danajoy's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed getting insight into Feminism in Nigeria, the discussions about culture and gender in their specific context was really interesting and enlightening.
The aspects about the socialisation of girls to cater to men was also really good and will hopefully inspire people to consider they ways we teach children to treat eachother critically.
I just felt really let down by this as a whole. It lacks a lot of nuance. The experiences discussed only really address heterosexual and cisgender people with no acknowledgement of other genders or sexes (the existence of Intersex people isn't at all touched on while physical differences between men and women are described at one point simplistically by their hormones and reproductive abilities which is so reductive - a woman with high testosterone levels or the inability to carry children is still a woman.) The stories are about straight, cis and able bodied people. Marriage as a cultural status symbol and rite-of-passage is a theme throughout - I wish we got something about how that impacts LGBTQIA+ people.
I know this author has been involved in some controversies about potentially being a terf and I'm not going to speak on that here I just believe that if your book is called "We Should All Be Feminists" then you should at the very least acknowledge the gaps in your knowledge or research - if you are addressing ALL people it seems wrong to not even hint at some diverse experiences.
This needed to be longer, I understand its the book form of a speech/essay but there were just way too many gaps.
The aspects about the socialisation of girls to cater to men was also really good and will hopefully inspire people to consider they ways we teach children to treat eachother critically.
I just felt really let down by this as a whole. It lacks a lot of nuance. The experiences discussed only really address heterosexual and cisgender people with no acknowledgement of other genders or sexes (the existence of Intersex people isn't at all touched on while physical differences between men and women are described at one point simplistically by their hormones and reproductive abilities which is so reductive - a woman with high testosterone levels or the inability to carry children is still a woman.) The stories are about straight, cis and able bodied people. Marriage as a cultural status symbol and rite-of-passage is a theme throughout - I wish we got something about how that impacts LGBTQIA+ people.
I know this author has been involved in some controversies about potentially being a terf and I'm not going to speak on that here I just believe that if your book is called "We Should All Be Feminists" then you should at the very least acknowledge the gaps in your knowledge or research - if you are addressing ALL people it seems wrong to not even hint at some diverse experiences.
This needed to be longer, I understand its the book form of a speech/essay but there were just way too many gaps.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death and Rape
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