It's a Man's World

by Polly Courtney

This is women’s fiction with bite! Join Alexa as she battles her way through the chauvinistic lads mag’s industry and makes real progress - it might be a man’s world, but it takes a woman to run it. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em… Alexa Harris loves a challenge. So when she’s asked to head up lads’ mag, Banter, she doesn’t need much persuasion. But life on the all-male editorial team proves harder than Alexa had imagined – and not just because of her ambitious targets. As Alexa battles with a testosterone-fuelled office, she decides to play the boys at their own game. As success hits, she’s forced to look at who she has become. Has she forfeited her principles in return for praise from the lads? And what price will there be to pay? An addictive page turner with a hard-hitting meaning.

432 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2011

About the author

Polly Courtney is the author of seven novels and is a regular commentator on TV and radio. She rose to fame in 2006 with her semi-autobiographical account of life in the Square Mile, Golden Handcuffs, although it was never her intention to become a writer; she simply wanted to expose the high-flying City life 'for what it really is'.

Having discovered her passion, she went on to write Poles Apart, a novel based on her Polish migrant friend's story, and a raft of books covering themes such as sexism, racism, "lads' mag" culture and the wealth divide, all with a light-hearted, humorous slant. Courtney's most recent novel, Feral Youth, is set on the streets of south London and delves into the frustrations that led to the summer riots.

In late 2011, on the publication of her sixth novel, It’s a Man’s World, Courtney famously walked out on her publisher, HarperCollins, frustrated by the 'chick lit' titles and covers being assigned to her books. She went on to self-publish her future novels and now gives regular masterclasses in self-publishing.

The west London novelist also plays violin in a semi-professional string quartet, No Strings Attached, and competes for her local side in the London women’s football league.

Reviews

[Tara Chevrestt · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was much ado about this book when it first came out. The author said it was marketed in a sexist, fluffy manner and fired her publisher. That got my attention. I said, "this author has balls." And I like a woman with balls and I expected such from this novel. And she is right, this WAS mis-marketed.

On the back of my copy it has a chart of sorts, a content guide. It promises to be a tear-jerker with thrills, drama, love, sex, humour, and friendship. Um, it's missing half of that stuff.

I wasn't moved to tears. Though the book is very thought evoking and brings up good issues: is it the exploitation of women if the women agree to be exploited? And how far should a man's mag be allowed to go? Are women solely tits and ass? I wasn't moved to tears. Thrills come in the way of harassment.. such as the heroine having her face plastered on a pornographic photo and almost installed in one of the magazine issues. There is plenty of drama!!! Love... She loved him, but she loved her career more so.. not really. Sex: there is NONE at all outside of dirty jokes and awful harassment and mentions of rape and sex trafficking. Humour... I honestly felt the story was too serious to be laughing. Friendship, there is. Alexa has two girlfriends, each on opposing sides of the issue brought forth in the book.

The entire novel is about the issue of exploiting women, marketing them as nothing but hot bodies and sending the message out to women that that's what they should look like. And Alexa is behind the scenes. She sells her soul and give up her boyfriend to promote this stuff and must realize what she's doing before it's too late.

Any women who has worked in a male dominated profession will be able to sympathize, but I found the story a bit long winded and repetitive though I appreciate the point it makes.

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting novel. Unlike the cover suggest this is not standard chick lit.

The main character Alexa is somehow similar to that of Golden Handcuffs: The Lowly Life of a High Flyer, perhaps with a few years more a maturity (that probably reflects the evolution of the author...).

Alexa is promoted to managing director of a faltering lads' mags. From the outset she feels the magazine is promoting a degrading image of women, by presenting them as sexual objects.

This puts her in a catch 22. On one hand she wants to take on the challenge of improving the magazine's sales, given that she is an independent and workaholic young women. On the other hand this means selling her soul to the devil by contributing to the growth of a magazine whose philosophy and environment she gets to despise.

This novel does take a stance on some aspects regarding the sexualization of our society, in particular with regards to women, and the youth. There are some interesting points, however as a whole this book is mostly a relaxing read.

[Lydia Laceby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally Reviewed at Novel Escapes

SPOILERS! This is my first review with them so please do not read on if you don’t want to be surprised or offended that I’m spilling the beans. I apologize but I didn’t think I could write this review without them.

