| Title | : | Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trumps America |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1250155509 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781250155504 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 248 |
| Publication | : | First published October 3, 2017 |
When 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump and 94 percent of black women voted for Hillary Clinton, how can women unite in Trump's America? Nasty Women includes inspiring essays from a diverse group of talented women writers who seek to provide a broad look at how we got here and what we need to do to move forward.
Featuring essays by REBECCA SOLNIT on Trump and his "misogyny army," CHERYL STRAYED on grappling with the aftermath of Hillary Clinton's loss, SARAH HEPOLA on resisting the urge to drink after the election, NICOLE CHUNG on family and friends who support Trump, KATHA POLLITT on the state of reproductive rights and what we do next, JILL FILIPOVIC on Trump's policies and the life of a young woman in West Africa, SAMANTHA IRBY on racism and living as a queer black woman in rural America, RANDA JARRAR on traveling across the country as a queer Muslim American, SARAH HOLLENBECK on Trump's cruelty toward the disabled, MEREDITH TALUSAN on feminism and the transgender community, and SARAH JAFFE on the labor movement and active and effective resistance, among others.
Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trumps America Reviews
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This collection represents the views of many women in America today. The underlying theme here is one very hard to understand fact: 53% of white women voted for Donald Trump. Women as group (including white women who did not vote for Trump), are having a really hard time absorbing this. It begs the question, is there a feminist movement when a large part of the constituency seems to be working at crossed purposes? The statistic blatantly outs a large segment of America identifying first and foremost as a white nationalist patriarchy. A fact that most people knew well before Trump was elected and well before his remarks about Haiti and African countries. The essays in this collection are from women's points-of-view of marginalized constituencies, be it people of color, people with disabilities, people of different religions, transgender, LGBT and the largest constituency of these women, white women who did not vote for Trump. The essays in some way or another represent a very specific item: there is something very wrong in this America. This book is collectively a variety of points of views of women coming to terms with this fact and adapting tactics in what is now Trumps America.
There are many stellar essays in this collection. The volume and variety of American women perspectives is wildly unrepresented and underappreciated in mainstream visibility. There were some eye opening perspectives that I wouldn't have been exposed to had I not read this collection. In the aftermath of the election of Trump and with the first year of his Presidency almost over; there is definitely a national guilt, fatigue, apprehension, anxiety and even dread towards where we've been and where we are going and what it means for the United States both short and long term. And frankly there are a lot of books out there right now about the national hand wringing of approximately 60% of the country. Even I've become numb to the endless rehashing and diagnosing of an illness that this country has had for longer than anyone wants to admit. This collection offers more than I expected and it is an important book. There are a lot of voices here that need to be heard and understood. The quality of the essays and intelligence of the writers and editors propels this work. The collection was so good, I couldn't choose a favorite. This one should be widely read. Highly recommended.
Just under 4.5 Stars
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The last presidential election made me very upset. Like many Americans, I asked myself, "How did this man get elected?" But also, "Why were so many people willing to overlook all the terrible things he said? Why did 53% of women vote for him, despite the remarks he made about women of all kinds?" And, most terrifyingly of all: "How did we become so willing to turn a blind eye to, or, worse, actively participate in or encourage acts of aggression and hate towards those who are different?"
NASTY WOMEN is a collection of essays from various feminist writers about Hillary's campaign, Trump's victory, and what they believe the aftermath of the election means for women - and for Americans, more broadly.
Some of the essays are filled with anger, some with sadness, some with hope. Some of the essays are written by queer women and women of color. Some of the essays are written by women who were born here, and some from women who came here as immigrants. There is a lot of diversity in these essays, which really added depth to this collection and made it complex and multi-faceted.
I've included a break-down of all the essays in my status updates for this book on Goodreads (
all 47 of them), but here is a collection of what I see as this book's "greatest hits."
"Are Women Persons?" by Kate Harding discusses the flaws of some of the pioneering feminists, like Susan B. Anthony, who was definitely a product of her times in that she could be racist as f*ck. It cautions that historically, feminism was a white upper-class women's issue; and while these women helped paved the road for where we are now and their frustration at being held back by condescending men still resonates for many, we must not make their mistakes by throwing people of color under the bus or failing to include them when advancing feminist issues.
