greatlibraryofalexandra's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Difficult one for me. Partly because the narration was just difficult to listen to. I learned a lot from this book about Feminists I didn't know much about, but I hated listening to it and thought it was so poorly executed.
Had high hopes for the "contrasting biography" format - Cobbs chooses two women, one with "privilege," one without, to view the context of a period through. This was a cool concept and I was looking forward to it, but in the end I don't think she pulled it off. Trying to mix biographies with broad definitions of the political changes and norms of a sometimes 50+ year period left each section bloated, unorganized, and sometimes difficult to follow.
I appreciated that when she discussed suffrage, she did not use the expected white women as people to spotlight. However, I thought her apologetics for Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt's racism was inexcusable, as was her sort of soft refusal to acknowledge that women like Kimberly Guilfoyle didn't call out Fox News' abuses of Gretchen Carlson because women like Kimberly Guilfoyle are not feminists.
You are NOT a Feminist by default because you are a woman. It is a chosen political identity.
In a sense I appreciated Cobbs' refusal to be hemmed up by partisanship, because the women's movement prior to Phyllis Schlafly WAS A multi-partisan movement that eschewed the left-right line, but I think she was a little whimsical in painting some of today's right-leaning women as "still feminists" despite their active work to harm women. I also found her lionization of Beyonce surprisingly grating, not because I don't like Beyonce, but because I felt it became off as...obsequious and pandering, like a white woman gushing "look at me, look how much I LOVE Beyonce, because I'm a COOL GIRL."
A complicated book, I think, but it's useful and it does very beautifully elucidate the stories of lesser-known feminists. IT calls them fearless, but a more accurate description is desperate: the less privileged women Cobbs focuses on in her narrative were very likely completely terrified, but forced to crusade for their rights at proverbial gunpoint. Their fear should be acknowledged as a powerful part of what made them seek change.
Listening to it felt like a drag but I valued large chunks of it. Overall, wasn't impressed, and thought the organization was innovative, but the end result an aspiration that didn't quite succeed.
Had high hopes for the "contrasting biography" format - Cobbs chooses two women, one with "privilege," one without, to view the context of a period through. This was a cool concept and I was looking forward to it, but in the end I don't think she pulled it off. Trying to mix biographies with broad definitions of the political changes and norms of a sometimes 50+ year period left each section bloated, unorganized, and sometimes difficult to follow.
I appreciated that when she discussed suffrage, she did not use the expected white women as people to spotlight. However, I thought her apologetics for Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt's racism was inexcusable, as was her sort of soft refusal to acknowledge that women like Kimberly Guilfoyle didn't call out Fox News' abuses of Gretchen Carlson because women like Kimberly Guilfoyle are not feminists.
You are NOT a Feminist by default because you are a woman. It is a chosen political identity.
In a sense I appreciated Cobbs' refusal to be hemmed up by partisanship, because the women's movement prior to Phyllis Schlafly WAS A multi-partisan movement that eschewed the left-right line, but I think she was a little whimsical in painting some of today's right-leaning women as "still feminists" despite their active work to harm women. I also found her lionization of Beyonce surprisingly grating, not because I don't like Beyonce, but because I felt it became off as...obsequious and pandering, like a white woman gushing "look at me, look how much I LOVE Beyonce, because I'm a COOL GIRL."
A complicated book, I think, but it's useful and it does very beautifully elucidate the stories of lesser-known feminists. IT calls them fearless, but a more accurate description is desperate: the less privileged women Cobbs focuses on in her narrative were very likely completely terrified, but forced to crusade for their rights at proverbial gunpoint. Their fear should be acknowledged as a powerful part of what made them seek change.
Listening to it felt like a drag but I valued large chunks of it. Overall, wasn't impressed, and thought the organization was innovative, but the end result an aspiration that didn't quite succeed.
tneh's review
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
4.75
Thank you netgalley for providing this arc.
I was initially annoyed there was a chapter on Phyllis Schlafly. I don't believe she belongs with all these feminists who moved our country forward. But the issues that she caused in feminism are important to the overall story of feminism in this country and the effects are still felt.
This book took me forever but wasnt as difficult to read as most nonfiction/history is for me.
I was so unaware of so much in here that I felt ashamed and am so glad I read it.
I was initially annoyed there was a chapter on Phyllis Schlafly. I don't believe she belongs with all these feminists who moved our country forward. But the issues that she caused in feminism are important to the overall story of feminism in this country and the effects are still felt.
This book took me forever but wasnt as difficult to read as most nonfiction/history is for me.
I was so unaware of so much in here that I felt ashamed and am so glad I read it.
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