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A review by makz_marie
Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger by Soraya Chemaly
3.0
I want to start off by saying that in my heart of hearts this was probably a two star read, but I'm as taken in by optics as anyone else and the visual of a mere two stars felt unbearably mean. if anything, I can justify the third by pointing out the sheer number of times Chemaly skewers "choice feminism," which deserves to be skewered, and say she earned it for that alone.
there's also the fact that there's nothing technically wrong in the execution of this book, which is impassioned, easily readable, and well-researched in a variety of topics. for me, I suppose, the largest shortcoming was that I'm at a point in my life where it all felt very basic, like a collection of what I studied in my introductory gender and women's studies classes. at one point I described it to my roommate as such: normally when I read nonfiction I prefer to have some choice moments of delighted surprise as I see ideas connected in a way I've never encountered before, a bit of "oh, DAMN!" if you will. Rage Becomes Her was a steady stream of nodding and agreeing, without that thrilling moment of watching new ideas explode in my head like fireworks.
does this mean it's a bad book? not at all, and since I'm trying to buckle down to really get back into reading nonfic, especially feministy nonfic, it felt like a great starting place, some familiar stretches before I start training for a marathon.
(the marathon being, you know, Butler, Collins, Bartky, etc. not an actual marathon, I hate running.)
tl;dr give this to an 18 year old who's learning baby's first feminism, she needs it more than I do.
there's also the fact that there's nothing technically wrong in the execution of this book, which is impassioned, easily readable, and well-researched in a variety of topics. for me, I suppose, the largest shortcoming was that I'm at a point in my life where it all felt very basic, like a collection of what I studied in my introductory gender and women's studies classes. at one point I described it to my roommate as such: normally when I read nonfiction I prefer to have some choice moments of delighted surprise as I see ideas connected in a way I've never encountered before, a bit of "oh, DAMN!" if you will. Rage Becomes Her was a steady stream of nodding and agreeing, without that thrilling moment of watching new ideas explode in my head like fireworks.
does this mean it's a bad book? not at all, and since I'm trying to buckle down to really get back into reading nonfic, especially feministy nonfic, it felt like a great starting place, some familiar stretches before I start training for a marathon.
(the marathon being, you know, Butler, Collins, Bartky, etc. not an actual marathon, I hate running.)
tl;dr give this to an 18 year old who's learning baby's first feminism, she needs it more than I do.