I was unable to march yesterday because I had to work so I opted to read Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me, a collection of feminist essays, instead. This a powerful collection but I think the most powerful punch was just how dated it seemed despite being published only 3 years ago. There is no Trump or Weinstein and while there is a well crafted essay on #yesallwomen it felt lacking in a world where #metoo and the Time’s Up initiative have had such widespread coverage […]
Rebecca Explains it All (In a Good Way!)
3.5 stars, rounding down because when I think back on it (I finished it a few weeks ago), the things that bugged me stick out more than the things that didn’t. This might’ve been a four star book for me if I’d checked at all on what it actually was. I’d hoped it would be a deeper dive into the title concept, aka “mainsplaining” (although Solnit herself did not coin that term and is not a fan of it). The title essay was fantastic, so […]
“Some women get erased a little at a time, some all at once. Some reappear. Every woman who appears wrestles with the forces that would have her disappear.”
I do not really do New Year’s resolutions, but my informal one this year was to read more about topics I should be more informed about, and specifically more feminist reads. As with most of the good things I read these days, Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit was already on my radar thanks to Cannonballers. I was familiar with the eponymous essay’s conceit: that Solnit was treated to an older gentleman explaining her book to her without realizing that she had written […]