What do you think?
Rate this book
Gender Rebels: 50 Influential Cross-Dressers, Impersonators, Name-Changers, and Game-Changers
Meet the unsung sheroes of the diverse, defiant and daring (wo)men who changed the rules, and their identities, to get sh*t done. You’ll encounter Kit Cavanagh, the swaggering Irish dragoon who was the first woman to be buried in London with full military honours; marauding eighteenth-century pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny, who collided on the high seas after swapping their petticoats for pantaloons; Ellen Craft, an escaped slave who masqueraded as a white master to spirit her husband-to-be to freedom; and Billy Tipton, the swinging jazz musician, who led a double life as an adult, taking five wives along the way. Then there are the women who still have to dress like men to live their best lives, like the inspirational football-lovers in Iran, who risk everything to take their place in the stands. A call to action for the modern world, this book celebrates the #GenderRebels who paved the way for women everywhere to be soldiers and spies; kings and queens; firefighters, doctors, pilots; and a Swiss Army knife’s-worth more. These superbly spirited (wo)men all had one thing in they defied the rules to progress in a man’s world.
286 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2020
114 people are currently reading
1647 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 122 reviews
October 21, 2021
I was really quite excited about this book when I first spotted it. I love books about gender and rebellion, and it was rather grand to also receive this for free. Unfortunately (this feels like deja vu) the excitement was entirely short-lived, and I was itching to delete this book from my Kindle before the end.
I was a rough and tumble child, and there was nothing I loved more than making mud pies, with my original cast Ghostbusters, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures. (Sometimes, they also got put into the pie) I have never seen a job as "man's work" and nowadays, I like chopping wood, climbing ladders and sitting on my rooftop, in between cooking great dishes, planting beautiful flowers, and wearing bold make-up.
I think women are amazing, and I was hoping this book would continue to solidify that statement, but alas, it most certainly failed. This was a mess.
I felt like the author was attempting to write this book with humour, which actually, wasn't funny at all. I mean, how is this author making a stand for women with prose like this? The style made me wince, and Harry had developed a mocking kind of tone, something an immature teenager might use, which only got worse as the book went on. It is a shame, because in this book, are some incredibly interesting individuals, but they became smothered by the infantile tone.
This book was in desperate need of a good, thorough editing job. For instance, words such as these did not please me;
Get up off your junk
Besticles
Ball bag
And, the best one;
Strop-o-saurus
This was all slang at it's very, very worst, and it seemed like the author was using this as a desperate attempt to be "hip."
This book has a wonderful selection of gender rebels in it, and if you can stand the writing long enough to get through the 275 pages, I'll give you a medal.
I was a rough and tumble child, and there was nothing I loved more than making mud pies, with my original cast Ghostbusters, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures. (Sometimes, they also got put into the pie) I have never seen a job as "man's work" and nowadays, I like chopping wood, climbing ladders and sitting on my rooftop, in between cooking great dishes, planting beautiful flowers, and wearing bold make-up.
I think women are amazing, and I was hoping this book would continue to solidify that statement, but alas, it most certainly failed. This was a mess.
I felt like the author was attempting to write this book with humour, which actually, wasn't funny at all. I mean, how is this author making a stand for women with prose like this? The style made me wince, and Harry had developed a mocking kind of tone, something an immature teenager might use, which only got worse as the book went on. It is a shame, because in this book, are some incredibly interesting individuals, but they became smothered by the infantile tone.
This book was in desperate need of a good, thorough editing job. For instance, words such as these did not please me;
Get up off your junk
Besticles
Ball bag
And, the best one;
Strop-o-saurus
This was all slang at it's very, very worst, and it seemed like the author was using this as a desperate attempt to be "hip."
This book has a wonderful selection of gender rebels in it, and if you can stand the writing long enough to get through the 275 pages, I'll give you a medal.
August 21, 2020
The premise of this book was everything I wanted to read, especially going into Pride Month. Figures right through history who changed/manipulated/hid their gender for reasons to be explained were on the menu, starting with King/Queen Hatshepsut (Egyptian Pharaoh). The book went awry immediately for me but I tried so hard to persevere. I skimmed, I eye-rolled and I felt so disappointed.
What was so wrong with it you ask? The writing style was a disaster from the word go, sentence-by-sentence. I have never read such an annoying writing style in my life. The book seemed as though it was written by an over-enthusiastic twelve year old using every buzz word or phase-trend imaginable. There wasn't one sentence that wasn't subject to this. Brackets were used constantly to giggle-chat annoyingly in your ear.
Example:
(and here comes to the whole having to dress as a man to get stuff done bit)
For Mulan, life was pretty snore at first.
She was a proper model monk...
Joanna showed mad skills as a military leader.
I rest my case. It was impossible to read this without feeling constantly irritated. I would love to read a version of this book, just written with sense.
