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You Need More Than A Fancy Title...

She writes as she tries to come up with a fancy title for her blogpost...

But it's true! A book needs more than a fancy title in order to convince me that it has something important to say. Full disclosure, I did decide to read Why I am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto by Jessa Crispin because of the title; I loved the contradiction, and I expected a brilliant read that talked about why popular feminism and neoliberal feminism distract from true gender equality, but what I found was...not that. 

Apparently I am (not?) a Feminist

At first glance, Jessa Crispin's book is promising, but after the intriguing title there is a while bunch of contradiction and confusion. If I am being completely honest, I am not totally sure what her point was and thus, I cannot fully situate myself. However, here's a list of what I gathered from her book, and my thoughts:
  1. We should not lump all forms of feminism together (which is 100% true, but she continues to critique contemporary feminism by lumping all present day feminists together, so that was confusing)
  2. Tim Hunt's joke was taken out of context (Tim Hunt is a Nobel Prize winning scientist who infamously said, women should not work in labs because they either fall in love with their male colleagues, or their male colleagues fall in love with them, or they start crying. Crispin seems to think that because Hunt met his wife in a lab, this joke was taken out of context, but I think it's important to remember that a man can be married to a woman, and still be sexist. Marriage does not negate sexism!)
  3. You have to be an activist to be a feminist (Crispin's call to action concluded that if someone wants to live a comfortable life they are not a feminist...I don't even know where to begin with this statement, as Crispin herself said their are many types of feminism and we should not lump them together, which means we should not exclude people based on how they choose to live)
Popular/neoliberal feminism can certainly be isolating, as it focuses on the individual and empowering oneself in order to achieve success (see Empowered by Sarah Banet-Weiser for more info), Crispin's book does not coherently critique this. She does not even distinguish between different types of feminism, but rather uses "feminism" as a blanket term, making her arguments/rants confusing to follow. 

I am not here to tell you how to be a feminist or what feminist literature to read, that is completely up to you! But this was a 1 star read for me. I felt like I was reading the complaints of a woman who has a surface level understanding of feminism, and I found that Sarah Banet-Weiser's critique of popular feminism (which I also reviewed) to be far more comprehensive and accessible. 

Oh well...c'est la vie...If you have any recommendations or requests, or you want to talk about feminism, please comment below, email me (theopinionatedbookworm@gmail.com) or follow me on Instagram (@theopinionatedbookworm1).

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