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I disagreed with most of the content in this book. Sometimes, I feel like certain women in America are living in completely different worlds from one another—not because of circumstance or physical location, but because of ideology. This book is an example of that.
That being said, I read this book in order to better understand one of those strange worlds I don’t live in: A Marxist world where everything about society can be sliced apart into micro-categories of oppression and privilege; where the 2016 election was this valiant battle of good and evil in the form of women’s empowerment vs. misogyny; where those who disliked Hillary Clinton largely did so for sexist reasons; where Clinton represented all that was new and progressive and forward-moving, and Trump represented all that was old and familiar and backwards (where I believe a solid argument can be made for the inverse); where Trump was elected largely by racists who were bitter over having a black man in the White House for eight years (when the data shows that many people who voted for Trump also voted for Obama); where Clinton’s defeat was a soul-crushing, tragic, even traumatizing affront for women in this country; etc., etc.
Reading this book certainly didn’t draw me into that world, though of course that wasn’t the intention at all—it’s a preach-to-the-choir type book that’s intended to pump up the #Resist activist crowd. As such, I spent much of the book either shaking or scratching my head, but I can say that it helped me to understand its audience a little bit better.
Furthermore, there were a few essays in here that, while I might not have 100% agreed with them, I found thought-provoking, memorable, and well-crafted. They are as follows:
• Advice to Grace in Ghana by Jill Filipovic: A potent reminder of how ideologically-driven policies can have damaging ripple effects on the lives of everyday people.
• Is There Ever a Right Time to Talk to Your Children About Fascism? by Kera Bolonik: This was just so cute, despite the dark subject matter.
• Country Crock by Samantha Irby: A pretty funny and overall enjoyable-to-read essay, which is, again, in spite of the dark subject matter. This writer did an excellent job handling a serious topic with a digestible dose of humor. (Although I have to add, I got rather angry when she referred to conservative blacks as “self-hating.” Can you not? Ughhhh)
• Refusing to Numb the Pain by Sarah Hepola: Just an overall well-written piece. I also appreciated the graceful, humanizing way this writer thinks about people who have differing political views from her. We could all use more of that perspective.
• The Pathology of Donald Trump by Sady Doyle: An EXCELLENT essay, easily the best part of the book, about why we should stop equating “mentally ill” with “evil.” Also, it helped me understand why the 2016 election was so distressing for a lot of people: Some of Trump’s behavior resembles that of an abuser, and for people who have been subject to certain kinds of abuse, it’s been deeply disturbing to see those patterns in the most powerful political leader on Earth. Fair enough.
• Nasty Native Women by Mary Kathryn Nagle: I learned some history about Native sovereignty, the court + executive decisions over the last two centuries that have undermined it, and the way these decisions have made Native people more vulnerable to abuse and criminal behavior from non-Native predators. I think it’s important for more Americans to understand this.
• All-American by Nicole Chung: A beautifully-crafted story about one woman's experiences as an adopted child who was, consequently, the only POC in an all-white family, and how she navigated political differences with her family as an adult.
tl;dr If you don't subscribe to a certain political framework, you won't connect with much of this book. However, it still has some gems. And if you (like me) like to read outside your own worldview, and are interested in learning from/coming to better understand those who see things differently (in this case, the perspectives of #Resisters), then it's worthwhile to at least skim through this book.
That being said, I read this book in order to better understand one of those strange worlds I don’t live in: A Marxist world where everything about society can be sliced apart into micro-categories of oppression and privilege; where the 2016 election was this valiant battle of good and evil in the form of women’s empowerment vs. misogyny; where those who disliked Hillary Clinton largely did so for sexist reasons; where Clinton represented all that was new and progressive and forward-moving, and Trump represented all that was old and familiar and backwards (where I believe a solid argument can be made for the inverse); where Trump was elected largely by racists who were bitter over having a black man in the White House for eight years (when the data shows that many people who voted for Trump also voted for Obama); where Clinton’s defeat was a soul-crushing, tragic, even traumatizing affront for women in this country; etc., etc.
Reading this book certainly didn’t draw me into that world, though of course that wasn’t the intention at all—it’s a preach-to-the-choir type book that’s intended to pump up the #Resist activist crowd. As such, I spent much of the book either shaking or scratching my head, but I can say that it helped me to understand its audience a little bit better.
Furthermore, there were a few essays in here that, while I might not have 100% agreed with them, I found thought-provoking, memorable, and well-crafted. They are as follows:
• Advice to Grace in Ghana by Jill Filipovic: A potent reminder of how ideologically-driven policies can have damaging ripple effects on the lives of everyday people.
• Is There Ever a Right Time to Talk to Your Children About Fascism? by Kera Bolonik: This was just so cute, despite the dark subject matter.
• Country Crock by Samantha Irby: A pretty funny and overall enjoyable-to-read essay, which is, again, in spite of the dark subject matter. This writer did an excellent job handling a serious topic with a digestible dose of humor. (Although I have to add, I got rather angry when she referred to conservative blacks as “self-hating.” Can you not? Ughhhh)
• Refusing to Numb the Pain by Sarah Hepola: Just an overall well-written piece. I also appreciated the graceful, humanizing way this writer thinks about people who have differing political views from her. We could all use more of that perspective.
• The Pathology of Donald Trump by Sady Doyle: An EXCELLENT essay, easily the best part of the book, about why we should stop equating “mentally ill” with “evil.” Also, it helped me understand why the 2016 election was so distressing for a lot of people: Some of Trump’s behavior resembles that of an abuser, and for people who have been subject to certain kinds of abuse, it’s been deeply disturbing to see those patterns in the most powerful political leader on Earth. Fair enough.
• Nasty Native Women by Mary Kathryn Nagle: I learned some history about Native sovereignty, the court + executive decisions over the last two centuries that have undermined it, and the way these decisions have made Native people more vulnerable to abuse and criminal behavior from non-Native predators. I think it’s important for more Americans to understand this.
• All-American by Nicole Chung: A beautifully-crafted story about one woman's experiences as an adopted child who was, consequently, the only POC in an all-white family, and how she navigated political differences with her family as an adult.
tl;dr If you don't subscribe to a certain political framework, you won't connect with much of this book. However, it still has some gems. And if you (like me) like to read outside your own worldview, and are interested in learning from/coming to better understand those who see things differently (in this case, the perspectives of #Resisters), then it's worthwhile to at least skim through this book.