Kirby offers up some dark, giddy feminism that really hit the spot for me during this time of BS. I had no idea what was happening when I started the first story, then I did, and I was like 'Yeeees!'. I live for Cassandra, watching the destruction of her temples with a smirk on her face, remembering that these men are barefaced cowards.
"...men who think her mad driving her to madness. She wishes she could move far away to an islan and own a bird."
Word.
I read the first chapter of this book at a nightclub and I did not dance that night. Instead, I sat transfixed and overwhelmed with feelings of recognition. Discovering the works of Mary Daly was like being heard and seen for the first time. I always thought I was crazy, I always thought I was extreme in my thinking, both are true but neither make me wrong.
When Roiphe isn't unflinchingly examining her own flaws as what our society wants a woman to be, she is picking apart the very essence of femininity. Occasionally I felt skewered by the barbs she hurls heedlessly into the void, but ultimately I felt empowered to be my own flawed self and appreciate my power, be it soft, hard, or something altogether different.
With the same refreshing honesty, wit, and fierce feminism that fans have come to love in their wildly successful podcast, Georgia and Karen present a blueprint for how to stay sexy and stay alive. From mental health to addiction; family, relationships, and loss, these autobiographical essays offer advice and commiseration without sacrificing self awareness and humor. Much of what makes their podcast so popular can be found in these pages-- perhaps most importantly, the gentle yet insistent reminder that we are not alone.
Carrying this book feels like carrying a knife. Like a sharp and discreet weapon, it's easily brandished when confronted with the notion that power disparity among the sexes and "women's issues" are really a baseless non-issue. Beard takes an important step (one we could all take) to trace such insidious notions back to their dirty roots.
Deconnick and De Landro have created a brutal, unapologetic mashup of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and the 1975 dystopian sci-fi action film “Rollerball”. They have taken the struggle of marginalized people everywhere, that daily struggle to insist that others recognize our humanity, and channeled it into the cerebral, violent feminist exploitation comic of my dreams. Buy it for the 16 year old girl in YOUR life.
