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Bitch Doctrine: Essays for Dissenting Adults
I can't really think of another writer who so consistently and bravely keeps thinking and talking and learning and trying to make the world better. --Caitlin Moran
Smart and provocative, witty and uncompromising, this collection of Laurie Penny's celebrated essays establishes her as one of the most important and vibrant feminist voices of our time. From the shock of Donald Trump's election and the victories of the far right to online harassment and the transgender rights movement, this darkly humorous collection is an unflinching look at the definitive issues of our age.
Penny is lyrical and passionate in her desire to confront injustice; she writes at the raw edge of the zeitgeist at a time when it has never been more vital to challenge social norms. This revelatory, revolutionary collection will give readers hope and tools for change from a bitch who wants to get stuff done.
"
Smart and provocative, witty and uncompromising, this collection of Laurie Penny's celebrated essays establishes her as one of the most important and vibrant feminist voices of our time. From the shock of Donald Trump's election and the victories of the far right to online harassment and the transgender rights movement, this darkly humorous collection is an unflinching look at the definitive issues of our age.
Penny is lyrical and passionate in her desire to confront injustice; she writes at the raw edge of the zeitgeist at a time when it has never been more vital to challenge social norms. This revelatory, revolutionary collection will give readers hope and tools for change from a bitch who wants to get stuff done.
"
472 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2017
213 people are currently reading
4629 people want to read
About the author
Laurie Penny
31 books610 followersLaurie Penny is a journalist, an author, a feminist and a net denizen. She is Contributing Editor at New Statesman magazine, and writes and speaks on social justice, pop culture, gender issues and digital politics for The Guardian, The Independent, Vice, Salon, The Nation, The New Inquiry and many more. She is the author of Cybersexism, Penny Red and Meat Market: Female Flesh Under Capitalism, as well as Discordia: Six Nights in Crisis Athens, co-authored with Molly Crabapple. Her book, Unspeakable Things, was published by Bloomsbury in 2014. In 2010, at the age of 23, she was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for political writing. She is a frequent guest on national television and radio, has appeared on Question Time, Any Questions and Newsnight for the BBC, as well as Al-Jazeera and Democracy Now, and has given talks at the Oxford Union and the London School of Economics.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 192 reviews
July 12, 2017
It will come as a surprise to absolutely no-one that I consider myself a feminist; academically, personally, and politically. As such I have read an awful lot of feminist writing, both for my degrees and in my free time - which is why there really weren't all that many new things for me to discover in this essay collection. This doesn't mean it isn't a great starting point or not worth reading, it just means that I found myself skimming parts of the book.
Laurie Penny writes about many things important to me; and I agree on a whole lot of topics. She is angry and rightfully so; it is an absolute shame that the world isn't fairer and better because it could be and it should be. I am fine with a feminism that is angry because why the hell are we still arguing about whether equality is fair?! Many things make me angry and I think it is important to use that anger to change the world in whatever way we can - and if it is only in changing how we act and react and treat people.
One of her major points is about how it is unfair that women writers are always meant to speak for all women - as if that was at all possible to achieve. However, she then quite often seems to speak for all women (giving us such weird phrases like "we as women of colour" [she is not a woman of colour]). For me that was a incongruity that I could not quite deal with. Paradoxically the book works both best and least when Laurie Penny uses her own experience as a baseline to discuss things. When she uses her own experience to underscore the more academic and political points she makes it works great and gives her work a more immediate urgency. But then she seems to sometimes think her experience to be more universal than it maybe is and then it detracted from her points.
I never quite warmed to the way she structures her essays; I often found the endings to be not quite thought-out or very abrupt. Additionally, there were some sentences that for me flowed weird and took me right out my reading flow. I think the best pieces were those that sounded more conversationally - I think because those were the ones where she was the angriest, and she does angry extremely well.
___
I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that!
Laurie Penny writes about many things important to me; and I agree on a whole lot of topics. She is angry and rightfully so; it is an absolute shame that the world isn't fairer and better because it could be and it should be. I am fine with a feminism that is angry because why the hell are we still arguing about whether equality is fair?! Many things make me angry and I think it is important to use that anger to change the world in whatever way we can - and if it is only in changing how we act and react and treat people.
One of her major points is about how it is unfair that women writers are always meant to speak for all women - as if that was at all possible to achieve. However, she then quite often seems to speak for all women (giving us such weird phrases like "we as women of colour" [she is not a woman of colour]). For me that was a incongruity that I could not quite deal with. Paradoxically the book works both best and least when Laurie Penny uses her own experience as a baseline to discuss things. When she uses her own experience to underscore the more academic and political points she makes it works great and gives her work a more immediate urgency. But then she seems to sometimes think her experience to be more universal than it maybe is and then it detracted from her points.
I never quite warmed to the way she structures her essays; I often found the endings to be not quite thought-out or very abrupt. Additionally, there were some sentences that for me flowed weird and took me right out my reading flow. I think the best pieces were those that sounded more conversationally - I think because those were the ones where she was the angriest, and she does angry extremely well.
___
I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that!
September 18, 2017
British journalist and opinion writer Laurie Penny is eminently quotable. She has enormous facility with a phrase, but also goes for big ideas. She is therefore doubly dangerous. If words are power, watch out for this keg of dynamite. It is only difficult to see where her experience and confidence comes from. She is thirty years old but sounds like a scarred and ancient sage in some kind of time warp.
This book is a collection of essays reworked as themed chapters in a discussion of gender, economic, and social equality. Both she and I are amazed we are back at this place, talking about gender discrimination in the workplace.
Penny is hilarious on 'The Tragedy of James Bond:'
She talks of how Lena Dunham in “Girls” never was and never could be the voice for all women, and how men’s experiences and performances are not expected to speak for all men. She speaks of trigger warnings, which even friends of mine have decried as excessive:
Penny had her struggles with gender identity, and comes out on the side of a spectrum of sexuality: “I consider ‘woman’ to be a made-up category, an intangible, constantly changing idea with as many different definitions as there are cultures on Earth….Gender is something I perform.” She’s way ahead of me here. I have not faced her struggles and had not considered her dilemmas, but I have heard of them now and I must consider that for a certain portion of the human race, gender is not as clear cut as it seems.
She speaks of violence, and the rape culture, and the Liberal Limit—the exhaustion of liberals with the speed and constant drumbeat of change. A ten-point 5-page discussion of Free Speech—what it is and what it isn’t—doesn’t really address hate speech. If she considers it at all it is under point 5: “Freedom of speech does not mean that all views are of equal worth.” This almost casual dismissal of one of the hardest things to reconcile when free speech works for all of us and when it doesn’t weakens her argument and makes her seem the young upstart she appears to be, rather than the old soul she will become. Not completely finished cooking yet, then. We have more to look forward to.
Laurie Penny is a very impressive writer and likable. When she added an Introduction published after the election of Donald Trump to the American presidency, she speaks of her impressions:
This book is a collection of essays reworked as themed chapters in a discussion of gender, economic, and social equality. Both she and I are amazed we are back at this place, talking about gender discrimination in the workplace.
“Women make up over 50 per cent of graduates, and tend to match or outperform men in any test where intellect and aptitude are the only measures of success—school examinations, for example. But whenever large numbers of men are involved in the hiring or selection process, women fall behind.”I actually have no idea whether this is objective fact, especially in math and the sciences, but close enough. You get the point. It would be laughable, and used to be, behind closed doors, or behind hands if men were present. But now we don’t feel like laughing anymore and are tired of this argument about “objective merit.” I like Penny’s phrase, “When you’re used to privilege, equality feels like prejudice.” Welcome to the melting pot, white men.