"Trump, The Global Gag Rule, and the Terror of Misinformation" by Jill Filipovic goes into Trump's extremely cruel expansion of the gag rule, which basically penalizes foreign groups from discussing or providing abortions and birth control to foreign countries. It's heart-breaking, but powerful.
"Is There Ever a Right Time to Talk to Your Children About Fascism?" by Kera Bolonik is written by the granddaughter of holocaust survivors and discusses how many of Trump's supporters and campaign tactics mirror that of fascist Germany during WWII.
"Permission to Vote for a Monster: Ivanka Trump and Faux Feminism" by Jessica Valenti turned out to be one of my favorites. It's a discussion of the women conservatives champion - women who are content to play by the rules set by men and who don't want to make waves, and condemns conservative women who co-opt "feminism" to push their own agendas. It helps explain the mentality of the white women who voted for Trump.
"X Cuntry: A Muslim-American Woman's Journey" by Randa Jarrar was so weird and so unlike any of the other more traditionally formatted essays in this book that it ended up being totally memorable. It's a series of dream-like diary entries written by a Palestinian immigrant discussing her encounters with racism in the toxic sociopolitical climate leading up to Trump's election.
"Trust Black Women" by Zerlina Maxwell gives the reasons black women overwhelmingly (94%) voted for Hillary Clinton. It's a good essay. There were several other similar essays in this collection, but I felt like this one was the best. Maybe because it ends on a note of hope & I'm a hopeless fool.
"All American" by Nicole Chung ends this book on a strong, resonant note. Chung is the adopted daughter of two white people (she's Korean-American). She talks about how the aftermath of the election has affected her, and her fear for her children because of their ethnicity and also because one of them has autism. She discusses the countless microaggressions she encounters from people who are so ignorant that they don't even realize they're being offensive, and the tense discussions with her conservative parents who voted for Trump and regard anyone different as suspicious.
This really is a fantastic collection from a varied and talented group of essayists. I would honestly recommend this book to anyone who was #WithHer and is feeling angry, scared, hopeless, or sad. The editors went out of their way to include a diverse array of women with many different views when it comes to the dual but related subjects of liberalism and feminism. I heartily recommend it!
Bonus pictures from the SF Women's March:
Thanks to Netgalley/the publisher for the review copy!
4 to 4.5 stars -
Feminist collections are truly not letting me down this month. With
The Little Book of Feminist Saints by Julia Pierpont and now this empowering book, I’m pretty much settled for the year. Speaking of which, I began 2017 with
Nasty Women by 404 Ink, and with the end in sight, I finished it with another Nasty Women.
But whereas 404 Ink's
Nasty Women is a call-to-action for feminists to share their experiences and accounts on what it is to be a woman in the 21st century, Samhita Mukhopadhyay's collection features discussions on feminism in Trump's America, as the title conveys.
When 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump and 94 percent of black women voted for Hillary Clinton, how can women unite in Trump's America? Nasty Women includes inspiring essays from a diverse group of talented women writers who seek to provide a broad look at how we got here and what we need to do to move forward.
“In the chapters ahead we have curated some of the strongest voices writing at the intersection of feminism, identity, and personal experience with their own identity to meditate on what we lost that fateful night in November 2016 and what lessons we can take from it. ”
With over twenty essays in this collection, some were inevitably going to make the same arguments and present the same cases from the election (“telling the same story with different adjectives”). So I took more in from the personal essays that introduced the discussed topic by giving us that irreplaceable connection with an individual's experience, rather than the pieces that focused solely on conveying information about X and Y.
My favorite essay by far, though, was one that came circling repeatedly into my mind over the course of the book: "As Long As It's Healthy" by Sarah Michael Hollenbeck. It even started out with a bang for me:
“Nearly every thirtysomething woman I knew had a number in her head—a number she’d had since childhood—of how many kids she wanted and when—two, three, four for me! I couldn’t help thinking, Shouldn’t you wait and see how the first one goes? Even the first time I scheduled a bikini wax I only scheduled one. I wanted to monitor the repercussions before I made any long-term commitments, and I’d like to think that living children are more high-stakes than ingrown pubic hairs.”
Now that's a guaranteed way to get my attention.
But on a more serious note, I cherish essays that discuss how giving birth is not the only way to have children. And also that having kids is not a must.
“Instead of making a new human, I feel a responsibility to be a better caretaker for the humans who are already here.”
