, clearly pointing to a cruel disparity in society's expectations regarding how men and women ought to address post public-shaming identity reconstruction.
However, the biggest issue I have with Ronson's work is that he is ultimately inconclusive about his findings. His social commentary is trite and light in substance, and his meandering in some chapters lead to argumentative dead-ends that will probably have you wonder if Ronson put them in just to be able to expense the costs involved.
Cannot recommend.
Jon Ronson: "Hmmm...sound like something I could write about..."
Ronson's thesis: *having an existential crisis*
Definitive Conclusions: *taking a day off*
An alternative title for this book could have been: "Dispatches from the Land of Opprobria". As such, what you'll mostly find here are Twitter-centric stories told in an uninteresting voice, spun for consumption by a Millenial/Gen-Z crowd that is quick on the trigger in finding things offensive for sport. Granted, some of the stories recounted herein display a monumental lack of taste on behalf of the guilty parties, however, I get the sense some of these would have been brushed off in a time and/or culture much less obsessed with being the first to tweet.
One of the things that bothers me the most about this book is that for all the "research" Ronson did, and all the "experts" he talked to, he somehow managed to miss "the" story when it comes to public shaming: the Monica Lewinski scandal. This is an unacceptable oversight. For the life of me, I cannot comprehend why he would not deem it important to explore the shame dynamics in what was, and still is, a very disproportionate allocation of shame capital towards the woman in this story. Decades later, only one of the parties involved can be said to have successfully shaken the stigma. In a recent interview with John Oliver, Lewinski was asked if she ever thought about changing her name and why she ultimately didn't go through with it. To this, she responded that no one is asking Bill Clinton the same question, clearly pointing to a cruel disparity in society's expectations regarding how men and women ought to address post public-shaming identity reconstruction.
However, the biggest issue I have with Ronson's work is that he is ultimately inconclusive about his findings. His social commentary is trite and light in substance, and his meandering in some chapters lead to argumentative dead-ends that will probably have you wonder if Ronson put them in just to be able to expense the costs involved.
Cannot recommend.