A review by dashadashahi
Trainwreck by Jude Ellison S. Doyle

2.0

I wanted to like this book so badly, the concept is so ripe for discussion. Yet, Doyle delivers a surface-level analysis that is, essentially, pop feminism. For example, Doyle tells us that part of the reason women got louder in the 20th century was that everyone got louder. Really? That's part of the analysis we get? Similarly, her analysis of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes is disappointing. The refusal to "wreck" Ted Hughes (because it won't "unwreck" women) is a point I found myself heavily disagreeing on. While we shouldn't seek men to destroy, we should still critique men who have actively or otherwise participated in the wrecking of women who did not fit the unreasonable standard of womanhood during their life. I thought the analysis of Marilyn Monroe was best, showing how even in death women are commodified and passed around as public property as evidenced by the fact that men vied to be buried, quite literally, on top of her. However, I also found myself wanting Doyle to more deeply explain why men seem obsessed with the death of women and sexualize said dead women. Perhaps the dead woman is the idealized woman, passive in all respects, reaching their peak as objects for men's adoration and pleasure. I don't know. All in all: not radical enough.