Beauvoir was always opposed to any feminism that championed women’s special virtues or values, firmly rejecting any idealization of specificaly ‘feminine’ traits. To support that kind of feminism, she argued, would imply agreement with: “a myth invented by men to confine women to their oppressed state. For women it is not a question of asseting themselves as women, but of becoming full-scale human beings”
This is another book from the “a very short introduction” series – and, though some have proved better than others, they have yet to displease. This is one of the many books that I’ve left for a while to review, in fact the numbers of books that I’ve not reviewed has impeded my progress since it just seems like an insurmountable amount to get though even if I haven’t actually read THAT many books for me to write about, tackling it is a bit harder. I’ve been very tired and depressed recently so finding motivation has a bit of a struggle and things like maintaining this blog fall by the wayside. My mental state has improved now though, and whilst I spend most my time with my partner or at work, I did say I would be doing a review a week, and this I will try and stick too, though I might end up outpacing my reading speed with reviews.
Before really digging into this work I must comment on the catch 22 situation I’ve found myself in as a man reviewing a book on feminism that mansplaining seems hard to avoid. So I’m not unaware of the factors at play and that some people will be really just trying to comb through and fault find this.
Now the problem with the short introduction series can well be that if you are familiar enough with a topic, it will seem only to scratch its surface. And this was my problem with this book. Well, that and: A.) It’s from 2005. There have been shifts of emphasis in the feminist movement within the past decade. Especially the impact of the internet has changed the dynamics completely. I’d characterise the book as informative but outdated
B.) I demanded a tad too much from this book, and was invariably disappointed.
Now, don’t get me wrong, this is a good – and for some people, essential start on feminism. I’ve already read some of the source material, and have to highlight what I see as the authors essential strength and weakness: her specialism. This is not a feminist sociologist or philosophor. This is a feminist who specialises in English – and when talking about novels and the like she is very strong, and she recounts the history of feminism is a fairly balanced light, I especially enjoyed the proto-intersectionalist slant that comes from her acknowledging contributions from people of colour and the accusations of a dominant strain of “white feminism”. What this book is not is an analysis of sexism in society, though the problems are alluded to – there is not for instance, statistics concerning the wage gap. This is rather a history (from religious roots of feminism - esp within quakerism - to modern theorists and movements today) and exposition of feminism the movement itself. The suffragists and suffragettes. I needn’t spell out the details of all this book contains. I was estatic to see a mention of Alexandria Kollentai and Emma Goldstone.
One thing I must object to is Emily Davisons presentation in this book. Facts have come to light that suggest this activist never intended to become a matyr, having a return ticket in her bag. Walters describes her as “sacraficing herself to the cause” “throwing herself under the kings horse” “inviting death”, which is misleading given recent discoverys. She died trying to promote womens rights, but did not intend to do so, “stumbling and getting caught up underneith the kings horse” would be more accurate, trying to pin a ribbon to it. Vieling is talked about with a nuiced approach that listens to muslim activits, whilst still looking towards the abolition of stoning for women who have the most to gain from feminism.
The afterword talks about a backlash against feminism, even by women who have benefited from it – Thatcher for instance said she owed “nothing to womens lib”. This backlash is only stronger now, as evidenced by the rise of the alt-right. Indeed, if everyone had of read this book, such a backlash mightn’t have happened!
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