Take a photo of a barcode or cover
larrys 's review for:
Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny
by Kate Manne
I drafted a really long review but honestly, I can't do it justice. You really just have to read the original words -- words which, incidentally, won the 2019 Prose award in the philosophy section. (The last time a woman won was 2009).
Instead I'll write about the *experience* of reading this book.
Reading Down Girl is a bit like reading a book on the climate change disaster -- the book convinces, and then you're left with... fuck, now what? Kate Manne writes in the conclusion, 'you may be of a similar mind to mine and feel frustrated by the apathy, indifference, and pernicious ignorance of most people.' YES! YES I DO, actually, and now this book just makes that whole deal WORSE.
Several things happened politically while I was reading this which had me thinking of specific passages from this book. (The whole thing is covered in chartreuse -- don't worry, it's my own copy.)
Personally, I tweeted about this book and got a taste of what public feminists have to put up with when Manne retweeted it and some shit stick BSc (Phil) dudebro came on to try and tell us were were all wrong, wrong, wrong. Spoiler alert: He hadn't read Kate Manne's (PhD) book before arguing with her.
I didn't have the rose coloured glasses on before I read this. I've read a lot of feminist stuff. I think about things in a feminist way. But reading a philosopher's take is different, because as Manne herself says in the beginning, most feminists come from different fields -- sociology, psychology, neurobiology -- in my case, literature.
I experience catharsis and solidarity that someone else hates *The Giving Tree* and *Gone Girl* as much as I hate them, for the EXACT same reasons. That was nice. It was nice to have someone articulate so clearly WHY I hate them. I wonder if Manne has read Australian picture book *The Very Cranky Bear* by Nick Bland because I have exactly the same problem with it, yet I was one of a very small handful of people that year who disapproved of this books' selection for Australia's National Simultaneous Storytime, read by pretty much every single Australian child was was schooled back in 2013. Misogyny starts young.
Almost everyone else loves *The Very Cranky Bear*. (Because if kids love it, it must be great, right?)
Can no one else even see there's something wrong with a sheep giving up her fleece to keep a cranky male character happy? Can no one else see that Bland's gendering of the animals was no accident? I feel alone a lot of the time in response to my own area of interest, children's books, and Kate Manne's book has given me the confidence to keep thinking these things I already think about books which ruin their own selves.
I'm right. There are no opinions here. When the laws of misogyny are set down in this manner, by someone highly trained in logic, a response to any given text no longer seems like 'a matter of opinion'.
Speaking of children's books, there's a chapter in one of the Wishing Chair books by Enid Blyton. The chair becomes invisible somehow. Molly and Peter must find paint and repaint the chair so it becomes re-visible. Reading *Down Girl* is a lot like that scene. I feel there's this network of power right below us, around us, above us, and Kate Manne just put re-visible paint all over it. She paints with words.
My rose coloured glasses were already off, but now I feel like I am seeing misogyny in technicolour. Read at your peril. This requires fortitude.
And those who most need to read it won't.
Instead I'll write about the *experience* of reading this book.
Reading Down Girl is a bit like reading a book on the climate change disaster -- the book convinces, and then you're left with... fuck, now what? Kate Manne writes in the conclusion, 'you may be of a similar mind to mine and feel frustrated by the apathy, indifference, and pernicious ignorance of most people.' YES! YES I DO, actually, and now this book just makes that whole deal WORSE.
Several things happened politically while I was reading this which had me thinking of specific passages from this book. (The whole thing is covered in chartreuse -- don't worry, it's my own copy.)
Personally, I tweeted about this book and got a taste of what public feminists have to put up with when Manne retweeted it and some shit stick BSc (Phil) dudebro came on to try and tell us were were all wrong, wrong, wrong. Spoiler alert: He hadn't read Kate Manne's (PhD) book before arguing with her.
I didn't have the rose coloured glasses on before I read this. I've read a lot of feminist stuff. I think about things in a feminist way. But reading a philosopher's take is different, because as Manne herself says in the beginning, most feminists come from different fields -- sociology, psychology, neurobiology -- in my case, literature.
I experience catharsis and solidarity that someone else hates *The Giving Tree* and *Gone Girl* as much as I hate them, for the EXACT same reasons. That was nice. It was nice to have someone articulate so clearly WHY I hate them. I wonder if Manne has read Australian picture book *The Very Cranky Bear* by Nick Bland because I have exactly the same problem with it, yet I was one of a very small handful of people that year who disapproved of this books' selection for Australia's National Simultaneous Storytime, read by pretty much every single Australian child was was schooled back in 2013. Misogyny starts young.
Almost everyone else loves *The Very Cranky Bear*. (Because if kids love it, it must be great, right?)
Can no one else even see there's something wrong with a sheep giving up her fleece to keep a cranky male character happy? Can no one else see that Bland's gendering of the animals was no accident? I feel alone a lot of the time in response to my own area of interest, children's books, and Kate Manne's book has given me the confidence to keep thinking these things I already think about books which ruin their own selves.
I'm right. There are no opinions here. When the laws of misogyny are set down in this manner, by someone highly trained in logic, a response to any given text no longer seems like 'a matter of opinion'.
Speaking of children's books, there's a chapter in one of the Wishing Chair books by Enid Blyton. The chair becomes invisible somehow. Molly and Peter must find paint and repaint the chair so it becomes re-visible. Reading *Down Girl* is a lot like that scene. I feel there's this network of power right below us, around us, above us, and Kate Manne just put re-visible paint all over it. She paints with words.
My rose coloured glasses were already off, but now I feel like I am seeing misogyny in technicolour. Read at your peril. This requires fortitude.
And those who most need to read it won't.