But what made this piece in particular stay with me is the fact that the author talked about being diagnosed with Moebius syndrome.
“My experience of being a disabled woman is discovering in small, sharp explosions what I look like through the feedback of strangers.”
...
“When I was growing up, our family never talked about Annie’s face or my own, and in the few times that I broached the topic with friends, I was told “No one notices” or “It doesn’t matter.”
In my experience of disability, the people closest to me have always expressed their love by telling me that they, almost magically, cannot see it—that this thing that has both directly and indirectly shaped so much of my life doesn’t matter. Instead, it has been the callous strangers and the bullies who have been the ones to say, I notice. It matters.”
I'm going be thinking about this exceptional piece of writing for months to come.
Another essay that caught my attention with its opening paragraph was Kera Bolonik's “Is There Ever a Right Time to Talk to Your Children About Fascism?” It goes as following:
“There's a sort of joke I used to tell my friends—a joke that’s not such an exaggeration—to succinctly describe my mother, about how she taught my younger sister and me European geography by recounting the way each country persecuted the Jews during World War II. (Austria? Birthplace of Hitler. Germany? The home of the Nazi Party, and the country he led—anti-Semitism central. Poland? Place of the extermination camps that helped to annihilate most of the Jewish population. And on.)”
Her mother gets me at my core.
There's more where that came from with the many outstanding feminist essays in Nasty Women. And I feel alive with power because of them.
ARC kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: October 3rd 2017
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I'm going to start by saying that I actually read this. I can't believe I have to put that, but based on most of the star ratings, with no written reviews, on a book that isn't out until next week, it is clear that many have not. Ironic considering the point of the essays in this book. (And yes, I do believe that 5 star reviews by people who don't read the book are also an issue. I hate when people do that just because they "love" the author or topic.)
This book is phenomenal. As with most essay questions, some are better than others, but all will make you think. This isn't always the most comfortable book to read, even as a woman. YMMV based on where you fall along many spectrums (race, gender, sexual preference, etc.,) but it is important that we read books that make us uncomfortable. Going out of your comfort zone is often how one learns, so read hard books once in awhile.
This comes out next Tuesday (Oct 3, 2017) and you should pick it up. I recommend the paper version as my Kindle version is now full of more highlights and bookmarks than anything I've read since college. I'll be picking up a paper copy for my bookshelf.
Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for an advanced reader copy. -
A bit of preaching to the choir, but I wanted to get hyped up to vote, so this was a good read for that.
Look. 53% of white women voters voted for Trump, while 94% black women voters voted for Clinton. So that comes up a bunch here from multiple perspectives. Also examined is the history of white feminism, the need for intersectionality, and the belief that feminism only works if it raises everybody up. -
This book is a collective cry of angst buy a bunch of women, spread across all the sections of American population - how did a qualified and competent politician like Hillary Clinton lose to a brash, rude, racist, misogynist and unqualified ruffian like Donald Trump?
The disturbing answer that emerges is - because she was a woman. And because Donald Trump was the ruffian he was.The 2016 election wasn’t just a loss for Clinton, it was a loss for feminism. Not only did the first female candidate from either major party lose, she lost to an open misogynist—someone who called a former Latina beauty queen fat and was caught on the record bragging about grabbing women by the pussy. - Samhita Mukhopadhyay
To explain further: a large chunk of the American public, even the men who consider themselves feminist and women who consider themselves progressive, cannot stomache the idea of a woman in charge: moreover, a woman who advertises her femininity none too apologetically. For the right-wingers, Donald Trump is the perfect antidote for the "uppity" woman - the "alpha male" who puts them in their place by grabbing their private parts with impunity. For the liberals who abhor Donald Trump, and who publicly endorse equal rights in principle, it's all about the personality of Hillary; especially when there is a genuine left-winger available in the form of Bernie Sanders.The stories the Bernie Bros told about Hillary Clinton were horror stories—dark fairy tales about a monstrous woman who would not be contained or repressed. They hinged on Gothic themes—hidden pasts, long-buried secrets, ancestral curses, generational decay, gender instability. To hear the Bernie Bros tell it, she was not a Democrat but a grotesque revenant, an aristocratic vampire thirsty for the blood of virgins. She was corrupt, venal, duplicitous, a succubus Lady Macbeth. Over time, in the echo chamber of the Internet, these stories became, if not true, then somehow realer than true: not just more familiar and recognizable than the truth but more authentically raw. Their outrageousness wasn’t the problem—Hillary’s authority was the problem. Her authorship was the problem.
