Shrewed
A Wry and Closely Observed Look at the Lives of Women and Girls
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Why are there so few women in politics? Why is public space, whether it’s the street or social media, still so inhospitable to women? What does Carrie Fisher have to do with Mary Wollstonecraft? And why is a wedding ceremony Satan’s playground?
These are some of the questions that bestselling author and acclaimed journalist Elizabeth Renzetti examines in her new collection of original essays. Drawing upon her decades of reporting on feminist issues, Shrewed is a book about feminism’s crossroads. From Hillary Clinton’s failed campaign to the quest for equal pay, from the lessons we can learn from old ladies to the future of feminism in a turbulent world, Renzetti takes a pointed, witty look at how far we’ve come — and how far we have to go.
If Nellie McClung and Erma Bombeck had an IVF baby, this book would be the result. If they’d lived at the same time. And in the same country. And if IVF had been invented. Well, you get the point.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Journalist Elizabeth Renzetti’s essay collection comes at a time of reckoning and casts a spotlight on the post-Weinstein era of feminist activism. Her deeply personal commentaries focus on the universal plight of women, referencing feminists from Simone de Beauvoir to Roxane Gay and turning up the heat on society’s ongoing failure to respect and support half of the world’s population. With her witty but fierce insights, Renzetti reads like a Canadian Lindy West; Shrewed belongs in the hands of women—and men—everywhere.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist and novelist Renzetti (Based on a True Story) delivers a sharp assessment of what it is to be a woman in a man's world in these short, punchy essays about, among other things, the myriad reasons women stay silent after being assaulted by men, the things the author wants her daughter and son to know about misogyny, and the way the patriarchy normalizes inequality. Entertainingly mixing the personal and political, Renzetti describes the voice in her own head and most women's as "an asshole who does not want you to test your wingspan... ask for a book contract, or go for an audition, or apply for a job promotion." She then explains, "There are people... who instead have a throaty-voiced cheerleader reclining on the chaise lounge of their consciousness, saying Damn, they'd be lucky to have you for that job. These people are called men.' " She takes readers into her own frantic efforts to balance work and family life, as well as her interviews with remarkable women such as Germaine Greer. Renzetti acknowledges the criticism that white feminism has excluded women of color and candidly describes the difficulty and necessity of having "to pass over the grievance microphone" to other people. Throughout, Renzetti's prose is clever, witty, and accessible, making the book fun for feminists and a good gift for anyone who questions why feminism is still necessary.