Penny is hilarious on 'The Tragedy of James Bond:'
“The experience was like having your forebrain slowly and laboriously beaten to death by a wilting erection wrapped in a copy of the Patriot Act: savage and silly and just a little bit pathetic.”But before you roar your displeasure over her attack, she freely admits watching the films are a guilty pleasure. And she adores Daniel Craig, “who appears to be about as unsexist as anyone who has worked in Hollywood for twenty years can be.”
She talks of how Lena Dunham in “Girls” never was and never could be the voice for all women, and how men’s experiences and performances are not expected to speak for all men. She speaks of trigger warnings, which even friends of mine have decried as excessive:
“Trigger warnings are fundamentally about empathy. They are a polite plea for more openness, not less; for more truth, not less. They allow taboo topics and the experience of hurt and pain, often by marginalized people, to be spoken frankly. They are the opposite of censorship.”I could quote this woman all day long. She writes extremely cogently, answering ideas that have been floating about your head and your world and have never adequately articulated. Even if you don’t agree, her point of view has an inexorable logic that in her snarky tone has a bell-like clarity.
Penny had her struggles with gender identity, and comes out on the side of a spectrum of sexuality: “I consider ‘woman’ to be a made-up category, an intangible, constantly changing idea with as many different definitions as there are cultures on Earth….Gender is something I perform.” She’s way ahead of me here. I have not faced her struggles and had not considered her dilemmas, but I have heard of them now and I must consider that for a certain portion of the human race, gender is not as clear cut as it seems.
She speaks of violence, and the rape culture, and the Liberal Limit—the exhaustion of liberals with the speed and constant drumbeat of change. A ten-point 5-page discussion of Free Speech—what it is and what it isn’t—doesn’t really address hate speech. If she considers it at all it is under point 5: “Freedom of speech does not mean that all views are of equal worth.” This almost casual dismissal of one of the hardest things to reconcile when free speech works for all of us and when it doesn’t weakens her argument and makes her seem the young upstart she appears to be, rather than the old soul she will become. Not completely finished cooking yet, then. We have more to look forward to.
Laurie Penny is a very impressive writer and likable. When she added an Introduction published after the election of Donald Trump to the American presidency, she speaks of her impressions:
“..the lacquered, lying sack of personality disorders...made no attempt to hide his vision of the entire damn world as the next acquisition in his dodgy property portfolio.”We need this woman. She amuses us, commiserates with us, and leads us. She has reached a language virtuosity on a level with Matt Taibbi, much-vaunted American political journalist whose snark is considered an art form.
October 15, 2017
This is the third book of essays that I have read this year (You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain and Men Explain Things to Me). All three were written by women and in varying degrees were about feminism and role of women in our current culture. As I sit down to write a review, I can't help but compare it to the other two books and their points of view in the world. It's an interesting dichotomy. Penny's is the loudest voice and the most indulgent (she is also the most recently read one which could also be to her benefit). She is brash, confrontational and fierce. I have found that with my current disposition, she was the most satisfying. I'm growing weary of passivity in the face of blatant sexism, racism, cultural privilege, wealth gap, and structural game rigging and the mass media's almost desperation to brand/rationalize them as things other than what they are
Penny is very young (currently under 35 and under 30 when she wrote most of the essays) and I can't say that I agreed with (or even understood) all of her essays. As a woman of a certain age, I don't feel the need to give title and category to every feeling and emotion. There was one essay in her Gender section where it felt like she was creating a new gender classification for a female that doesn't feel feminine but is still attracted to men. In her view these people had more in common with homosexual males. For me, this was a generational thing. I found myself completely unconcerned or phased. There were a few essays like this throughout the collection. She has some interesting insights about the future or more directly some very astute and salient points about how our cultural biases envision the future. Advancements in technology seem to be rooted in male fantasy. There is a reason that things like Siri, Cortana, and Alexa have female personas. Things designed to serve or service. I didn't think about that perspective until reading it and then I'm all…duh! [sarcasm] My goodness if I never saw it, it must not be seeable except by a genius…a youthful genius [/sarcasm]. Admittedly I should have noticed. I work in the IT field. Too busy geeking out on technology. Anyhoo…
Overall, I really like Laurie Penny. This year she has come the closest towards representing my most powerful thoughts and voice. I will eventually be picking up more of her books. She a British and already a bit of a big deal (maybe not here in America), but I hope her star continues to burn brightly in the coming years. She is strongly opinionated, articulate, and fearlessly feminist and an original, rational thinker. She is also very amusing and cathartic. This young woman gets it and when she's on point; I find myself wondering how she broke into my very tightly secured thought vault.
4 Stars
Read on kindle.
The media on both sides of the pond has fallen over itself to consider whether the boiling bigotry on display might somehow conceal ‘legitimate concerns’.(the phrase "economic insecurity" comes to mind…). She is not afraid to question rationales and frequently reduces what passes as rational thought to rubble. The book is divided into 8 general categories: Introduction: Bitch Logic, Madness and Resistance: A US Election Diary 2016, Love and Other Chores, Culture, Gender, Agency, Backlash, Violence, Future. Each section has 3-4 essays loosely related to the given topic. Backlash and Madness and Resistance stood out for me. Penny is fierce and fearless and an many of her retorts are clever and collectable. Some examples:
It is no longer an overstatement to suggest that toxic masculinity is killing the world.
When I started out, my world was overfull of stern men imploring me to strive for objectivity – which meant, in practice, that I ought to tell the story as a rich older man might see it.
I am done pretending that the good intentions of white patriarchy are more important than the consequences enacted on the bodies of others.
‘Trumpism’ was doing to the American psyche: The public rhetoric of Trumpism normalizes what therapists work against in our work: the tendency to blame others in our lives for our personal fears and insecurities and then battle these others instead of taking the healthier but more difficult path of self-awareness and self-responsibility. It also normalizes a kind of hyper-masculinity that is antithetical to the examined life and healthy relationships that psychotherapy helps people achieve. Simply stated, Trumpism is inconsistent with emotionally healthy living – and we have to say so publicly.
Do not doubt that this is a war of nerves as much as a war of resources.
I’d never considered as a literature student: that Austen’s famous novels of shrubbery romance in stately homes and claustrophobic marriage plotting make a lot more sense once you realise that all her protagonists are profoundly depressed and economically desperate. The reason that her middle-class heroines are so singularly fixated on marriage is that they have no meaningful alternatives: without a suitable mate, they face poverty, shame and social isolation. They are not romances. They are horror stories.
Capitalism has managed to incorporate the mass entrance of women into the traditionally male workplace by depressing wages, but the question of how households will be formed and children raised is still unsolved. Public anxiety over the low fertility rate among middle-class white women is matched only by the modern hysteria about working-class, black and migrant women having ‘too many’ babies – the attempts by neoconservatives to bully, threaten and cajole wealthy white women back to the kitchen and nursery are as much about racist panic as they are about reinstituting a social order that only ever worked for men.
The part of our cultural imagination that places white Western men at the centre of every story is the same part that legitimises racism and sexism.