(I don't fully endorse this view. As a confirmed leftist, Bernie Sanders is the only American politician I have seen who genuinely endorses left-liberal principles: so the objection of Bernie supporters to Hillary is not entirely due to the fact that she is a woman. Had I been in the US, I would have been a "Bernie Bro" - and an unashamed one at that.)
This book not only about Hillary vs. Trump, however. It comprises essays by a number of intelligent and erudite women from all types of ethnic identities and sexual orientations, on what it means to be a woman in Trump's America - a country which has suddenly woken up to the racism, bigotry and misogyny that is an inseparable part of its identity, but which it used to sweep under the carpet until it led to the election of this disaster to the supreme office of arguably the most powerful nation on earth.That Trump’s explicit appeals to white identity and resentment were considered legitimate rallying cries that supposedly united an unheard working-class base, while Clinton was called divisive, suggests that calls for “universality” generally mean centralizing white, male experience. Whereas the experiences of people of color are marked as nonstandard, white identity—white concerns, sensitivities, anxieties—is taken as representative of the whole; anything that deviates from that identity is “diversity” or “difference.” - Samhita Mukhopadhyay
***
The initial essays analyse the problem from the point of gender identity - how being a woman automatically makes one a loser in America. However, in the ones that follow, the feminine identity itself is taken apart and subdivided into that of black, Asian, Native American and trans- women; how ignored problems of intersectionalism create deep fissures within feminist movement itself. Most of the women from the underprivileged classes point out how most of the problems they face have always been there; they only became more visible when Trump took charge. (Which sort of explains why 53 percent of white women voted for this monster.)
To summarise - Trump is the symptom, not the disease. That symptom has been taken care of for now, rather like suppressing fever by taking analgesics. But the malady is still very much there - and unless the good people of America tackle it at the root, it is likely to turn malignant and consume the republic. -
In one line - Nasty Women is a collection of essays covering a wide range of issues from racism to sexism and fascism to exclusionary liberalism in America.
But honestly this book is so much more! It's an eye-opening, aggravating, necessary read which gives many diverse perspectives on the socio-cultural & political climate of the country - both past and present.
Though consider this fair warning - Nasty Women is NOT an easy read. Mostly because it digs deep into many uncomfortable truths contemporary society & pop culture tend to gloss over.
BUT that's exactly what makes a book like Nasty Women a MUST READ!
VERDICT: CANNOT RECOMMEND IT HIGHLY ENOUGH (HENCE THE ALL CAPS!!)
- Shantala @
Shanaya Tales -
Samantha Irby is a contributor to Nasty Women and she is one of my favorite writers. When she promoted this book on social media I immediately purchased it. For such a short book, this was a tough read. I read this book directly after reading What Happened by Hillary Clinton and that was a terrible idea. I felt overwhelmed with information about Donald Trump, his family, his base, his reluctant allies, white women, inclusion, racism, etc. There are a lot of emotions, ideas, suggestions, and questions packed into these essays and if you are just as overwhelmed by the daily news about the President, you may want to take this book in small doses.
The above-mentioned information has no bearing on the quality of the contributions to this book. For the most part, the essays are incredibly informative. The editor utilizes the voices of a range of women and provided a diverse view. In saying that, I mean women of different cultures and ethnicities have a voice in this book. This is not a mixture of voices based on party line. The women in the book are all on the same page when it comes to Donald Trump.
There are some variations over what women should be focused on. As I mentioned the question of inclusion arises in several essays. There is the debate about uniting with white women considering 53% of them voted for Trump. There is the issue of should Black women march alongside white women knowing that these very women will not show up in large numbers at the next Black Lives Matter rally. I had to ask myself why as a Black woman did I participate in the Women's march and have never considered attending a Black Lives Matter march.
As I mentioned, there is a lot to delve in and it does become overwhelming. As to be expected I didn't agree with all of the suggestions. I won't get too specific, but one author suggested that women waste their time arguing over Lena Dunham. To that, I point to my great ability to multitask.
