A review by sadiereadsagain
Moranifesto by Caitlin Moran
4.0
I suppose I need to start this with a disclaimer that I fookin' love Caitlin Moran. I love her writing, I loved Raised by Wolves, I love listening to her speak. She isn't perfect, and she comes at feminism from her own place of experience, but unlike others I don't mark her down for those things. She doesn't pretend to be the all-knowing and she is very evidently trying and evolving. And as she rightly also points out in this book (not about herself), no one woman can represent all women, no one oppressed person can represent all oppressed people. She is speaking for and as a white, mid-life, working class woman from Wolverhampton. That should be enough of a place to start from.
Anyway, on to the book, which is a mix of pieces she's written for the Times and others written for this book. I didn't read it when it first came out, so some of the things she discusses (David Cameron being the current PM, the 2012 Olympics, Louis CK being a person you want to include in feminist writing...eww, etc) aren't current, which dates it a little. But I often find that with books of this type, it's the nature of the beast. Look beyond that, and you find a really funny display of awareness, intelligence and honesty thinly veiled in pieces as diverse as a day spent with Benedict Cumberbatch, the Bedroom Tax, tv reviews and abortion. She can be at turns facetious, earnest, passionate or touching, but always with a warmth and hilarity which made this a total joy to read.
“It’s amazing to me that it’s still considered a notable, commendable trait –‘Oh, she’s a well-known feminist’ – in a woman, or a girl, or a man, or a boy. That that is the unusual thing. Really, it should be the reverse. Rather than what seems like a minority having to spend time, energy, brain and heart explaining why they’re ‘into’ equality, the majority should be explaining why they’re not."
Anyway, on to the book, which is a mix of pieces she's written for the Times and others written for this book. I didn't read it when it first came out, so some of the things she discusses (David Cameron being the current PM, the 2012 Olympics, Louis CK being a person you want to include in feminist writing...eww, etc) aren't current, which dates it a little. But I often find that with books of this type, it's the nature of the beast. Look beyond that, and you find a really funny display of awareness, intelligence and honesty thinly veiled in pieces as diverse as a day spent with Benedict Cumberbatch, the Bedroom Tax, tv reviews and abortion. She can be at turns facetious, earnest, passionate or touching, but always with a warmth and hilarity which made this a total joy to read.