How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
I need to stop waiting until midnight to try to write a book review. My brain is soup, which means I can’t give this book the due it deserves.
So, let me say it in this very ineloquent way — Caitlin Moran is a bleeping genius, and this book is fricking awesome. Read it now.
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Want a little bit more? Siiiiigh.
This book is basically a collection of memoirish essays about Moran’s life and her thoughts on feminism. Shockingly, she manages to juggle interesting intellectual arguments, political rants (and I mean that in the best way, seriously), and heart wrenching personal stories, while still making the book laugh out loud funny. Having children, not having children, what it’s like to be fat and then not fat, clothes, Lady Gaga, and abortion. It’s all here.
And the overall message of uniting as one gang of “guys” instead of men and women eying each other suspiciously from across the room? Yeah, I can get behind that.
“We need to reclaim the word ‘feminism’. We need the word ‘feminism’ back real bad. When statistics come in saying that only 29% of American women would describe themselves as feminist – and only 42% of British women – I used to think, What do you think feminism IS, ladies? What part of ‘liberation for women’ is not for you? Is it freedom to vote? The right not to be owned by the man you marry? The campaign for equal pay? ‘Vogue’ by Madonna? Jeans? Did all that good shit GET ON YOUR NERVES? Or were you just DRUNK AT THE TIME OF THE SURVEY?”
Yes! This book is so good. I mean it had it’s problems but the awesome parts made up for it.
I also assume any woman who doesn’t identify as feminist just has no clue what the word actually means. Cos like she said, was all the good shit just getting on your nerves?
*claps at you liking this book* CAITLIN IS MY FAVOURITE! And also ^what she said. This one time at uni, our lecturer asked who identified themselves as a feminist, and me and ONE OTHER GIRL put our hands up. I wanted to MURDER everyone.
I thought you’d like this!
And I had the same exact experience! When I was studying at the University of Bristol, I took an Erotic Literature course with about a dozen other women. It’s a pretty liberal class with lots of out there content, so you’d imagine these women would think of themselves as feminists. The teacher asked us who thought of herself as a feminist…me and the one other American girl in the class raised our hands. What. The. Fuck. After that experience, I was surprised to see that according to Moran more British women consider themselves to be feminists than Americans. Maybe it’s just the girls at Bristol, but geez. So weird.