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A review by chubby_little_butter_books
How to Think Like a Woman: Four Women Philosophers Who Taught Me How to Love the Life of the Mind by Regan Penaluna
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
I haven’t studied philosophy, in part because female and BIOPOC thinkers are not really present in the cannon of philosophical thought. Enter, How to Think Like a Woman.
This book offers great insight into, primarily, four female philosophers essentially forgotten to time. However, many others are mentioned in passing. Penaluna relates the philosophical thought of these many women back to her own, and explains how she applies them to her own life as a woman in academia.
To be honest, it was mostly a relief to hear the thoughts of so many women discussed, validated, and interpreted. So much of the accepted mode of thought, in all aspects of modern life, is influenced and dictated by a few, white, privileged, cis-male voices. To hear stories of women who broke with tradition and defended their right to live as thinking persons and not just baby-making machines made me well up several times. To know that each time a woman, non-binary or trans-feminine person defends our right to be heard and respected, we are joining a tradition of femmes who, while not perfect and influenced by their times, believed our voices to be equally important to a man’s.
Penaluna has done important work and I will be waiting to purchase a physical copy of this book to annotate and keep on my shelf for easy reference and reassurance.
As I listened to the audiobook, I should also mention Angie Kane’s narration was wonderful!
I was given this audiobook as an ARC, in exchange for an honest review.
This book offers great insight into, primarily, four female philosophers essentially forgotten to time. However, many others are mentioned in passing. Penaluna relates the philosophical thought of these many women back to her own, and explains how she applies them to her own life as a woman in academia.
To be honest, it was mostly a relief to hear the thoughts of so many women discussed, validated, and interpreted. So much of the accepted mode of thought, in all aspects of modern life, is influenced and dictated by a few, white, privileged, cis-male voices. To hear stories of women who broke with tradition and defended their right to live as thinking persons and not just baby-making machines made me well up several times. To know that each time a woman, non-binary or trans-feminine person defends our right to be heard and respected, we are joining a tradition of femmes who, while not perfect and influenced by their times, believed our voices to be equally important to a man’s.
Penaluna has done important work and I will be waiting to purchase a physical copy of this book to annotate and keep on my shelf for easy reference and reassurance.
As I listened to the audiobook, I should also mention Angie Kane’s narration was wonderful!
I was given this audiobook as an ARC, in exchange for an honest review.