Penny is very young (currently under 35 and under 30 when she wrote most of the essays) and I can't say that I agreed with (or even understood) all of her essays. As a woman of a certain age, I don't feel the need to give title and category to every feeling and emotion. There was one essay in her Gender section where it felt like she was creating a new gender classification for a female that doesn't feel feminine but is still attracted to men. In her view these people had more in common with homosexual males. For me, this was a generational thing. I found myself completely unconcerned or phased. There were a few essays like this throughout the collection. She has some interesting insights about the future or more directly some very astute and salient points about how our cultural biases envision the future. Advancements in technology seem to be rooted in male fantasy. There is a reason that things like Siri, Cortana, and Alexa have female personas. Things designed to serve or service. I didn't think about that perspective until reading it and then I'm all…duh! [sarcasm] My goodness if I never saw it, it must not be seeable except by a genius…a youthful genius [/sarcasm]. Admittedly I should have noticed. I work in the IT field. Too busy geeking out on technology. Anyhoo…
Overall, I really like Laurie Penny. This year she has come the closest towards representing my most powerful thoughts and voice. I will eventually be picking up more of her books. She a British and already a bit of a big deal (maybe not here in America), but I hope her star continues to burn brightly in the coming years. She is strongly opinionated, articulate, and fearlessly feminist and an original, rational thinker. She is also very amusing and cathartic. This young woman gets it and when she's on point; I find myself wondering how she broke into my very tightly secured thought vault.
4 Stars
Read on kindle.
December 9, 2018
4.5 stars rounded up
A collection of essays and writings from the ever interesting and stimulating Laurie Penny. These are short pieces, collected from a variety of sources. They are grouped under several topics: the American election and Trump, love, violence, culture, agency, gender, backlash and violence. As always Penny passionately champions feminism: challenging patriarchy and what she sees as the current move to the right in the US. Her remit is wide-ranging:
“You cannot separate issues of gender and identity from issues of political and economic struggle. They are the same struggle.”
What I do like about Penny is that she is prepared to tackle difficult issues, including the debate within feminism about transgender issues. Her radicalism though is a caring variety and she acknowledges that what needs doing will be difficult, “Rapid social change is uncomfortable, even for people who like to see themselves on the right side of history”. She is clear though about where she is coming from:
“I understand that a great many people are aggrieved that women, migrants and people of colour no longer seem to know their proper place. I understand that a great many otherwise decent human beings believe that more rights for black, brown and female people means fewer rights for ‘ordinary people’, by which they mean white people. But just because you’re angry doesn’t mean you’re right.”
She is also clear that the future won’t be easy:
"I have no hopeful messages to convey, like ‘Go home and chill out. Everything will work out,’ because nothing works out on its own. There is a lot of effort awaiting us,”
And
"Although patriarchy is a structural problem, a lot of people believe it is about many individual incidents that have nothing to do with each other. To me, living in this world as a woman means experiencing all instances of violence or sexism in ways that are always interlinked.”
Penny is cogent and as you can see, very quotable and she illustrates difficult arguments very well:
“Trigger warnings are fundamentally about empathy. They are a polite plea for more openness, not less; for more truth, not less. They allow taboo topics and the experience of hurt and pain, often by marginalized people, to be spoken frankly. They are the opposite of censorship.”
There is a great deal of humour as well as anger in these essays. My only real frustration was that because these are essays/journalistic pieces there is no extended analysis, but that is a minor point. This is well worth reading.
A collection of essays and writings from the ever interesting and stimulating Laurie Penny. These are short pieces, collected from a variety of sources. They are grouped under several topics: the American election and Trump, love, violence, culture, agency, gender, backlash and violence. As always Penny passionately champions feminism: challenging patriarchy and what she sees as the current move to the right in the US. Her remit is wide-ranging:
“You cannot separate issues of gender and identity from issues of political and economic struggle. They are the same struggle.”
What I do like about Penny is that she is prepared to tackle difficult issues, including the debate within feminism about transgender issues. Her radicalism though is a caring variety and she acknowledges that what needs doing will be difficult, “Rapid social change is uncomfortable, even for people who like to see themselves on the right side of history”. She is clear though about where she is coming from:
“I understand that a great many people are aggrieved that women, migrants and people of colour no longer seem to know their proper place. I understand that a great many otherwise decent human beings believe that more rights for black, brown and female people means fewer rights for ‘ordinary people’, by which they mean white people. But just because you’re angry doesn’t mean you’re right.”
She is also clear that the future won’t be easy:
"I have no hopeful messages to convey, like ‘Go home and chill out. Everything will work out,’ because nothing works out on its own. There is a lot of effort awaiting us,”
And
"Although patriarchy is a structural problem, a lot of people believe it is about many individual incidents that have nothing to do with each other. To me, living in this world as a woman means experiencing all instances of violence or sexism in ways that are always interlinked.”
Penny is cogent and as you can see, very quotable and she illustrates difficult arguments very well:
“Trigger warnings are fundamentally about empathy. They are a polite plea for more openness, not less; for more truth, not less. They allow taboo topics and the experience of hurt and pain, often by marginalized people, to be spoken frankly. They are the opposite of censorship.”
There is a great deal of humour as well as anger in these essays. My only real frustration was that because these are essays/journalistic pieces there is no extended analysis, but that is a minor point. This is well worth reading.
August 11, 2017
It might be a matter of experience (and generation?). But if you've spent many years of your life fighting for gender equality and a better world in general, and against sexism, racism, atomic energy and war, LP's obsession with "what do I call myself", "who is a feminist", "do I smoke", "do I wear skirts or shirts"... is simply boring. Her repeated self-descriptions meant to remind us that she is a feminist (and a journalist and an activist) perfectly reflect the genuine Tumblr-fb-Instagram...-identity that so marks this decade and the recent past. None of her essays speaks about experiences made outside of the little white English middle class bubble or other woman/people in general - apart from mini references that are meant to turn her readers attention again to ... Laurie, who does not want to be Laura any more. Her recent collection is just another 30-something writer's rant, and an excellent example of the extraordinary auto-focus of unfortunately much too many people who spend their time deciding, who is what (life without a label is nothing, it seems), instead of trying to come to grips with the (theoretical) foundations of the realities in the 21st century, let alone doing something about what they rightly consider unsolved questions of our times. A profound analysis instead of the umpteenth description of perceived and real facts would interest me more than reading yet another I-Me-Mine story.
October 18, 2021
I don't read nearly enough feminist non fiction that I would like to do but I'm slowly and surely on my way. I picked it up in one of the more neglected book shelf sections for me in the library and I'm eager to adventure on more. This was such good essays and while I don't enjoy short stories a lot. I think essays is more my thing? Was afraid I would have same outcome. She writes very well and has a lot of interesting and good things to say and I'm intrigued to see if I can find more by her
August 26, 2017
Laurie Penny has been one of my favourite authors for a while now. Her incisive takes on how feminism can be more intersectional, more anti-capitalist, have continued to be on point as the United States and UK shamble towards their respective political armageddons (armagedda?). Penny’s Unspeakable Things is the feminist primer for my generation. So when I heard that she had a new book coming out, and that it was called Bitch Doctrine: Essays for Dissenting Adults, pre-ordering it was a no-brainer.
Let’s take a moment with the wordplay in that subtitle. Penny is big on consent, of course, so I love how she replaces the phrase “consenting adults” with “dissenting adults” and reminds us up front that her feminism is anti-establishment by definition. Penny’s writing is always sharp and unapologetic in its demands on its readers. In every essay, every piece in this book, Penny demands action. She has this to say in the introduction:
I love Penny’s writing so much, not just for the ideas it espouses but for the skill and care in its diction and style alone: Penny is a good writer, hands down, expressing her ideology so clearly. In many cases she can talk about horrible, uncomfortable things in beautiful ways. In that passage above, she writes with a passion, a zealous devotion born from an anger I can never know. And that’s what sets her apart from me. The privilege of my gender filters my experiences, so that when I write about feminism, I’m not subject to the same torrent of abuse that Penny and other women experience.
