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ninetalevixen 's review for:
Men Explain Things to Me
by Rebecca Solnit
2.5 stars.
Based on the title, I was mostly expecting to read about "mansplaining" (which, by the way, the author explains is not a term she came up with, even if she may have brought attention to the issue), but Solnit makes a really good point about the underlying power imbalance and the slippery slope into gender-based violence. You really can't talk about mansplaining as an isolated phenomenon, because it all goes back to patriarchal norms. It's a symptom rather than disease. That said, I did find myself zoning out a little after the first few essays.
And unfortunately, these essays are limited to a Western (white) cisheteronormative perspective, to say nothing of socioeconomic privilege. Burkas and niqabs are dissected as tools of oppression, beyond a passing mention that some people don't think so. There is barely any mention of the impacts of race or sexuality — apart from how the fight for same-sex marriage is really "for all of us" because gays and lesbians challenge gender roles by ... being in relationships? I wasn't entirely sure what her point was. (What I do know is that transgender individuals weren't mentioned in the discussions on gender, and bisexuals weren't mentioned at all in these essays. And there are problems inherent to queer relationships, some of them related to gender ... but I digress.)
I'm not an expert, but I recall reading that women of color and queer women face even more violence, and I can attest to the addition of racism to everyday sexism as a person of color (and biphobia, but that's another discussion). I do get that not every topic can be covered in a limited essay, or even collection of essays, but the most inclusive that this gets is a discussion on how changing societal views toward gay people [Solnit specifically talks about homophobia] should make us hopeful that we'll eradicate misogyny too.
Solnit talks a lot about the progress we've made "because feminists fought for us". However, feminism isn't a uniform movement, and feminists aren't a monolith. As this essay collection demonstrates, not all feminists (think to) fight for all women. [To say nothing of nonbinary people, or trans men, or anyone else.]
Based on the title, I was mostly expecting to read about "mansplaining" (which, by the way, the author explains is not a term she came up with, even if she may have brought attention to the issue), but Solnit makes a really good point about the underlying power imbalance and the slippery slope into gender-based violence. You really can't talk about mansplaining as an isolated phenomenon, because it all goes back to patriarchal norms. It's a symptom rather than disease. That said, I did find myself zoning out a little after the first few essays.
And unfortunately, these essays are limited to a Western (white) cisheteronormative perspective, to say nothing of socioeconomic privilege. Burkas and niqabs are dissected as tools of oppression, beyond a passing mention that some people don't think so. There is barely any mention of the impacts of race or sexuality — apart from how the fight for same-sex marriage is really "for all of us" because gays and lesbians challenge gender roles by ... being in relationships? I wasn't entirely sure what her point was. (What I do know is that transgender individuals weren't mentioned in the discussions on gender, and bisexuals weren't mentioned at all in these essays. And there are problems inherent to queer relationships, some of them related to gender ... but I digress.)
I'm not an expert, but I recall reading that women of color and queer women face even more violence, and I can attest to the addition of racism to everyday sexism as a person of color (and biphobia, but that's another discussion). I do get that not every topic can be covered in a limited essay, or even collection of essays, but the most inclusive that this gets is a discussion on how changing societal views toward gay people [Solnit specifically talks about homophobia] should make us hopeful that we'll eradicate misogyny too.
Solnit talks a lot about the progress we've made "because feminists fought for us". However, feminism isn't a uniform movement, and feminists aren't a monolith. As this essay collection demonstrates, not all feminists (think to) fight for all women. [To say nothing of nonbinary people, or trans men, or anyone else.]