lisajh5858's review against another edition
4.0
I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. Not because I like it, but precisely because I didn’t like it. My knee jerk reaction was to give it 2 stars.
What I love about this book is that it has made me question and rethink my knee jerk reactions. It has called my perspective into question. It may not have got me to change my perspective, but it did get me to think about it probably more than any other book I have read.
I have debated about this book since I started to read it. I find Ellen Willis a somewhat difficult author, writing on what is, for me a difficult subject. It is difficult because, growing up in Canada I find her intensely American outlook on things to be at odds with my own entrenched values. Not only that but there are so many paradoxes through out this book it kind of leaves your head spinning. It is hard to tell what the author thinks will work in most cases. The cases where these paradoxes didn’t appear were the places that I out right disagreed with her.
Being Canadian, while I value free speech, I also value hate speech laws. She sees all hate speech laws as a function of quashing free speech. In my opinion, any teacher preaching that the holocaust didn’t happen (the example she gives) should be legally responsible for what they say. Also, from my experience, hate speech laws are rarely evoked by themselves and are add-ons to other charges. In fact, in some cases the person spouting hate speech is asked for an apology and publicly shamed instead of being charge under the law.
She also completely discounts the Anti-Porn Feminist stance of the 1980’s, and reduces Andrea Dworkin to the label of “chief rabble-rouser”. This makes her seem more like the media which likes to paint feminism and its various movements as all good or all bad and less like a critical thinker trying to identifying the good and the bad in all parts of the complex world we live in. Whereas, I don’t agree that ALL pornography hurts women I think a lot of it does, not only the actresses who are held up to impossible standards, but to the average woman whose significant other learned about sex from porn. I think therein lies the most hurtful part of porn for both sexes, that it has become one of the very few places in our society where people can learn about sex.
She also seems to think that the 60s were the best years ever, where the left triumphed. She demands that the left needs to come together as a unified movement again. I completely disagree. With a unified movement too many voices are left unheard. Yes we may be make progress at a much slower rate but I don’t think that society can change all at once like what was attempted in the 60s. Racism still exists, so does sexism. Now society just pays lip service. Not just laws need to be changed, but perspectives and attitudes.
I also feel like she doesn’t see what is being achieved in the newest mutation of feminism. Yes we are a “fracture” group but we are just about everywhere. We aren’t just changing laws, we are trying to change minds.
What I love about this book is that it has made me question and rethink my knee jerk reactions. It has called my perspective into question. It may not have got me to change my perspective, but it did get me to think about it probably more than any other book I have read.
I have debated about this book since I started to read it. I find Ellen Willis a somewhat difficult author, writing on what is, for me a difficult subject. It is difficult because, growing up in Canada I find her intensely American outlook on things to be at odds with my own entrenched values. Not only that but there are so many paradoxes through out this book it kind of leaves your head spinning. It is hard to tell what the author thinks will work in most cases. The cases where these paradoxes didn’t appear were the places that I out right disagreed with her.
Being Canadian, while I value free speech, I also value hate speech laws. She sees all hate speech laws as a function of quashing free speech. In my opinion, any teacher preaching that the holocaust didn’t happen (the example she gives) should be legally responsible for what they say. Also, from my experience, hate speech laws are rarely evoked by themselves and are add-ons to other charges. In fact, in some cases the person spouting hate speech is asked for an apology and publicly shamed instead of being charge under the law.
She also completely discounts the Anti-Porn Feminist stance of the 1980’s, and reduces Andrea Dworkin to the label of “chief rabble-rouser”. This makes her seem more like the media which likes to paint feminism and its various movements as all good or all bad and less like a critical thinker trying to identifying the good and the bad in all parts of the complex world we live in. Whereas, I don’t agree that ALL pornography hurts women I think a lot of it does, not only the actresses who are held up to impossible standards, but to the average woman whose significant other learned about sex from porn. I think therein lies the most hurtful part of porn for both sexes, that it has become one of the very few places in our society where people can learn about sex.
She also seems to think that the 60s were the best years ever, where the left triumphed. She demands that the left needs to come together as a unified movement again. I completely disagree. With a unified movement too many voices are left unheard. Yes we may be make progress at a much slower rate but I don’t think that society can change all at once like what was attempted in the 60s. Racism still exists, so does sexism. Now society just pays lip service. Not just laws need to be changed, but perspectives and attitudes.
I also feel like she doesn’t see what is being achieved in the newest mutation of feminism. Yes we are a “fracture” group but we are just about everywhere. We aren’t just changing laws, we are trying to change minds.
More...