Penny is quick to point out, however, her own privilege:
This is an important acknowledgement even if it seems like Feminism 101 to anyone who reads a lot of this, because this is where white feminists get particularly tripped up. In our zeal for liberation we forget that there are people who have more skin (literally) or other, diverse perspectives in this fight. Penny isn’t perfect, and neither are the essays in this book. The idea that you’re going to be feminist without making any mistakes is as silly as thinking you’ll somehow make a championship NBA team without ever missing a shot.
Penny grounds her understanding of feminism in an anti-capitalist context. That is to say, the patriarchy exists because it’s a way for the dominant group of people to hold on to power:
(That’s why, when feminism became popular and trendy enough, companies started using it to market products—because they really don’t care what philosophy they espouse, as long as it sells.)
Lest you think Penny only targets the “traditional right” though, she has critiques for the “traditional left” too. Though her sympathies are undoubtedly socialist, Penny is quick to condemn those who yearn for the good ol’ people’s revolution:
Have I mentioned that, so far, I’ve only been quoting from the introduction?
Suffice it to say, I could quote at length from this book. So much of what Penny has to say here is relevant and topical. I’m writing this as the American media reels from white nationalists marching in Charlottesville and Trump’s completely inappropriate response to it. If you read Bitch Doctrine now you could be forgiven for thinking Penny was writing after those marches; so many of her essays link Trump to the rise of white nationalism and the clouds on the horizon. She isn’t prophetic, mind you—she just has her eyes open. Plenty of people were writing about this and talking about it in the years leading up to and following Trump’s election. It’s not for lack of trying; we didn’t listen.
Penny also has a great deal to say about women’s bodies, reproductive agency, and sexual violence. Most of the writing here is powerful, again both in terms of style and substance. She asks the reader to confront these problems not just as horrible from a moral point of view but as symptoms of a broken system:
This is the kind of passage that I would hope makes readers go, “Whoa” and makes heads explode. I was kind of already in this head-space, and even still, the succinctness with which Penny makes these connections is so powerful.
Penny is equally at home talking about Nazis, politics, and nerd culture. Her nerdy interests mean she can speak to this demographic as one of us rather than as an outsider looking in with anthropological distaste. Even as she critiques the ways nerd culture reinforces patriarchy, she does so with compassion:
(Requisite reference to the Mitchell & Webb “Are we the baddies?” sketch now.) That sentence is just so good; it’s such a perfect and nerdy way of capturing the immensity of the betrayal that our society pulls on good people with privilege.
If it’s not comforting to know you’re part of the Empire, then you’re not alone. There isn’t a lot of comfort in Bitch Doctrine. I would say, though, that there is a fair amount of hope. I don’t think Penny would be writing otherwise. And perhaps that’s why I love these essays so much: one can tell from her tone and style that Penny truly believes writing has the power to change the world. This is a powerful form of activism.
The essays collected herein were previously published elsewhere, so fellow fans of Penny might find them somewhat familiar. Although I think some have been expanded/revised, if you came here looking for a lot of new material, you might be disappointed. Similarly, although Penny and her editors have worked hard to curate a sensible collection, the end result is a little bit more scattershot than a more unified effort like Unspeakable Things. While this doesn’t detract from Bitch Doctrine’s quality as a feminist polemic, it’s just not my personal preference. Other people might be totally fine with it.
On a related note, another one of my few qualms about this book is that I wish the essays had dates on them. They’re grouped thematically rather than ordered chronologically, so as a result, some of the works feel fresh and topic, but others feel a little out of date given more recent political or cultural events. Context is important, and without dates, we lack some information here.
Overall, Bitch Doctrine is a nice compilation of a lot of Penny’s best work over the past few years. This isn’t the place to start if you’re on the fence about feminism, and people who read a lot of feminist work might not find a lot new here (lots of nodding and agreement, maybe some areas of disagreement over how Penny tries to be intersectional). On the whole, though, the success of this work lies in whether or not Penny’s particular brand of fire-and-snark is to your taste. It certainly is to mine.
Let’s take a moment with the wordplay in that subtitle. Penny is big on consent, of course, so I love how she replaces the phrase “consenting adults” with “dissenting adults” and reminds us up front that her feminism is anti-establishment by definition. Penny’s writing is always sharp and unapologetic in its demands on its readers. In every essay, every piece in this book, Penny demands action. She has this to say in the introduction:
The title is a provocation, but so is the rest of the book. How could it be otherwise? Anything any woman ever writes about politics is considered provocative, an invitation to dismissal and disgust and abuse, in much the same way that a short skirt is considered an invitation to sexual violence. That’s the point. I have learned through years of writing in public that if you are a woman and political, they will come for you whatever you say—so you may as well say what you really feel. If that makes me a bitch, I can live with that.
I love Penny’s writing so much, not just for the ideas it espouses but for the skill and care in its diction and style alone: Penny is a good writer, hands down, expressing her ideology so clearly. In many cases she can talk about horrible, uncomfortable things in beautiful ways. In that passage above, she writes with a passion, a zealous devotion born from an anger I can never know. And that’s what sets her apart from me. The privilege of my gender filters my experiences, so that when I write about feminism, I’m not subject to the same torrent of abuse that Penny and other women experience.
Penny is quick to point out, however, her own privilege:
I’m middle-class, white, well educated. I have less to lose by taking my own advice than others do. I have less to lose by seeking freedom than my mother did, and she had less to lose than her mother, although they both had far more to win. There is still a world to win.
I’m not writing as everygirl, because there is no such thing. The idea that any person could speak “for women” is cartoonish in its misunderstanding of what feminism is, what women are. (11)
This is an important acknowledgement even if it seems like Feminism 101 to anyone who reads a lot of this, because this is where white feminists get particularly tripped up. In our zeal for liberation we forget that there are people who have more skin (literally) or other, diverse perspectives in this fight. Penny isn’t perfect, and neither are the essays in this book. The idea that you’re going to be feminist without making any mistakes is as silly as thinking you’ll somehow make a championship NBA team without ever missing a shot.
Penny grounds her understanding of feminism in an anti-capitalist context. That is to say, the patriarchy exists because it’s a way for the dominant group of people to hold on to power:
All politics are identity politics, but some identities are more politicized than others … this is not a problem for the traditional left. It is a problem for the traditional right, which has pursued a divide-and-conquer strategy for centuries … a hierarchy of victimhood that diverts energy and anger away from the vested interests bankrolling the entire scheme. (4)
(That’s why, when feminism became popular and trendy enough, companies started using it to market products—because they really don’t care what philosophy they espouse, as long as it sells.)
Lest you think Penny only targets the “traditional right” though, she has critiques for the “traditional left” too. Though her sympathies are undoubtedly socialist, Penny is quick to condemn those who yearn for the good ol’ people’s revolution:
I’ve heard it said that for a progressive, equal society to come about, the one we have now has to collapse completely. I’ve heard this said almost overwhelmingly by men on the left who nurse guilty hard-ons over visions of dying in battle as martyrs. Civilisation, they say, needs to collapse completely before we can have the revolution we need. (17)
Have I mentioned that, so far, I’ve only been quoting from the introduction?
Suffice it to say, I could quote at length from this book. So much of what Penny has to say here is relevant and topical. I’m writing this as the American media reels from white nationalists marching in Charlottesville and Trump’s completely inappropriate response to it. If you read Bitch Doctrine now you could be forgiven for thinking Penny was writing after those marches; so many of her essays link Trump to the rise of white nationalism and the clouds on the horizon. She isn’t prophetic, mind you—she just has her eyes open. Plenty of people were writing about this and talking about it in the years leading up to and following Trump’s election. It’s not for lack of trying; we didn’t listen.