Overall, I think this is a decent read and there is nothing to be lost by reading it. There are definitely some gems and I thoroughly enjoyed Irby's contribution. -
Like any essay collection, this one was a mixed bag. I actually almost put it down when the first few essays in a row were focused almost exclusively on white women processing their emotions about Hillary Clinton losing the election (with Bernie Sanders bashing thrown in? Like, why?) but as the collection went on and we got to hear from more diverse voices focused on exploring issues, critiquing the feminist movement, and offering specific calls to action, the book really strengthens. My favorites were by Sarah Michael Hollenbeck, Samantha Irby, Sarah Hepola,Jamia Wilson, Sarah Wilson, Randa Jarrar, Aloxia Garza and Nicole Chung.
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If you read one essay from this book, read Mary Kathryn Nagle’s “Nasty Native Women” - that is a history lesson and a sermon in one.
And once you’ve read that, read the rest of the book. The contributors are diverse, the subjects and responses are diverse, and the ideas for what to do next are myriad. -
Nasty Women is a collection of 23 essays responding to the Great Betrayal that was the 2016 election. Edited by Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding, this collection unites the voices of women with all kinds of identities in contemplation of the world we woke up to on November 9th.
For some reason, the media is far more interested in the belligerent whining of white men and white women whose feelings were hurt by black hands on the steering wheel of state and who were damn sure they didn’t want no woman’s hands driving next. We are supposed to have compassion for all the suffering they endure in their victory.
Meanwhile, the media has no interest in what it feels like to work for and support the candidate who won the most votes, who was the most qualified, only to see a constitutional defect to protect slavery hand the country over to an ignorant, unqualified, thuggish grifter. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a more interesting story. After all, we won the most votes and they got the White House anyway – in large part due to structural failings that should disturb us. After all, two of the last three guys handed the keys to the national car lost the popular vote. That’s no democracy. Why isn’t the media interested in what it feels like to be robbed of America’s promise again?
Thankfully, the editors of Nasty Women are interested. With essays by women who are White, Black, Asian, Latino, Native American, straight, lesbian, transgender, citizens, immigrants, urban, rural, blue state and red state, this is a cross-section of Hillary voting women who have every right to be angry and who have something to say about it. These are voices we are not hearing from enough. These are the real stories of this election.
Nasty Women is as good as anthology like this can be. Not every essay spoke to me and a few of them made me roll my eyes when they fell into the familiar “flawed candidate” rut that prefaced every statement of support for Hillary before the election. She’s not running for anything now, so must we still follow that script? The majority of essays though were affirming, empowering, and challenging pieces that dissected the misogyny than demands we enumerate her flaws before saying anything positive. Sarah Jaffe’s essay was particularly discordant, echoing many of the familiar denunciations of Clinton, even bringing up her very short service on the Wal-Mart board and repeating Sanders’ smears on her character. But that is just one of twenty-three and many are excellent.
I was particularly moved by editor Samhita Mukhopadhyay’s defense of identity politics. It’s appalling that post-election analysis is so shoddy as to suggest abandoning the voters we have in pursuit of voters presumed more worthy because they are white and male. This is not giving up a bird in hand for two in the bush. It’s giving up a bird in hand for a myth in the bush. Rebecca Solnit’s essay was perhaps my favorite. She called out the “flawed candidate” trope in particular and took on the pathology of “progressive” men who hated Clinton. How many of us were floored during the primary by the atavistic hatred of her voiced by men we had always thought of us a liberal, smart, and feminist? Sady Doyle’s essay is important, too, in pointing out how calling Trump crazy is excusing his evil and the evil of those who voted to give him power. Carino Chocano’s essay was another that spoke to me because, to be honest, I am far more angry with those on the left who helped elect Trump by hating Clinton than with those on the right from whom I did not expect better.
Rebecca Solnit’s essay was perhaps my favorite. She called out the “flawed candidate” trope in particular and took on the pathology of “progressive” men who hated Clinton. How many of us were floored during the primary by the atavistic hatred of her voiced by men we had always thought of us a liberal, smart, and feminist? Sady Doyle’s essay is important, too, in pointing out how calling Trump crazy is excusing his evil and the evil of those who voted to give him power. Carino Chocano’s essay was another that spoke to me because, to be honest, I am far more angry with those on the left who helped elect Trump by hating Clinton than with those on the right from whom I did not expect better. Though, on the other hand, Nicole Chung’s essay makes me ask if I should have challenged the Trump voters in my family more. They voted for Trump in spite of Black and Native American family members who will be hurt by Trump’s bigotry. They voted for Trump despite gay, lesbian, and trans children and siblings. What can someone say in the face of that indifference to the human cost of their votes? Their identity as white and rural was more powerful than their identity as sister or brother, mother or father. What can anyone say in the face of that and still be family?
