Scan barcode
A review by vicgolding
Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed
3.0
I’m not yet used to her style of writing, which gradually became repetitive, monotone and tiresome, leading me to speed read the rest after a while. But since this could be due to the fact that I’m a nonacademic, my level of proficiency doesn’t seem to be enough to criticise this, so I can’t necessarily say it’s bad writing.
The least I can say however is that she’s tackling a very complex, abstract and mystified subject, which on one hand added to the strain, but on the other exposes how difficult it actually is to adapt personal experiences to theory and I do admire the work she puts into spelling out the whole process. It urges me to reflect on my own feminist becoming, my own experiences of inequality and how these can be applied to making arguments.
And I have to be honest... before I started reading, I first thought the book was going to be an actual instruction manual to living a feminist life! :P But the “Killjoy Survival Kit” and “Killjoy Manifesto” are saved for last and make up only a small fraction of the book.
So in some way I was set up for disappointment from the get-go, but I’m still grateful for the few nuggets and nudges I was able to pick up on the way.
The least I can say however is that she’s tackling a very complex, abstract and mystified subject, which on one hand added to the strain, but on the other exposes how difficult it actually is to adapt personal experiences to theory and I do admire the work she puts into spelling out the whole process. It urges me to reflect on my own feminist becoming, my own experiences of inequality and how these can be applied to making arguments.
And I have to be honest... before I started reading, I first thought the book was going to be an actual instruction manual to living a feminist life! :P But the “Killjoy Survival Kit” and “Killjoy Manifesto” are saved for last and make up only a small fraction of the book.
So in some way I was set up for disappointment from the get-go, but I’m still grateful for the few nuggets and nudges I was able to pick up on the way.