Penny also has a great deal to say about women’s bodies, reproductive agency, and sexual violence. Most of the writing here is powerful, again both in terms of style and substance. She asks the reader to confront these problems not just as horrible from a moral point of view but as symptoms of a broken system:
It’s all about controlling women’s bodies before, during and after pregnancy. Almost every ideological facet of our societies is geared towards that end—from product placement and public health advice to explicit laws forcing women to carry pregnancies to term and jailing them if they fail to deliver the healthy babies the state requires of them. (236)
This is the kind of passage that I would hope makes readers go, “Whoa” and makes heads explode. I was kind of already in this head-space, and even still, the succinctness with which Penny makes these connections is so powerful.
Penny is equally at home talking about Nazis, politics, and nerd culture. Her nerdy interests mean she can speak to this demographic as one of us rather than as an outsider looking in with anthropological distaste. Even as she critiques the ways nerd culture reinforces patriarchy, she does so with compassion:
Finding out that you’re not the Rebel Alliance, you’re actually part of the Empire and have been all along, is painful.
(Requisite reference to the Mitchell & Webb “Are we the baddies?” sketch now.) That sentence is just so good; it’s such a perfect and nerdy way of capturing the immensity of the betrayal that our society pulls on good people with privilege.
If it’s not comforting to know you’re part of the Empire, then you’re not alone. There isn’t a lot of comfort in Bitch Doctrine. I would say, though, that there is a fair amount of hope. I don’t think Penny would be writing otherwise. And perhaps that’s why I love these essays so much: one can tell from her tone and style that Penny truly believes writing has the power to change the world. This is a powerful form of activism.
The essays collected herein were previously published elsewhere, so fellow fans of Penny might find them somewhat familiar. Although I think some have been expanded/revised, if you came here looking for a lot of new material, you might be disappointed. Similarly, although Penny and her editors have worked hard to curate a sensible collection, the end result is a little bit more scattershot than a more unified effort like Unspeakable Things. While this doesn’t detract from Bitch Doctrine’s quality as a feminist polemic, it’s just not my personal preference. Other people might be totally fine with it.
On a related note, another one of my few qualms about this book is that I wish the essays had dates on them. They’re grouped thematically rather than ordered chronologically, so as a result, some of the works feel fresh and topic, but others feel a little out of date given more recent political or cultural events. Context is important, and without dates, we lack some information here.
Overall, Bitch Doctrine is a nice compilation of a lot of Penny’s best work over the past few years. This isn’t the place to start if you’re on the fence about feminism, and people who read a lot of feminist work might not find a lot new here (lots of nodding and agreement, maybe some areas of disagreement over how Penny tries to be intersectional). On the whole, though, the success of this work lies in whether or not Penny’s particular brand of fire-and-snark is to your taste. It certainly is to mine.
September 6, 2018
This is not a book which sets out specifically to upset conservatives of any flavour - it just doesn't particularly care if it does.
Gosh, I love Laurie Penny! She's bold and brash and rude and uncompromising and passionate - and just so, ya know, *sensible*. Collecting together essays and articles from about 2013-17, this sees her exploring all manner of identity politics from an activist's standpoint: she really, genuinely, wants to change the world and for the better.
Her range of topics stretches from the expected feminism, racism, homophobia, rape culture to James Bond, the new Barbies ('so Barbie has curves now. Sort of.... four new body shapes: skeletal, tall and skeletal, short and skeletal, and slightly less skeletal')., Trump (of course!) and general deconstructions of patriarchal capitalism.
She's funny (look out for Little Kettle Man which had me snorting out loud with laughter) and snarky ('But that would be too cynical; the global fashion industry really cares about young women's health now. That's why model agencies were recently discovered recruiting outside Swedish eating disorder clinics') and inclusive in the widest, best tradition of the Left. What a shame, then, she's probably preaching to the converted...
Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC via NetGalley
April 16, 2018
I think after reading this book, I could be one of Laurie Penny's biggest fans. I loved "Unspeakable things" and after a considerable shaky start with this book, I can safely say that she has delivered again.
What I admire about Penny, is the way she tells it like it is, and there are no apologies. This is what the world needs. What she says is entirely true, and she delivers this in a somewhat humorous manner, but at the same time, some of it, was rather shocking.
There are many essays in this feminist book, with varying subjects like gender, love, violence being just some of the ones that Penny covers.
Sometimes I think that Penny says many of the things that I want to say, but in a better and angrier way! I do think the majority of her essays are greatly fuelled with anger, but, I think she has plenty to be angry about. I'm glad that despite the harassment that she has experienced, from speaking out and actually having a voice, that she still carries on doing so, regardless of what others may do or say. Laurie Penny is certainly an inspiration.
What I admire about Penny, is the way she tells it like it is, and there are no apologies. This is what the world needs. What she says is entirely true, and she delivers this in a somewhat humorous manner, but at the same time, some of it, was rather shocking.
There are many essays in this feminist book, with varying subjects like gender, love, violence being just some of the ones that Penny covers.
Sometimes I think that Penny says many of the things that I want to say, but in a better and angrier way! I do think the majority of her essays are greatly fuelled with anger, but, I think she has plenty to be angry about. I'm glad that despite the harassment that she has experienced, from speaking out and actually having a voice, that she still carries on doing so, regardless of what others may do or say. Laurie Penny is certainly an inspiration.
April 8, 2018
To start, I skipped over all the essay's about Trump. I know, I've heard, new articles are being written everyday.
For the rest, these very much come across as articles written as 'click bait'. They are short, emotional and on controversial or dramatic subjects.
So, all 20 something girls should be single. I think this is strange. We don't tell men this. We don't think that they will be less independent or that they will be making wrong decisions. I think that this statement of staying single means something else. I think has nothing to do with the actual singleness, I think it has to do with independence and how we view this as imperative to do on your own. I don't agree.
Also, this vision that so many writers have of a world where the roles were reversed. Like, if men were the ones who got pregnant. Why do we always think this would be better, that the things we want as women would automatically exist just because men are experiencing these things. Maybe it would be worse, maybe it would be exactly the same. Automatically thinking that it would be better, is something we should stop. Because it's probably not true.
I think Emma Watson, Beyonce and Mad Max need to be dropped as feminist subjects. These are tired discussions, endlessly written about. First, these women should be left to live their lives however they want. Second, it's a movie, not a feminist icon.
And lastly, I actually am insulted that she considers Jane Austen to have written 'horror' stories about women with no other choice but to catch a man.
These books are satires on life in those times and in that era, no doubt. But to classify them as horror stories about women trapped does them a great disservice.
For the rest, these very much come across as articles written as 'click bait'. They are short, emotional and on controversial or dramatic subjects.
So, all 20 something girls should be single. I think this is strange. We don't tell men this. We don't think that they will be less independent or that they will be making wrong decisions. I think that this statement of staying single means something else. I think has nothing to do with the actual singleness, I think it has to do with independence and how we view this as imperative to do on your own. I don't agree.
Also, this vision that so many writers have of a world where the roles were reversed. Like, if men were the ones who got pregnant. Why do we always think this would be better, that the things we want as women would automatically exist just because men are experiencing these things. Maybe it would be worse, maybe it would be exactly the same. Automatically thinking that it would be better, is something we should stop. Because it's probably not true.
I think Emma Watson, Beyonce and Mad Max need to be dropped as feminist subjects. These are tired discussions, endlessly written about. First, these women should be left to live their lives however they want. Second, it's a movie, not a feminist icon.
And lastly, I actually am insulted that she considers Jane Austen to have written 'horror' stories about women with no other choice but to catch a man.
These books are satires on life in those times and in that era, no doubt. But to classify them as horror stories about women trapped does them a great disservice.