Nasty Women is not comforting unless the notion that other people are just as mad as you are is comforting. What it does is challenge us to not give in, not give up and to pick up the struggle and persist. If you were broken-hearted on November 9th, this won’t mend your heart, but it will pick up and set you in the direction of fixing what breaks us.
I received an e-galley of Nasty Women from Picador through NetGalley.
Nasty Women at Macmillan / Picador
Samhita Mukhopadhyay author site
Kate Harding author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre... -
”As it turned out, nearly everything strange and disquieting about Trump – his punitive response to even mile criticism, his viscerally personal insults disguised as ‘jokes,’ his willingness to spread wild rumors about his targets in order to discredit or shame them, his inability to stop lashing out or degrading certain women years after they’d left his life – was also a commonly reported behavior of domestic abusers.” Sady Doyle, “The Pathology of Donald Trump”
All of these essays are excellent. The writers all know we have entered an interesting period in American politics and many of them have great suggestions for how we move forward. The ones that struck home for me were:
“We Have a Heroine Problem” by Carina Chocano
“Beyond the Pussy Hats” by Kathe Pollitt
“The Pathology of Donald Trump” by Sady Doyle
“X Cuntry” by Randa Jarrar
“Trust Black Women” by Zerlina Maxwell
Please, please if you have any interest in national politics, consider reading this book. -
I feel like I've been waiting for this book since the election. It is so, so cathartic to witness the rage and grief of other women over our current administration. Especially appreciated the attention paid to soliciting contributions beyond the usual roster of white, cishet, able-bodied women -- this was a truly intersectional collection with a wide range of viewpoints and suggestions for how to move forward, with the overall message that what is important is that we do, all of us, find a way forward.
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I read every essay from this book. I read several to my boyfriend. While each essay didn't strike a chord for me, many did. I think this is an important read for all women living in the US today. See this as your call to action. If you are conservative, see this as a book that teaches you about the other women in your life. Read it out loud to your boyfriend/girlfriend. Tweet your representatives about your opinions (I did this yesterday for the first time!). I will be purchasing a copy for my sister and trying to force my mom to read a few of the essays as well to start slowly teaching her my views. Thank you Picador for publishing this important work.
Note: I received a free Advanced Reader's Copy (uncorrected bound manuscript) from the publisher, Picador. I requested this copy, as I was very motivated to read this title. All reviews expressed below are my own. If you would like to read more about my review and why this was an important read for me, please check out my blog
www.jackiereadsbooks.blogspot.com.
Synopsis:
Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America is a collection of 23 essays in response to the 2016 United States presidential election. The essays focus along the theme of feminism and each writer focuses on what this means to them.
My review:
I am not the biggest fan of nonfiction. I have to read a lot of nonfiction for my job, so it often feels like work when I try to read nonfiction for leisure. But when I saw this title announced on Picador's Instagram, I knew I needed to read it.
I will not go into detail about all of the essays and cannot quote them, as I have an uncorrected copy of the text, but this book was amazing. It gave me so many action items (small and large) that I can use to speak up about in our current political scene. I highly recommend this book for female readers. I recommend it for women who voted to Hillary and also women who voted for Trump. I think this is the perfect time for us to come together and to talk about our opinions, rather than segregating ourselves with others who already share our views.
This is not an easy read - it took me several weeks to work my way through the essays. At times, it made me embarrassed about my limited support and activism during the election. But it left me feeling hopeful and empowered to make a change. -
this book is both infuriating and also so, so important. honestly i think this is the kind of book that will be read in 30/40/50 years time and people will ask “how did they let this happen?” and it’s also the question all of these women who contributed are asking themselves now.
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This is the best book I have read so far this year. The diversity of each author's essay and perspective is thought provoking. I think this book of essays would make a perfect book club selection for discussion. It's impossible for me to pick a favorite essay but 2 that I especially loved were "As long as it's Healthy" and "All-American".
