A review by heykellyjensen
Sensational: The Hidden History of America's "girl Stunt Reporters" by Kim Todd
An absorbing history of the "girl stunt reporters" -- aka, investigative reporters -- of the late 19th century. What begins with Nellie Bly opens up a whole history of other (white) women who were hired to do investigative reporting but who were never seen as hard-hitting journalists. Todd offers such fascinating insight and critique of how these women were doing incredible work and being seen not as doing real, impactful work, but were used to bolster a newspaper's sales for what would be done next (not what the reporting revealed). The bulk of these reporters were white women, but Todd talks about how women of color were doing good work but it wasn't seen in the same "stunt reporter" manner.
The last section of the book was especially good, as it explores how men have been the "leaders" in so many arenas of writing and yet . . . they're only able to be seen that way because of how women's work doing the same thing has always been called something lesser. There's a fascinating and infuriating moment, too, wherein it's clear other women have played this role, too, in hopes of being seen as the woman who does it differently/better/breaks the barriers.
This isn't the best on audiobook, and I wish I'd picked up the hard copy. The performance is fine until the end where it becomes stilted with some strange pacing issues, but because there's so much information and so many people discussed, I would have absorbed more in print.
The last section of the book was especially good, as it explores how men have been the "leaders" in so many arenas of writing and yet . . . they're only able to be seen that way because of how women's work doing the same thing has always been called something lesser. There's a fascinating and infuriating moment, too, wherein it's clear other women have played this role, too, in hopes of being seen as the woman who does it differently/better/breaks the barriers.
This isn't the best on audiobook, and I wish I'd picked up the hard copy. The performance is fine until the end where it becomes stilted with some strange pacing issues, but because there's so much information and so many people discussed, I would have absorbed more in print.