A review by greatlibraryofalexandra
The Trouble with White Women: A Counterhistory of Feminism by Kyla Schuller
5.0
Found my way to this book via my best friend and our shared love of Dr. Brittney Cooper, and loved every second of it. Kyla Schuller's research and writing shine brightly, and the way she spotlights overlooked activists in feminist history by analyzing them right alongside the often-written about white women is a brilliant way to discuss how specific a brand of politics "white feminism" is and how harmful it is as an ideology.
What's important about this book is that it reminds me the "big names" such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Margaret Sanger were often merely side notes or cutesy info boxes in my history books (in the style of 'and oh, this is what the little ladies were doing while real history was happening!' in the margins). The erasure of non-cis, non-straight, non-white women is emphasized even more heavily when juxtaposed with how little attention is given even to white feminists. In exploring the history of these women, those remembered and those forgotten, side by side, the propensity of white women to take up all of the limited space men give us at the table is artfully exposed, and rightly judged persistently and perniciously harmful.
I loved the way this book was written, and loved what I learned from it; its definitely a book I will consider a key part of my journey to be a better feminist as each day goes by. And it comes highly recommended by Brittney Cooper, who is probably my favorite contemporary feminist, and who provides the foreword for this book.
My only caveat is that I found Schuller's chapter on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes to lack the analytical skill the rest of the book was so good at. I find AOC to be flat-out obnoxious, and Schuller seemed to be more interested in writing AOC starstruck love-letters than continuing with her analyses, though she made good points. I thought her purpose would have been better served if she'd chosen Stacy Abrams, Rashida Tlaib, or Ayanna Pressley.
What's important about this book is that it reminds me the "big names" such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Margaret Sanger were often merely side notes or cutesy info boxes in my history books (in the style of 'and oh, this is what the little ladies were doing while real history was happening!' in the margins). The erasure of non-cis, non-straight, non-white women is emphasized even more heavily when juxtaposed with how little attention is given even to white feminists. In exploring the history of these women, those remembered and those forgotten, side by side, the propensity of white women to take up all of the limited space men give us at the table is artfully exposed, and rightly judged persistently and perniciously harmful.
I loved the way this book was written, and loved what I learned from it; its definitely a book I will consider a key part of my journey to be a better feminist as each day goes by. And it comes highly recommended by Brittney Cooper, who is probably my favorite contemporary feminist, and who provides the foreword for this book.
My only caveat is that I found Schuller's chapter on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes to lack the analytical skill the rest of the book was so good at. I find AOC to be flat-out obnoxious, and Schuller seemed to be more interested in writing AOC starstruck love-letters than continuing with her analyses, though she made good points. I thought her purpose would have been better served if she'd chosen Stacy Abrams, Rashida Tlaib, or Ayanna Pressley.