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A review by katielanza
The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness by Jill Filipovic
4.0
One one hand this book is not particularly novel to feminists. Most of us have heard and largely agree on these ideas. But on the other it is incredibly well researched and brings together so many details that satisfy you with feeling recognized (the ‘yes! I’ve experienced that too/always thought that’ moments). As well, the idea that focusing policy on pleasure and happiness rather than equality is something I have not heard as a mainstream argument. As for the writing itself: She also brings up some great ironies, rights common misconceptions, and gives a reasonable solution that bolsters women’s pleasure.
One of my favorite examples that culminates all of this: women cook ~70% of the meals in the US but don’t get to enjoy the pleasure of eating them because we have so much guilt about food and weight and health and eating ‘good’ foods. At the same time, we have all this processed food that’s making us sicker, and people think feminism (taking women out of the kitchen and into the workplace) brought on the packaged food industry (more working hours = fewer cooking hours = more ‘instant’ food). But the industry actually came about in the 50s when women were still ‘in the kitchen’ and were expected to entertain at a moments notice, and hence hello and boxed cake was touted as the homemakers solution (surprise: sexism, not feminism, makes things worse). The actual solution to this all could be in several changes: we drastically change our narrative around food and health (and thus health education as well), all adults in the household could contribute to cooking (somehow still a radical thought), we could reduce working hours/change them to give adults the time to both work and cook a nutritious meal, we can pay people enough to purchase nutritious food (again, radical), and food assistance could be expanded to increase access to nutritious food.
One of my favorite examples that culminates all of this: women cook ~70% of the meals in the US but don’t get to enjoy the pleasure of eating them because we have so much guilt about food and weight and health and eating ‘good’ foods. At the same time, we have all this processed food that’s making us sicker, and people think feminism (taking women out of the kitchen and into the workplace) brought on the packaged food industry (more working hours = fewer cooking hours = more ‘instant’ food). But the industry actually came about in the 50s when women were still ‘in the kitchen’ and were expected to entertain at a moments notice, and hence hello and boxed cake was touted as the homemakers solution (surprise: sexism, not feminism, makes things worse). The actual solution to this all could be in several changes: we drastically change our narrative around food and health (and thus health education as well), all adults in the household could contribute to cooking (somehow still a radical thought), we could reduce working hours/change them to give adults the time to both work and cook a nutritious meal, we can pay people enough to purchase nutritious food (again, radical), and food assistance could be expanded to increase access to nutritious food.