A review by rebecca_arch_art
The Power by Naomi Alderman
5.0
What starts as a gentle agitation of gender experiences, builds to an world-upending conclusion. The author captures a centuries old voice of women, spoken in a man’s voice, as they find themselves increasingly threatened and frightened by the emergence of women as the physically dominant gender. The absurdity of the situation somehow feels more real when transposed to a male-voice. What later becomes apparent is that no one gender is actually “right” or more suited to leadership; an imbalance of power corrupts all.
As an archaeologist, the subtle brilliance of the final challenges to male “warrior” burials, pre-cataclysm had me laughing despite the horrific events of the closing chapters. This book is and will be a very difficult read for anyone who has experienced sexual violence. I was left wondering how often this wheel has turned, with each sex repeatedly destroying their universe, in turn. There are too many sexist tropes, turned on their head, to mention but I was particularly stuck by the comments that the rape scenes in the book were just porn, in the way that too many programmes depict sexual violence against women for “historical accuracy” and sexposition. I found nothing but disgust and horror at the depiction, whoever the victim.
The book is a stark warning that it doesn’t really matter what body we are born into, we are all capable of cruelty and violence in the right/wrong circumstances. It very much underlined my feminism for me, that I want equity, not revenge or a wholly female-led society. We should look for the better human, the compassionate and empathetic among us, gender is irrelevant. There is no natural order that we should all be subscribing to, based on which sex is stronger or larger.
As an archaeologist, the subtle brilliance of the final challenges to male “warrior” burials, pre-cataclysm had me laughing despite the horrific events of the closing chapters. This book is and will be a very difficult read for anyone who has experienced sexual violence. I was left wondering how often this wheel has turned, with each sex repeatedly destroying their universe, in turn. There are too many sexist tropes, turned on their head, to mention but I was particularly stuck by the comments that the rape scenes in the book were just porn, in the way that too many programmes depict sexual violence against women for “historical accuracy” and sexposition. I found nothing but disgust and horror at the depiction, whoever the victim.
The book is a stark warning that it doesn’t really matter what body we are born into, we are all capable of cruelty and violence in the right/wrong circumstances. It very much underlined my feminism for me, that I want equity, not revenge or a wholly female-led society. We should look for the better human, the compassionate and empathetic among us, gender is irrelevant. There is no natural order that we should all be subscribing to, based on which sex is stronger or larger.