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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
I purposely picked up this book because I'd be devouring books for a while - reading one every few days - but there were all fluff. I'm not opposed to fluff, but I had a taste for something else, and this really fit the bill. I read about a chapter per night, maybe a little more, and savored each chapter, giving myself time to think from night to night about the topic of each, the evidence she offers, the theories she hangs. She covers both complimentary and insulting terms for women and men, plus touches on the language wars when it comes to casual language, academia, and business and marketing. She refers to activism around women's rights, as well as racial equality, and how language really needs to be considered on the ground floor as we try to dream into being a more inclusive future. There's lots of food for thought here.
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
funny
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
Seemed to be about white feminism exclusively. Intersectionality gets only a passing and super dismissive mention (in a parenthetical!), and racist 2nd wave feminism gets elevated. Nope nope nope vibes are off. Skimmed to see if I missed anything and then returned to the library.
Content Warnings
A white feminist take on language.
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
funny
informative
fast-paced
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
The writing is very magazine and millennial like and can be cringe at times, but I looked past it. Despite the writing style, it has a lot of good historical explanations for the connections between gender and language. Somethings seemed like a stretch, but other ones were believable, it's up to interpretation. A lot of "oh wow" moments. Made me reframe my thinking on using sexist words. I knew language is always evolving and it's not fixed like a lot of ppl think it is. This book helped me see how exactly language isn't fixed and words only have the meaning we give them. I give it a 3.5 because I couldn't get myself to finish it.