It’s a Man’s World confused me. There was so much potential with this storyline, but Courtney didn’t capitalize on the great plot idea, the characters and especially the issues. This novel contained cliché characters, mixed messages, a supposedly strong protagonist that came across as weak and wishy-washy and an evil portrayal of men’s magazines that didn’t sit right with me.

Alexa was portrayed as a strong female character with a fantastic job, yet she was repeatedly spineless. She could never make up her mind and/or talked herself out of the inappropriate conduct of her staff as well as her own inability to take action regarding their behaviour. Even at the end of the novel when she wants to make a stand, she tries, but her efforts go right over her boss’s head and she never bothers to set him straight. So what was even the point then? The internal dialogue in this novel grated at me. Alexa’s thoughts were so jumbled, confused and repetitive that I grew desperate for more action and not just her thoughts about action or inaction.

I discovered as this novel progressed that things always happened to Alexa. She never made anything happen herself. I love reading about someone overcoming obstacles and making their own fate instead of having everyone else dictate life for them - not to mention seeing this unfold in real life. I kept reading and waiting for her to make something happen for herself but sadly, she never did.

The romantic angle even confused me. Under the impression that her boyfriend at the beginning of the novel was lovely, I waited the entire novel for Alexa to realize she loved him more than her work. Towards the end when she realized he was domineering and controlling, although we never saw any evidence of this, I was left baffled, and even more so by her love interest by the end of the novel.

Every character in this novel seemed caricature-ish to me. They only had one side to them, were never fully developed and I didn’t really like any of them. I wanted to know why Georgie was so involved in her cause, why Alexa’s love interest doesn’t seem to care how his colleagues treated her and why the office ringleader was so despicable. The only character I actually grew fond of was Sienna, the playmate type personal assistant - maybe because she was the only person that actually changed.

The men seemed ridiculous to me. Although I’m sure they exist, maybe I’ve just lived in a bubble, or been lucky enough to avoid men like this in a working or personal situation. Sure, I’ve come across some real winners in my time, but none even remotely resembling these vile creatures. I have no idea why Alexa, the strong feminist, seemed to put up with their behaviour.

So, if the point of the novel was to make me think, it did. I thought. A lot. Especially about the sexual objectification of women and how this novel blamed it all on men’s magazines.

This is where this novel went really wrong for me. It’s wasn’t the exploration of this issue, which kudos to Courtney for tackling it, but blaming it all on men’s magazines? Come on!

There are music videos, video games, women’s magazines forcing an idyllic beauty, not to mention role model and peer relationships that affect kids too. Has anyone seen any of the MTV programming lately? By solely blaming the magazine for the sexual objectification of women, I felt it ignored these other facets of society that are equally to blame for the sexual objectification and violence against women.

Speaking of violence, what about our cultural obsession with it? You can’t escape it. The media hones in on it, revels in it. You can’t flip TV channels in the evening without coming across something violent. I personally would rather my child see a passionate kiss than a shooting or stabbing or got a peek at a nuddie magazine than play a game of Mortal Kombat. Sure there are ‘safeguards’ like over 18 restrictions in place, but kids ultimately get their hands on stuff. I don’t know one guy that didn’t discover someone’s magazines when they were young and they seemed to turn out OK. Maybe the generation after mine, which is who these characters are portraying, haven’t been so fortunate though? And if this is the case, I definitely needed even more in depth exploration of the issues.

The mixed messages this novel spewed were particularly evident with the following passage surrounding the defence of pornography. It came from Georgie’s character, the head of an award winning human rights organization that challenges the sexual objectification of women. Both Georgie and Alexa are on a morning news program in a heated debate about Alexa’s new phone app and the sexual objectification of women. Georgie defends porn. Wait what?

‘That’s porn,’ argued Georgie, calmly. ‘And porn is fine. Although its degrading to women, at least when we look at it we know it’s porn. We go out of our way to find it. We know it’s not real. What magazines like yours have done is brought sex into the mainstream. That’s far more dangerous than hardcore porn on obscure websites.’ … “Did you see videos of half naked women on a regular basis when you were growing up?’