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One thing comes across loud and clear: In 2016, 53% of white women voted for a man who slandered Muslims and immigrants and those of Mexican heritage. He referred to women as pigs and dogs. He repeatedly criticized the grieving parents of a young soldier who'd been killed in the line of duty. He mocked a disabled man in front of cameras. He failed to disavow the white supremacists who campaigned for him. He cheated those he'd employed out of money. He bragged about not paying taxes. He laughed when his supporters threatened journalists with violence. He said he could grab women by the pussy if he felt like it.
ZERLINA MAXWELL, a writer of one of the essays starts, "Black women tried to save you America. You didn't want to be saved." In fact, Hillary garnered 94% of the female black vote (4% for Trump).
As white women, we need to look at the inequality spread throughout the entire female constituency, and then hold all of our sisters hands so that women are given the respect and dignity they so richly deserve. -
Leading up to the election I was a bit nervous that people weren't taking Trump seriously enough. The main thought process was that reason will prevail overall so there was no need to worry. The thing is, having friends in the UK who told me that they and their friends felt similarly about the Brexit vote made me intensely fearful. We know what happened there. I obviously had that shred of hope as well despite my fears that reason would indeed prevail. And then of course the results came in slowly. The pundits kept thinking of ways that it'd all be ok because it was quite obvious they, like myself, had held on to this hope. But here we are. As of writing this, Donald Trump has been POTUS for 1 year, 140 days, 0 hours, 11 minutes and 53 seconds.
This is a book of essays for people who are, to put it mildly, not thrilled with the 2016 election. These essays are full of intersectionality, not just written by or catering to one specific "type" of feminist. Some essays have slightly contradicting themes and messages and that's the beauty of it. So many of us are fearful of what's to come, but we aren't drones with a hive mind and this book reflects that beautifully. Some essays give a lot of background and historical context to what's happened, others are more about being active, while others are just reflective.
This book is what you make of it. You can read it and get more depressed about everything that's going on, because it serves as a constant reminder. You can read it and get more angry about everything. You can read it and get more hopeful. There are a whole bunch of emotions that you could get while reading this, I could probably fill pages and pages. But really, I'll say to anyone who chooses to read this book, make sure you're in the right mindset. Be open and see what everyone has to say.
My favorite essays were:
Are Women Persons? - Kate Harding
We Have a Heroine Problem - Carina Chocano
Beyond the Pussy Hats - Katha Pollitt
Is There Ever a Right Time to Talk to You Children About Fascism? - Kera Bolonik
Dispatches From a Texas Militarized Zone - Melissa Arjona
A Nation Groomed and Battered - Rebecca Solnit
Trust Black Women - Zerlina Maxwell
All American - Nicole Chung
But every single essay is well worth a read. I can't recommend this book enough to anyone and everyone. -
This was an unfocused, uneven collection of essays, loosely organized around women sharing their experiences—their fears, their disappointments, their sadnesses—under Trump’s presidency. Some of the essays really conveyed that experience; I found these to be revelatory, thought-provoking, and often challenging. Nichole Chung’s “All-American” was the standout essay for me, conveying the complexity of her experience and the various tensions she feels in her different roles in relation to others. How do we speak to family members, to whom we often feel obligated, when they support this man? When we know him to be not just generally vile and dangerous, but specifically vile and dangerous to disenfranchised people to whom we are directly and intimately connected, people to whom these same relatives are directly and intimately connected? Chung was vulnerable and honest in sharing her own struggles in this vein. I also found Sady Doyle’s “The Pathology of Donald Trump” to be a thoughtful meditation on the dangers of armchair-diagnosing Trump with mental illness.
Some of the essays in Nasty Women seemed to be shoehorned into the compilation, however. It is obviously a challenge to achieve consistency in a collection of essays by disparate voices. Nasty Women reflected the tension between the often less challenging and more palatable feminism of cis heterosexual White women and the feminism of other women. The essays by women I’d place in the former category suffered, for me, in trying to establish and defend their bonafides. Essays by women on the fringe, fighting to be accepted, fighting to be heard, were more powerful for me (Meredith Talusan’s “We’ve Always Been Nasty: Why the Feminist Movement Needs Trans Women and Gender Non-Conforming Femmes” being one of these). These women—feminists do not fit the cis, straight White woman package—argue both for a place at the table, or to flip the table and pave their own way. They make a really, really good case. -
A brilliant book compromising 23 leading feminist writers on protest and solidarity. This book explores what happens after 53% of white women voted for Donald Trump and 94% of black women voted for Hillary Clinton - how can women unite in Trump's America? Nasty Women includes inspiring essays from a diverse group of talented women writers who seek to provide a broad look at how we got here and what we need to do to move forward. While I am not American, this book is still deeply relevant and all the different layers of intersectional feminism and authors from all different walks of life, giving their perspective and take in this book, gives you a much better and correct idea of feminism, as well as educate you further outside of your own limited perception.
