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ninetalevixen 's review for:
(Won through a Goodreads giveaway! Thank you to Random House Publishing Group for sending me a free copy.)
Visually, this book is gorgeous, with its Baker-Miller pink cover and varied fonts — itself a symbol of the duality associated with feminism, that you can be both pretty and clever. But while this book is a functional primer on feminism, and a reassurance that you can't really do it "wrong" if you do your research and have good intentions, I would primarily recommend it to pre-/early-teenage girls who either have yet to discover or have newly discovered feminism and are not quite sure where to start.
A lot of voices are represented in this collection, but most of them focus on the gender binary and ignore the various facets of intersectionality. There's a single essay from a trans writer and a handful of objective reviews of the past and present waves of feminism, but racial and socioeconomic disparity still seems to be a blind spot for many. The subtitle is very true ("amazing women on what the f-word means to them"), but I wish they'd found more diverse writers. Some of the writers focus on their personal journey/experiences, others on empowerment in the abstract, others on the concrete steps they're taking to uphold their own brand of feminism; but in general it's just too broad, and a lot of the essays end up sounding almost exactly the same.
Look, I totally understand not wanting to scare off budding feminists by getting into all the controversies and debates. But as a bisexual Asian-American girl, I'm just disappointed that I still don't quite feel seen in these "inclusive" spaces.
As you set off, don't forget that 'feminism' never means just one thing. There are tangible successes in the history of the movement that we can and should celebrate, there are problems that haven't quite gone away, and tensions, debates, and issues that continue to resurface. But, in the midst of this, remember that you can be excited too! There are so many different ideas for you to chase, so many feminist tasks to take up, and so much space for you to make your own intervention.
Visually, this book is gorgeous, with its Baker-Miller pink cover and varied fonts — itself a symbol of the duality associated with feminism, that you can be both pretty and clever. But while this book is a functional primer on feminism, and a reassurance that you can't really do it "wrong" if you do your research and have good intentions, I would primarily recommend it to pre-/early-teenage girls who either have yet to discover or have newly discovered feminism and are not quite sure where to start.
A lot of voices are represented in this collection, but most of them focus on the gender binary and ignore the various facets of intersectionality. There's a single essay from a trans writer and a handful of objective reviews of the past and present waves of feminism, but racial and socioeconomic disparity still seems to be a blind spot for many. The subtitle is very true ("amazing women on what the f-word means to them"), but I wish they'd found more diverse writers. Some of the writers focus on their personal journey/experiences, others on empowerment in the abstract, others on the concrete steps they're taking to uphold their own brand of feminism; but in general it's just too broad, and a lot of the essays end up sounding almost exactly the same.
Look, I totally understand not wanting to scare off budding feminists by getting into all the controversies and debates. But as a bisexual Asian-American girl, I'm just disappointed that I still don't quite feel seen in these "inclusive" spaces.