I interject here that Alexa has made amateur nude videos more accessible via a mobile app, but aren’t the majority of mobile devices already internet connected and aren’t sites such as these already in existence? And the defence of porn by this feminist freedom fighter? I don’t get it. I really don’t.

And why yes, I did grow up with a half naked woman in music videos. Her name was Madonna. And considering the main character is close to a decade younger than me, I assume she grew up with her and many others too. Oh wait, she wasn’t talking about music videos. Because they’re in no way to blame. Right.

I won’t go on, nor will I even try to profess that I can solve this issue, but I do believe there is more at play in the sexual objectification of women than just men’s magazines.

I guess this novel touched a chord with me and made me think, and if that was the point, Bravo to Polly Courtney. I just feel its unfortunate that the issues weren’t explored further, that Alexa was so incapable to act and that the characters motivations, especially Georgie, weren’t divulged because if they had, It’s a Man’s World could have had a much more profound impact.

[Alexia Diacono · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. It talks about sexual harassment at work and the importance to put your foot down as otherwise it will only get worse. It also highlights all the dangers that can be caused by the media. Lots of girls were the victims of it. The worst thing is that these things happen in real life.

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

When reading I look for something that provokes feelings and reactions out of me that I just cant control and this book just didnt do that. The story was okayish, the characters were 🤷‍♀️ and it took me a long time to read! It wont be a book I'll recommend.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Polly Courtney has written three novels for Avon, but I haven’t managed to read one of them yet. I have The Fame Factor on my shelf – it sounds brilliant, as well, I just haven’t had the time or inclination to pick it up yet – so when I heard about Polly’s new book It’s A Man’s World I was really intrigued because there aren’t many Chick Lit novels set in predominately male worlds and environments. In fact, I don’t think I’ve read one, so I was intrigued to see Polly’s take on things and as soon as my copy arrived, I dived right in.

It’s A Man’s World wasn’t the book I was expecting. Reading the synopsis, I expected a male vs female battle-of-the-sexes type novel where Alexa had to strive to make her mark in the male-dominated environment of Banter, a lads mag. And whilst Alexa does strive to make her mark, it was nowhere near how I expected it to be. Instead, It’s A Man’s World is one long, epic tale of how, frankly, lads mags are ruining the world. So where I was expecting a relatively lightish read, instead I get something more hard-hitting and something infinitely harder to take than I’d have liked. Much like Polly, when I think of a lads mag office (not that I do very much) I expect it to be light-hearted and well, if Polly’s research and subsequent writing is anything to go by, it isn’t and it just was a bit more than I was expecting, really.

It’s still quite a readable novel, but once the novel takes its turn to the dark side – ie. when the protestors come on board after Alexa launches a mobile app, it does become one big rant on how lads mags are destroying everything and I do think that’s unfair. I can’t say I’m alright with lads mags, but to hold them responsible for everything wrong in the media and to suggest that the only offices in which women are sexually harassed is in lads mags ones, that’s wrong. Because it’s not true. While the office environment of Banter is hard to swallow – and I did question Alexa’s reasons for keeping schtum – it does indeed seem an accurate portrayal and I sort of expected Alexa to be a stronger character, to really take it to the men and to show them women are perfectly capable of doing a job deemed to be predominantly male. I wanted Alexa to show them she could turn the magazine around, and that was seriously lacking.

If you’re going to write a character that goes into a male-oriented work domain she’s got to be strong. I want her to go in there and show them who’s boss. Go in there and not let them get you down, not let their harassment be tolerated, you know? But Alexa just sort of flip-flops throughout the book. She wants to make her mark, no doubt, but she’s miles too meek to do it. She haphazardly decides to get “revenge” on the editor, Derek, but her revenge is nothing really, not what I expected. She’s almost thirty years old, but she’s afraid to tell her parents where she works because her mother allegedly rules her life(!). A stronger heroine was needed. Everyone who worked at Banter, with the exception of Jamie and Riz, were horrific. Like I’ve said a few times, I’m sure all of those people are representative of how men think and believe, and it is rather disgusting.