June 2, 2018
Laurie Penny's Texte haben mir wirklich mal die Augen geöffnet..
Ich meine, mir war schon klar, dass in dieser Welt so einiges schief läuft, überall, in allen Bereichen wo Menschen zusammenleben.
Aber ich hab es mir auch hübsch in meiner Alltagswelt eingerichtet. Mir geht es gut, ich lebe in Frieden, musste nie für meine Rechte kämpfen und als Frau fühle ich mich auch nicht unterdrückt.
Doch durch dieses Buch jetzt weiß ich das alles ehrlich noch mehr zu schätzen, weil mir Dank dieser Texte erst so richtig klar geworden ist, dass mein Lebenszustand ganz und gar nicht normal ist. In unserer Gesellschaft geht es immernoch sehr ungerecht zu gegen Frauen, People of Colour, Queere und überhaupt jede Art von Minderheiten.
Ich habe großen Respekt vor all den Menschen, die sich dafür einsetzen, und eingesetzt haben, dass die Welt gerechter wird.
Durch die Lektüre habe ich auch über mich selbst Neues erfahren, wo ich überhaupt stehe im Leben und was mir wirklich wichtig ist.
Ich würde gerne noch mehr schreiben, aber das würde den Rahmen hier sprengen.
Mein Fazit: "Bitch Doktrin" ist ein starkes Buch, das auf mich wie ein Weckruf gewirkt hat. Das Mut macht, Großes zu erwarten und die Hoffnung auf Gerechtigkeit für alle nicht aufzugeben.
Ich meine, mir war schon klar, dass in dieser Welt so einiges schief läuft, überall, in allen Bereichen wo Menschen zusammenleben.
Aber ich hab es mir auch hübsch in meiner Alltagswelt eingerichtet. Mir geht es gut, ich lebe in Frieden, musste nie für meine Rechte kämpfen und als Frau fühle ich mich auch nicht unterdrückt.
Doch durch dieses Buch jetzt weiß ich das alles ehrlich noch mehr zu schätzen, weil mir Dank dieser Texte erst so richtig klar geworden ist, dass mein Lebenszustand ganz und gar nicht normal ist. In unserer Gesellschaft geht es immernoch sehr ungerecht zu gegen Frauen, People of Colour, Queere und überhaupt jede Art von Minderheiten.
Ich habe großen Respekt vor all den Menschen, die sich dafür einsetzen, und eingesetzt haben, dass die Welt gerechter wird.
Durch die Lektüre habe ich auch über mich selbst Neues erfahren, wo ich überhaupt stehe im Leben und was mir wirklich wichtig ist.
Ich würde gerne noch mehr schreiben, aber das würde den Rahmen hier sprengen.
Mein Fazit: "Bitch Doktrin" ist ein starkes Buch, das auf mich wie ein Weckruf gewirkt hat. Das Mut macht, Großes zu erwarten und die Hoffnung auf Gerechtigkeit für alle nicht aufzugeben.
August 10, 2017
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.
This is a collection of essays on various topics including the election of Donald Trump, transgender rights and rape culture. As ever Penny is witty and darkly humorous as well as deadly serious. You may not always agree with what she says but you can't help examining your own thoughts on any subject she chooses to attack.
She is not afraid of attacking the status quo and asking why things are as they are and why they can't be different. I was particularly interested in the essays which discussed the way women are treated online. How behaviour which is generally deplored when exhibited by migrants for example, is suddenly acceptable if directed against women who dare to question the rights of white males.
The author exposes the widespread misogyny on the internet and in real life. It certainly made me angry and reminded me of various discussions I have had on the internet with the supposedly more rational sex. If you think equal rights is alive and kicking, read this book and realise how much more work still needs to be done even in the Western world.
This is a collection of essays on various topics including the election of Donald Trump, transgender rights and rape culture. As ever Penny is witty and darkly humorous as well as deadly serious. You may not always agree with what she says but you can't help examining your own thoughts on any subject she chooses to attack.
She is not afraid of attacking the status quo and asking why things are as they are and why they can't be different. I was particularly interested in the essays which discussed the way women are treated online. How behaviour which is generally deplored when exhibited by migrants for example, is suddenly acceptable if directed against women who dare to question the rights of white males.
The author exposes the widespread misogyny on the internet and in real life. It certainly made me angry and reminded me of various discussions I have had on the internet with the supposedly more rational sex. If you think equal rights is alive and kicking, read this book and realise how much more work still needs to be done even in the Western world.
November 5, 2018
YES! YES! YES!
To be honest I was just cheering along with every new chapter. But people who should read this book will probably never read it, but voices like Laurie Penny's are so important nowadays.
To be honest I was just cheering along with every new chapter. But people who should read this book will probably never read it, but voices like Laurie Penny's are so important nowadays.
September 13, 2017
I picked this up knowing nothing about the author, not even reading an author bio. It was kind of fun in the beginning trying to decipher who they are, but I stereotyped them wrong: an ex-pat in the U.K.? At least in their 50s? Definitely white. Well, I got one thing right. Why did I guess the other two? Well, Penny sure talks about American culture a lot for a Brit writing in British publications. 50s, though? Penny's actually a millennial. But their voice feels very "my name is Laurie, and I used to be a white feminist, but now I'm in recovery."
Perhaps this is the problem of journalism, but nothing in this collection had a lot of depth to it or originality of thought. I laughed at a few places or had a collective "mmhmm" head nod, but it felt more like Penny knew the intersectional keywords to drop in and that's enough for them. Penny brings up some interesting points around intersectional concerns and then leaves them mostly unexplored (except for a few things like the pieces about being poly and genderqueer). Really what I think was irking me the whole time was the conscious/unconscious lack of WOC voices in the articles. Like, look at this: "Sure, I'd like Emma Watson to do better. I'd like Lena Dunham to do better. I'd like to do better myself." Hey, one way to do better is to stop talking so much about Emma Watson and Lena Dunham. Give WOC more prominence in your work! The piece on diversity in journalism was odd considering their own lack of diverse voices in their own work.
I think in the end, the best way to review this collection is to use the author's own words:
"To paraphrase Bakunin, there is no such thing as a perfect poster girl for feminism -- and if there was, we'd probably have to destroy her."
Perhaps this is the problem of journalism, but nothing in this collection had a lot of depth to it or originality of thought. I laughed at a few places or had a collective "mmhmm" head nod, but it felt more like Penny knew the intersectional keywords to drop in and that's enough for them. Penny brings up some interesting points around intersectional concerns and then leaves them mostly unexplored (except for a few things like the pieces about being poly and genderqueer). Really what I think was irking me the whole time was the conscious/unconscious lack of WOC voices in the articles. Like, look at this: "Sure, I'd like Emma Watson to do better. I'd like Lena Dunham to do better. I'd like to do better myself." Hey, one way to do better is to stop talking so much about Emma Watson and Lena Dunham. Give WOC more prominence in your work! The piece on diversity in journalism was odd considering their own lack of diverse voices in their own work.
I think in the end, the best way to review this collection is to use the author's own words:
"To paraphrase Bakunin, there is no such thing as a perfect poster girl for feminism -- and if there was, we'd probably have to destroy her."
February 21, 2017
Everyone needs to read this collection.
September 14, 2017
The kind of book I want to keep with me at all times to shove it into strangers' faces, just to make everyone read it.
