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A review by jassmine
Feminisms: A Global History by Lucy Delap
4.0
I'm kind of freaking out, because I'm starting my Masters (in gender studies) in a month. So... I'm reading a lot of feminist books. ... I read this one on audio, so I don't really remember as much as I would like to. (I listened to a biggest chunk while cleaning our kitchen... I'm enjoying the beautiful irony of listening to feminist ideas while doing chores way too much...)
1.First of all, I need to appreciate the unbelievable amount of work that had to go into this book. The scape is unbelievable. The amount of cultures and countries mentioned is massive. Delap usually uses some US/British/other well known persons/events/etc. to mirror the lesser known parts of the movement(s) all around the world. Which might seem as undermining the point of the book, but I actually found it very useful as solid points to take hold of her meanings.
2.Delap is pretty good (as far as I can tell) at calling out the specific feminists for their biases, but she occasionally fails. She opens the book with [a:Adichie|19992417|Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1628721308p2/19992417.jpg] without mentioning that she is gender critical/trans-exclusionary feminist. She also once uses the term "born women" for describing cis-women (which isn't ideal) and closes the book with saying that the clashing currents of feminisms are good for the movement - with which I can generally agree, but when put in practice means that trans-exclusionary feminism is bringing something good to the movements with which I can't agree. To be completely clear, I don't think that Delap is transphobic in any way, she is openly supportive of trans rights in this work, she just isn't as mindful of the subject as I would have liked - especially since she is (as far as I can tell) diligent when it comes to racism and colonialism. (No one is perfect. It's fine. I just wanted to leave it out there. Edit: A lot of other reviewers are commenting on this, some of them calling her transphobic, which I think isn't entirely fair, but she didn't really do her homework on the subject properly.)
3.The whole book is of course very selective - in its themes and the people it chooses to represent, but Delap reflects on that and I can't possibly see how it could have been done differently. There were sections I wasn't the biggest fan of - the celebration of tampons (? this seems very American, idk) and eventually sea sponges, like... no, thank you. The menstrual products are an important feminist theme, but the take here felt a bit useless. I liked the mention of use of tampons in art/fashion though because I didn't hear about that before.
4. This book also gave me some interesting thoughts on calling someone "feminist" vs. "an ally". It firmly stands on the position that men can be feminists too - with which I theoretically agree, but sometimes in practice... it seems, just strange (I don't know). The idea of calling oneself a feminist ally while dealing with issues that really don't affect me is kind of appealing to me... (Have to thought more on that...
I am absolutely sure I wanted to mention some more of my brain farts, but I can't remember now, so... I'm just going to post this and edit it in later, because this review is a mess anyway
1.First of all, I need to appreciate the unbelievable amount of work that had to go into this book. The scape is unbelievable. The amount of cultures and countries mentioned is massive. Delap usually uses some US/British/other well known persons/events/etc. to mirror the lesser known parts of the movement(s) all around the world. Which might seem as undermining the point of the book, but I actually found it very useful as solid points to take hold of her meanings.
2.Delap is pretty good (as far as I can tell) at calling out the specific feminists for their biases, but she occasionally fails. She opens the book with [a:Adichie|19992417|Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1628721308p2/19992417.jpg] without mentioning that she is gender critical/trans-exclusionary feminist. She also once uses the term "born women" for describing cis-women (which isn't ideal) and closes the book with saying that the clashing currents of feminisms are good for the movement - with which I can generally agree, but when put in practice means that trans-exclusionary feminism is bringing something good to the movements with which I can't agree. To be completely clear, I don't think that Delap is transphobic in any way, she is openly supportive of trans rights in this work, she just isn't as mindful of the subject as I would have liked - especially since she is (as far as I can tell) diligent when it comes to racism and colonialism. (No one is perfect. It's fine. I just wanted to leave it out there. Edit: A lot of other reviewers are commenting on this, some of them calling her transphobic, which I think isn't entirely fair, but she didn't really do her homework on the subject properly.)
3.The whole book is of course very selective - in its themes and the people it chooses to represent, but Delap reflects on that and I can't possibly see how it could have been done differently. There were sections I wasn't the biggest fan of - the celebration of tampons (? this seems very American, idk) and eventually sea sponges, like... no, thank you. The menstrual products are an important feminist theme, but the take here felt a bit useless. I liked the mention of use of tampons in art/fashion though because I didn't hear about that before.
4. This book also gave me some interesting thoughts on calling someone "feminist" vs. "an ally". It firmly stands on the position that men can be feminists too - with which I theoretically agree, but sometimes in practice... it seems, just strange (I don't know). The idea of calling oneself a feminist ally while dealing with issues that really don't affect me is kind of appealing to me... (Have to thought more on that...
I am absolutely sure I wanted to mention some more of my brain farts, but I can't remember now, so... I'm just going to post this and edit it in later, because this review is a mess anyway