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A great read for anyone disillusioned by the current state of American politics, specifically by who occupies the White House. The essays bring all points of the feminist movement into view, not just the needs of the white/cisgendered population, which is important as the future of our country depends on the equal inclusion of all those who have a stake in this country. The essays allow you to commiserate with like minded individuals also traumatized by the outcome of the election, but then quickly encourage you to shake off your self pity and continue to fight. Intelligent, well written, and thought provoking, everything a good manifesto should be.
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What an exceptional collection of essays! They were all so captivating, SO well written (I’m not surprised), so full of emotion and truth and power. I don’t live in the States but even so, I connected to the dire state of affairs in that nation because Canada shares some similar problems. This is a must read, if only to prove that women/feminists have always been and will continue to be the best chance we have at a better world for everyone.
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I think this is the first time I’ve read one of these essay collections and thought that ALL of the essays were well-written and important. Usually it’s much more of a mixed bag, so that was cool.
That said, I don’t recommend reading it all in a day like I did, since each essay is about Trump at least partially and that’s exhausting. -
everyone I know is getting a copy of this. This makes sense of everything I've been feeling and taught me more about the state of our intersectional Feminist moment than I could have imagined. required reading.
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This book was fantastic. I learned so much and was so inspired by the diverse voices in this collection. It discusses intersectional feminism and different womens' reactions to the 2016 election, the first few months of Trump's presidency, and how to resist. Highly, highly recommend!
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Five stars, not because every essay is perfect, but because they are current, accessible, and absolutely frank, but also exhort readers to action and hope. Well worth reading.
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"There is something to be said for opening your eyes to the world as it is, and not as we want it to be."
On 11/9/2016, that we're NOT living in a post-racial America was a sobering realization (for mostly white women I suspect).
Most powerful were the essays in which it was pointed out -- hey, white women, you may think Trump is the worst thing that's happened to America, but we're here to tell you, it's been horrible from the minute white men decided to take what wasn't theirs. And it's been happening every single day since then.
In other words, just because you are experiencing something for the first time doesn't mean that's the first time it's ever been or is currently being experienced by someone else or other peoples.
While I appreciated this collection as a whole, some of the essays fell flat for me; namely, Strayed's "She Will." The beginning of the collection is more focused on the election and Hillary's loss, then steadily they become more broad in the frame of feminism.
On my current journey to decolonizing my mind, these were my favorite essays: "Advice to Grace in Ghana"; "Beyond the Pussy Hats"; "Dispatches From A Texas Militarized Zone"; "We've Always Been Nasty" and "How to Build a Movement."
3.5 stars
Table of Contents with quotes and my notes, if any. -
I thought this collection was terrific. Superb reading by Bahni Turpin on this audio tape.
My favorite essays were the ones dealing with Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and the 2016 election. I still can't believe what happened and the incredible ignorance it took to make it happen. People tell me they did not "like" Hillary Clinton. So did they "like" Donald Trump? I said then and I say again now if you voted for Donald Trump, shame on you. The damage that has been done is enormous. Virtually every section of the government has been damaged.
I thought Hillary winning the popular vote by about 3 million votes an incredibly large amount. Now I think Joe Biden winning by about 7 million or so and incredibly small amount. After four years you still voted for him? And more of you did? It is truly angering. I don't know how to say it is okay and you have a right to your opinion. I just don't feel that way.
These women are not "nasty." They are patriotic, intelligent, knowledgeable, and so on. But I get the word "nasty" because that is what Trump called Hillary.
So we press on trying to undo the damage. But I think it is too great to repair. And the Republican party has a stranglehold on the states. -
One of the best essay collections I’ve ever read - powerful, insightful and brilliant. It’s too hard to pick favourites, so many amazing writers.
I’ll definitely re-read and I rarely re-read.