December 6, 2017
review coming soon
October 10, 2018
Laurie Penny had not previously crossed my radar but, having seen good reviews, I leapt at the chance to read this collection of her writing from the last 5 years or so and am so pleased I did. She writes cogently, eloquently and with terrific energy about the state of the world as she sees it, through 30-ish year old eyes. I am at least twice her age, was involved in feminist arguments at a similar age in the 1970s (and since), so the appeal of this collection for me was its modern take on the question of equality, not least the many cultural references that were entirely new to me. I most enjoyed the latter articles - the more personal, conversational ones - and have come away from this book thinking not only that I’ve learned a few things but that I’ll be looking out for Laurie’s future articles wherever they are published.
Review copy courtesy of Bloomsbury via NetGalley.
Review copy courtesy of Bloomsbury via NetGalley.
January 21, 2018
Laurie Penny: Bitch Doktrin. Nautilus Flugschrift, Hamburg 2017, 320 Seiten, 18 Euro
Die britische Journalistin Laurie Penny ist eine der bekanntesten feministischen Vordenkerinnen heute und besonders in Deutschland populär. In diesem Sammelband sind Texte und politische Kommentare von ihr aus den Jahren 2013 bis 2016 versammelt. Sie umreißen engagiert und gut lesbar Positionen und Themen, die heute im Feminismus wichtig sind. Es geht zum Beispiel um Kapitalismuskritik, um Sexarbeit, um Queerfeminismus, Homoxesualität und Transgender, um reproduktive Rechte, um Intersektionalität und Antirassismus, um Medienkonsum und Fernsehserien. Außerdem sind aktuelle Texte dabei, die sich mit dem Aufstieg des Rechtspopulismus, dem Wahlsieg von Donald Trump und der Frage, vor welche Aufgaben und Notwendigkeiten das die Frauenbewegung stellt, beschäftigen. Der Sammelband ist ein guter Einstieg in die aktuellen Debatten und Fragestellungen für alle, die wissen wollen, was viele vor allem jüngere Feministinnen heute bewegt.
(erschien auch in Publik Forum, 12.1.2018)
Die britische Journalistin Laurie Penny ist eine der bekanntesten feministischen Vordenkerinnen heute und besonders in Deutschland populär. In diesem Sammelband sind Texte und politische Kommentare von ihr aus den Jahren 2013 bis 2016 versammelt. Sie umreißen engagiert und gut lesbar Positionen und Themen, die heute im Feminismus wichtig sind. Es geht zum Beispiel um Kapitalismuskritik, um Sexarbeit, um Queerfeminismus, Homoxesualität und Transgender, um reproduktive Rechte, um Intersektionalität und Antirassismus, um Medienkonsum und Fernsehserien. Außerdem sind aktuelle Texte dabei, die sich mit dem Aufstieg des Rechtspopulismus, dem Wahlsieg von Donald Trump und der Frage, vor welche Aufgaben und Notwendigkeiten das die Frauenbewegung stellt, beschäftigen. Der Sammelband ist ein guter Einstieg in die aktuellen Debatten und Fragestellungen für alle, die wissen wollen, was viele vor allem jüngere Feministinnen heute bewegt.
(erschien auch in Publik Forum, 12.1.2018)
May 16, 2017
I strongly disliked this book at the beginning as I thought that it was one long, unoriginal rant that was massively overwritten with the assistance of a thesaurus. However, after the initial 20% of the book, I started to find it really interesting and I'm glad I pushed myself through the initial part. As a feminist and a person with a degree in politics, I did find that a lot of this material was not new to me, but there was some things that I had never really considered or been told about. This book is very current and up to date and covers a wide range of topic areas from Donald Trump to male attitudes to women on the Internet. I found the personal stories to be a worthwhile addition to this book as well. On the whole I would strongly recommend this book, especially to someone who has some pre-existing knowledge on this subject.
September 30, 2017
Laurie Penny is my favourite journalist and essayist. While I have read many of the essays compiled in this collection that spans between 2015-2017 in their original online publications, it was great to read those I'd missed and re-read some of her best writing on feminism, activism, and life for young people.
Penny's essays inspire me with the thought that there's always hope for a better future and present, and to never stop fighting for that, no matter how many people will tell you it'll never happen. Her incredible turn of phrase and raw writing style is a rallying cry. The essays encapsulate the frustrations, dejection, empathy, and the underlying determination and goodwill of my generation to improve things.
Penny's essays inspire me with the thought that there's always hope for a better future and present, and to never stop fighting for that, no matter how many people will tell you it'll never happen. Her incredible turn of phrase and raw writing style is a rallying cry. The essays encapsulate the frustrations, dejection, empathy, and the underlying determination and goodwill of my generation to improve things.
August 26, 2017
A provocative and enlightening collection of essays over relevant topics. The first and last chapters are the best.
October 9, 2017
Here for the thinking, just didn't love the format - this is a collection of relatively short articles and I wanted so much more exploration of the important issues Laurie Penny surfaces.
Read
July 17, 2020The title of the book made me curious and I was wondering why a book about feminism would have the word "bitch" in its title which is not a gender-neutral term at all. Laurie clears this this for the readers in the book's introduction itself.
"Bitch Doctrine" is a collection of interesting essays around different themes related to feminism ranging from culture to agency and violence. While a lot of the ideas and data presented were interesting and informative, a few parts of the book did not sit well with me. It is difficult to articulate why I felt that way, but for once, I felt like a book on feminism was too white. Agreed, this is written by a white person and any author's writing is bound to have their lived experiences as a prism through which they write. But for some reason, this book felt a bit too white in parts. I was also not sold on the author's reasoning for women being better off economically if they did not marry.
On the whole though, it is always interesting to read different perspectives of feminism and I definitely enjoyed this book though it was not a light read.
"Bitch Doctrine" is a collection of interesting essays around different themes related to feminism ranging from culture to agency and violence. While a lot of the ideas and data presented were interesting and informative, a few parts of the book did not sit well with me. It is difficult to articulate why I felt that way, but for once, I felt like a book on feminism was too white. Agreed, this is written by a white person and any author's writing is bound to have their lived experiences as a prism through which they write. But for some reason, this book felt a bit too white in parts. I was also not sold on the author's reasoning for women being better off economically if they did not marry.
On the whole though, it is always interesting to read different perspectives of feminism and I definitely enjoyed this book though it was not a light read.
October 18, 2022
Bitch Doktrin: Gender, Macht und Sehnsucht (Nautilus Flugschrift) Kindleby Laurie Penny
“Bitches get stuff done." Tina Fey
Wow, Hard-hitting essays and clearly spoken as in the early days of pure feminist activism. We need to hear the words of radical feminists speaking truth and equality for women. The world is taking a nose dive and many issues sisters, mothers, and grandmothers fought hard for are slipping away.
I have read books of great power before and this one should be kept on the bedside table and referenced daily when we slip. We all need to stick together and pick each other up. 4.5 stars. I will give it 5 just because I can.
“Bitches get stuff done." Tina Fey
Wow, Hard-hitting essays and clearly spoken as in the early days of pure feminist activism. We need to hear the words of radical feminists speaking truth and equality for women. The world is taking a nose dive and many issues sisters, mothers, and grandmothers fought hard for are slipping away.
I have read books of great power before and this one should be kept on the bedside table and referenced daily when we slip. We all need to stick together and pick each other up. 4.5 stars. I will give it 5 just because I can.
December 1, 2025
3,5⭐ insgesamt ist das Buch wunderbar laut und wütend und Laurie Penny versteht es, emotional eindringlich über alles mögliche zu schreiben. Für mich schwierig ist aber eben dieses "alles mögliche" : Das Buch springt unter Überschriften mal hier, mal dorthin Anekdoten lösen kluge Gedanken ab und gehen dann wieder in Schmähungen irgendwelcher sexistischer, rassistischer, ableistischer oder sonstiger *istischer Leute über. Dennoch lesenswert und ich habe mich beim Lesen wie in einem wütenden feministischen Frauen*Kreis gefühlt.
