In a book with a title that could well have (and sometimes has) been specifically directed at me, Anne Helen Petersen – a woman who regularly brightens up my internet reading – takes a look at how the behaviour of women is policed by society, using the lens of celebrity. With each chapter focusing on a different female celebrity – with a cast including an athlete, singer, politician, reality TV star and more – Petersen looks at the various aspects of their characters that have […]
Ringing out 2017 with one more feminist work
I have read numerous works this year trying to understand the world we live in today. Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud falls squarely in the middle of the pack of a year loaded with politically charged books like What Happened?, On Tyranny and Unbelievable as well as more feminist charged books like We Should All Be Feminists and Hunger. “She should be assertive but not bossy, feminine but not prissy, experienced but not condescending, fashionable but not superficial, forceful but not shrill. Put simply: she should be masculine, but not too masculine; feminine, but […]
YASSSS QUEEN
Between Katy Tur’s Trump book, this fantastic collection of biographies, and Elizabeth Warren’s This Fight Is Our Fight (review forthcoming), I have read some excellent works by some pissed off women lately. And I’m loving it. “She should be assertive but not bossy, feminine but not prissy, experienced but not condescending, fashionable but not superficial, forceful but not shrill. Put simply: she should be masculine, but not too masculine; feminine, but not too feminine. She should be everything, which means she should be nothing.” Petersen uses this […]
I had some feelings
Best for: Those interested in a detailed analysis of the different ways women are seen as not conforming (unless you’re interested in those who are too old – that chapter was not great). In a nutshell: Buzzfeed writer Petersen looks at ten different women and how each can be an example of being too ‘something’ that women aren’t meant to be, and how they use that to subvert the system. Line that sticks with me: “To call Clinton ‘too’ anything is to authenticate and fortify […]