It’s A Man’s World is more hard-hitting than I expected, but it was also a little too preachy. I can see where Courtney was going with it – truly, I can – and I can believe that females in real life who do work at lads mags have a hard time, but honestly? I don’t want to read it in my fiction. I’m all for my characters overcoming obstacles, but I draw the line at having to put up with a character who’s protesting that lads mags are the worst thing ever. I’m not defending lads mags, I’m not saying it’s wrong of Courtney to have a novel that’s a bit more true-to-life, but I’m just saying it’s not really my cup-of-tea and I thought it was going to be more of a light-hearted look at what it takes for a woman to make it in a male-dominated world. It was readable enough, but not what I was expecting. Sadly It’s A Man’s World wasn’t a book I loved, however it was readable enough and a lot of people will love it, I just found it a bit too different than how I expected it to be!

[Samantha March · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes, I come across a book that I’m just not sure what I’ll say in my review. I didn’t love it, I didn’t hate. Some scenes pulled me in, others pushed me away. Sometimes I was laughing out loud, other times I was baffled. And that is precisely what It’s a Man’s World by Polly Courtney did to me. The story revolves around workaholic Alexa Harris as she steps into Banter- the gentleman’s magazine that showcases naked girls. Alexa’s job is to drive up the sales and implement new and fresh ideas so Banter doesn’t go under. She knows she is in for a challenge, switching from working with all women to all men- men who stare at naked women all day and think very little of their new female colleague. Alexa has to juggle her career, love life, and protests that come along with her position and lads’ magazines in general.

So, why am I so confused as to my thoughts on the book? For starters, Alexa is often talked about being a strong female, a trait someone would surely need to work with a bunch of frat-boy men in the Banter setting. Alexa goes from me being strong and putting the guys in their place, to allowing sexual harassment to occur to her and others without saying a word about it. That was a little strange, I felt like I never knew which side of Alexa I was going to get. Then there was her boyfriend, who to me seemed like a decent guy. Until the end of the book where Alexa suddenly realizes how controlling he was- but readers never really see that part of him. I thought that he was a great and decent guy all along, and was actually waiting for them to get back together. Those are just a few of the head scratching moments I had.

On the other hand, there were times were I was really drawn into the story, and wanted to find out what happened next. I enjoyed Alexa’s two best friends and their dramas they were going through. The lone other female that worked at Banter, Selena, was interesting to read about as well. I was never quite sure what she was up to, and it was nice seeing how her story played out at the end. So there were parts that I enjoyed reading as well. Overall, I think most chick lit readers would be able to appreciate the story and the characters that Courtney has come up with. I just felt like I was too back and forth on the book to be able to really get lost in the story.

[Megha Bhattacharya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book #4: Looking for a trashy, excruciatingly average, sad excuse for fiction kinda book for your flight because you don't wanna use your brain? This is a perfect fit! Absolutely predictable storyline, clichés everywhere and quite the downer when it comes to the way it handles the under current of feminism.

[Briony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like other reviewers I read this because I had heard the author had fired her publisher for marketing it a chic-lit. I hate chic-lit but this book starts as I imagine every chic-lit does, Alexa is well-paid and successful, she has a crazy friend, a sensible friend and a new relationship with an unusually handsome man.
It does get a bit better but although the subject matter is interesting, the book never seems to work out if it does want to be chick-lit or something more interesting.

[Michele Gorman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book and Polly's assertion that this is not chick lit is right. I'm glad I knew that this was the case before I read it or I would have been disappointed, expecting one thing and getting another.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

' " I know you find it easy to charm them and to some extent, that's what they've come to expect. But... you could use your brain, instead of your body."
"Thanks," she said, rising from her seat. "i don't believe you, but thanks."'

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a wonderfully written book that deals with some very serious issues. Alexa is faced with some very difficult choices and it really makes you think about where you stand on the issue of lad’s mags and the effect they have on society . A heavy read in some ways but I really enjoyed it.

[Sarah]

I have only just started this book. It is very slow to start but once you begin to understand each character idividually, then you understand the story. Chapter 10 is where I am at, and im hoping the book gets more interesting.

:)

[Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great surprise for me, opened my eyes to the working woman but the author was clearly biased on the whole feminised thing n was a abit of an overkill. Loved the main charactor though n enjoyed the book as a student wanting to work in business industry.

[Aileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started this book and liked it, and then as the book goes on I didn’t
like it, in the end I thought it was an ok read. I won this book from
Avon Publishing. Not sure I would recommend.

[Lucy Donaldson · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5