April 29, 2020
(Reading during quarantine is hard)
Laurie Penny is such a sharp writer and I was delighted to finally get a hold of one of her books. It did not disappoint, and while some essays might have aged a bit more than others, it's still a great collection of texts I'd recommend to any feminist looking for understanding.
Laurie Penny is such a sharp writer and I was delighted to finally get a hold of one of her books. It did not disappoint, and while some essays might have aged a bit more than others, it's still a great collection of texts I'd recommend to any feminist looking for understanding.
August 28, 2021
Agree with quite a bit, got my blood pressure rising a few times but definitely a slow read. Not a direct page turner but very important
July 10, 2018
[I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.]
Hm, OK, this is a little difficult to review, because… I pretty much agree with Laurie Penny in general in this series of essays (I can’t tell about their other writrings, as I haven’t read them at present). Most of what I’ve just read here, are things I was already thinking on my own anyway.
Maybe I also feel this hits closer to home because of Laurie’s gender identity. I, too, was born sexually female, but I don’t identify as a woman (nor as a man)… yet society insists on treating me like a woman nonetheless, so no matter what, whatever women in general have to face, I have to face it, too, with the ‘bonus’ of not even fitting in properly.
Political essays notwithstanding, Laurie makes fair points about quite a few things that may not be so apparent at first, but do make sense. For instance, the fact that Siri & al. are given female voices, making them closer to the stereotypical ‘female customer service rep (preferably with low wages, yes I’ve worked that job, too, can you tell?’). I don’t recall ever having heard a male voice used in that context. Except on my GPS. But then, I’ve uploaded Darth Vader’s voice to my GPS for the lulz.
While I usually tend to be moderate, or try to be, all the more on internet where just about anything can degenerate into flame wars… Well, I do understand anger. I do understand calling a spade a spade, because subtlety can only take you so far. Subtlety is also the perfect excuse we can serve to people who don’t want to acknowledge what we have to say, and can then easily pretend that they didn’t get the point, that we weren’t ‘clear enough’, that we ‘can’t express ourselves.’
(Note: I mean ‘we’ as in ‘people’, not necessarily women.)
So, at times, enough with subtlety. Enough with double standards and with a good deal of human beings having to shut up because otherwise they’d be threatening the ‘current order’. If people behave like turds and then feel offended to be called up on that, maybe they shouldn’t behave like turds for starters.
Perhaps it’s even more valid now, being angry and refusing to shut up: because we’re in 2018, and perhaps feeling that our Western societies have progressed much (I can’t speak for other societies, I’ve only lived in Western Europe so far). And there comes the false, lulling sense of safety: ‘surely things have changed by now?’ Yes, they’ve changed, but they could revert back insidiously if enough people start shutting up and be content with the status quo, which in itself is not equal (I completely agree that, once you’ve scratched the layer of varnish, it’s still about white men, most often older men, who keep hoarding power).
The essays here aren’t perfect; they won’t bring you that many new things if you’ve already read a lot on the topics they deal with; and sometimes, I felt like they were dragging in circles. Nevertheless, Laurie’s writing is powerful, and deserves to be read.
Hm, OK, this is a little difficult to review, because… I pretty much agree with Laurie Penny in general in this series of essays (I can’t tell about their other writrings, as I haven’t read them at present). Most of what I’ve just read here, are things I was already thinking on my own anyway.
Maybe I also feel this hits closer to home because of Laurie’s gender identity. I, too, was born sexually female, but I don’t identify as a woman (nor as a man)… yet society insists on treating me like a woman nonetheless, so no matter what, whatever women in general have to face, I have to face it, too, with the ‘bonus’ of not even fitting in properly.
Political essays notwithstanding, Laurie makes fair points about quite a few things that may not be so apparent at first, but do make sense. For instance, the fact that Siri & al. are given female voices, making them closer to the stereotypical ‘female customer service rep (preferably with low wages, yes I’ve worked that job, too, can you tell?’). I don’t recall ever having heard a male voice used in that context. Except on my GPS. But then, I’ve uploaded Darth Vader’s voice to my GPS for the lulz.
While I usually tend to be moderate, or try to be, all the more on internet where just about anything can degenerate into flame wars… Well, I do understand anger. I do understand calling a spade a spade, because subtlety can only take you so far. Subtlety is also the perfect excuse we can serve to people who don’t want to acknowledge what we have to say, and can then easily pretend that they didn’t get the point, that we weren’t ‘clear enough’, that we ‘can’t express ourselves.’
(Note: I mean ‘we’ as in ‘people’, not necessarily women.)
So, at times, enough with subtlety. Enough with double standards and with a good deal of human beings having to shut up because otherwise they’d be threatening the ‘current order’. If people behave like turds and then feel offended to be called up on that, maybe they shouldn’t behave like turds for starters.
Perhaps it’s even more valid now, being angry and refusing to shut up: because we’re in 2018, and perhaps feeling that our Western societies have progressed much (I can’t speak for other societies, I’ve only lived in Western Europe so far). And there comes the false, lulling sense of safety: ‘surely things have changed by now?’ Yes, they’ve changed, but they could revert back insidiously if enough people start shutting up and be content with the status quo, which in itself is not equal (I completely agree that, once you’ve scratched the layer of varnish, it’s still about white men, most often older men, who keep hoarding power).
The essays here aren’t perfect; they won’t bring you that many new things if you’ve already read a lot on the topics they deal with; and sometimes, I felt like they were dragging in circles. Nevertheless, Laurie’s writing is powerful, and deserves to be read.
August 1, 2017
Anyone fed up with the mean spirited mood of the times should treat themselves to this brave, funny and generous collection of articles. Laurie Penny possesses an acute awareness of the unequal distribution of social power and never fails to take the side of those oppressed by structural inequality or abused by the place-holders of power. On a couple of occasions, Laurie Penny quotes Frederic Jameson's remark that "it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism" (p. 352). Despite her acknowledgement of the dark times that we live in, she manages to maintain some optimism about the future through her refreshingly positive belief in the good qualities of young people so often dismissed, by cynical pop commentators, as "generation snowflake". Laurie Penny endorses young peoples' capacity for intensity of feeling and defends today's teenagers as 'braver, better connected and less naïve than any generation in living memory' (p. 349). For this reader, however, an acute and inevitable pathos underlies Laurie's optimism. The selection of articles that comprise the final section of the book, headed 'Future', focus on topics including literary representations of robotics, AI and the parallels with the denial of women's full humanity; feminist dystopian film and fiction and alt-right misogynist fantasies of the coming apocalypse. Common to these essays, and the rest of those collected in the volume, is an emphasis on the power of alternative discourse as a means of envisioning the better world free of oppression. The construction of utopian thought worlds, the articulation of new ways of living together, as well as faith in the information technology that allows social networking, are valorised precisely because there seems to be no route from our current dystopia to the better world(s). 'Right now, the future seems dark and frightening and it is precisely now that we must continue to imagine other worlds and then plot ways to get there', Laurie writes (p. 355). The best way forward Laurie can identify is to 'have the courage to make impossible demands - to face down ridicule and say: "We want more"' (p. 355). There is dignity in the refusal to be satisfied, in saying that we want more, but it is the Oliver Twist road to liberation and it doesn't bring down the workhouse. In that lies the pathos; perhaps Laurie Penny does not believe it will work either, but optimism and the struggle to live differently remain necessary and she keeps at it. Her writing is always worth seeking out for just that reason.
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