Feminists Don't Wear Pink (and other lies): Amazing women on what the F-word means to them

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However, with the exception of the above, and a couple other highlights, this book was largely a let-down. Especially because of the inclusive essays, I really do think it would be a great read for teens trying to familiarize themselves with feminism. Some people might really enjoy it, especially since so many of its components are rather "bite-sized," so to speak.

With a range of contributors, from Hollywood actresses to teen activists, writing about their personal experiences as women, Feminists Don't Wear Pink is Rebel Girls for a teen audience. I guarantee you'll end up reading the full, illuminating collection, and you'll possibly finish it knowing more about your own personal stance than you imagined. CWs: misogyny/sexism, mentions of rape, mentions of transphobia, description of genital mutilation, racism. This podcast contains some strong opinions, very honest discussions and women who could change your life. I loved being able to see feminism through a variety of perspectives from a wide range of women - I’m currently trying to educate myself more on modern issues including feminism, racial bias etc and this was the perfect first step !

That being said, with there being so many women included…I feel like this was just not put together too well. Often funny, sometimes surprising, and always inspiring, this book aims to bridge the gap between the feminist hashtag and the scholarly text by giving women the space to explain how they actually feel about feminism. I say this with sincerest respect (because I see the host means well) but this podcast embodies more signalling of progressivism, intersectionality and inclusivity than it actually has the capacity for challenging and urgent conversations about issues affecting women from all walks of life. The older I get the more I discover the depths, the more I realise sexism is a carefully architected system that might take longer than we think to truly decode; that fact alone makes me aware that I am, at twenty-nine, still a feminist with training wheels.

There are women who have only recently become aware of their need for feminism, and there are women who have been attending protests for years. In many countries oppression is still openly practiced and women across the globe are still refused the most basic of rights.

Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies is a collection of writing from extraordinary women, from Hollywood actresses to teenage activists, each telling the story of her personal relationship with feminism.

And I will give the book props for including, among other things, a transwoman, a disabled woman, and many non-white women, including women not from Europe or America. But I do know one thing for sure: just because you identify as a feminist, does not mean your ideas are worth publishing. Like I said, I think it's a great introduction to feminism, but as I already knew quite a bit about that topic, I wanted to learn more new things and I didn't. Published in partnership with Girl Up, the UN Foundation's adolescent girl campaign, contributors include Hollywood superstars like Saoirse Ronan, activists like Alicia Garza, a founder of Black Lives Matter, and even fictional icons such as Bridget Jones. I have respect Girl Up's work, and I appreciate the diversity of the contributors and the emphasis on everyone being a work in progress.

Especially when a lot of the essays just repeated a lot of what’s shouted about on the internet already, so…what can I do beyond that? You can identify as a feminist and act according to your feminism and still hurt the movement as a whole (see SWERFs and TERFs). All the women and Scarlett are inspiring and give such insight into feminism and society in ways I had not thought of before. It seems to frame the idea that "periods are solely a female issue" as equal to "periods are a human issue" - which it isn't (both in feminism and in general).

It would probably be a good introduction to feminism if you’re wanting to read more into it or discover people hoping to take on a more activist approach. Readers beginning their feminist journey will find Claire Horn’s ‘A Short History of Feminist Theory’ especially useful, summarising as it does the movement’s origins, multi-stranded history and contemporary incarnations. Maybe it needed curating some more, or even just spread out in a slightly different way…but it quickly became a tad monotonous, which breaks my heart to say.But some are anecdotes, some are fictional short stories, some are simply lists of thing, there’s a random poetry break halfway through…it made my brain hurt. It's true that people do have different experiences and needs under feminism (that's why we have intersectional feminism). Some of the essays didn't even really seem to be directly about feminism at all, but rather on only tangentially related issues--for example, the reason why the cover of this book is a specific shade of pink. It became an event, with me buddy reading this with my friend Jess and setting time aside in my hectic uni reading schedule to make sure I read it. Moreover, as I'm not new to reading about feminism, I feel like I only learnt something new from a minority of writing pieces, so that was a bit of a let-down, but the book isn't at fault in that!