What was so wrong with it you ask? The writing style was a disaster from the word go, sentence-by-sentence. I have never read such an annoying writing style in my life. The book seemed as though it was written by an over-enthusiastic twelve year old using every buzz word or phase-trend imaginable. There wasn't one sentence that wasn't subject to this. Brackets were used constantly to giggle-chat annoyingly in your ear.
Example:
(and here comes to the whole having to dress as a man to get stuff done bit)
For Mulan, life was pretty snore at first.
She was a proper model monk...
Joanna showed mad skills as a military leader.
I rest my case. It was impossible to read this without feeling constantly irritated. I would love to read a version of this book, just written with sense.
May 5, 2020
I was looking forward to reading this book when it popped up on my editor’s picks on Amazon as a pre-release read. As a child, I was never taught there were things I couldn’t do because I was a girl. I helped my father fix his car, I chopped tonnes of wood for our fire, I slunk about in jeans and a t-shirt, climbed trees, roamed free, and my grandfather made my first cricket bat when I was four. When I grew up, I dug up dead bodies in a Muslim country as an archaeologist. I’ve loved women emotionally, mentally and physically. I should have been gushing over this book, ordering the hardcover copy and adding it to the collection of feminist lesbian history books on my bookshelf. But, no, I was grossly disappointed.
I think the book was supposed to be funny, but it fell incredibly flat. It read like a thirty-something blogging to a tween or teen audience. The style and expression had me rolling my eyes and cringing just about every page. There are interesting and ground-breaking people in the book and it is unfortunate they are smothered and disrespected by childish prose. For someone who supposedly advocates for the equality and strength of women, she had no problem making fun of them or their history. For instance:
- Renaming Hatshepsut HATSHIE
- Calling a lesbian lover, whose name had been lost to history, Ellen DeGeneres for the sake of convenience.
- Mocking a Native American tribal name by making duck jokes.
- Comparing the pronunciation of American Civil War battlefield names to levels of a Sonic the Hedgehog video game.
Really, where on earth was the editor here?
And then there is the slangy/trying to be cool expressions, like:
- Besticles
- Totally adulting
- Get up off your junk
- Face glitch
- Zenergy
- Well jel
- Strop-o-saurus
To top it off, there is the hypocrisy. For an author so intent on calling out misogyny and denigration of women, there is plenty of misandry going on here. For instance, the use of terms such as:
- Ball bag – an idiot
- Dicktatorship – kind of obvious
- Dangle fest – a group of men
I’m sure if a male author had used a term such as ‘titty bunch’ or ‘twat pile’ to describe a group of women, there would have been absolute hell to pay. I’m sorry, but you can’t have it both ways if you want to be taken seriously.
To be fair, the later entries (the ones where the women are still living or may have family still alive), are treated with a little less ‘humour’, but this book was already spoiled for me.
I was also disappointed with the bibliography. Often with non-fiction books I’ll scour the bibliography looking for interesting academic journal articles to download and read. Unfortunately there weren’t any referenced here – plenty of blogs and YouTube channels though.
If you are interested in learning more about the women listed in this book, I suggest you look them up yourself and do your own research. As an aside, that ‘fake’ beard the author makes such a big deal about Hatshepsut wearing, male pharaohs also attached fake beards to their clean shaven faces; and Hatshepsut did her own fair share of name obliteration too.
I think the book was supposed to be funny, but it fell incredibly flat. It read like a thirty-something blogging to a tween or teen audience. The style and expression had me rolling my eyes and cringing just about every page. There are interesting and ground-breaking people in the book and it is unfortunate they are smothered and disrespected by childish prose. For someone who supposedly advocates for the equality and strength of women, she had no problem making fun of them or their history. For instance:
- Renaming Hatshepsut HATSHIE
- Calling a lesbian lover, whose name had been lost to history, Ellen DeGeneres for the sake of convenience.
- Mocking a Native American tribal name by making duck jokes.
- Comparing the pronunciation of American Civil War battlefield names to levels of a Sonic the Hedgehog video game.
Really, where on earth was the editor here?
And then there is the slangy/trying to be cool expressions, like:
- Besticles
- Totally adulting
- Get up off your junk
- Face glitch
- Zenergy
- Well jel
- Strop-o-saurus
To top it off, there is the hypocrisy. For an author so intent on calling out misogyny and denigration of women, there is plenty of misandry going on here. For instance, the use of terms such as:
- Ball bag – an idiot
- Dicktatorship – kind of obvious
- Dangle fest – a group of men
I’m sure if a male author had used a term such as ‘titty bunch’ or ‘twat pile’ to describe a group of women, there would have been absolute hell to pay. I’m sorry, but you can’t have it both ways if you want to be taken seriously.
To be fair, the later entries (the ones where the women are still living or may have family still alive), are treated with a little less ‘humour’, but this book was already spoiled for me.
I was also disappointed with the bibliography. Often with non-fiction books I’ll scour the bibliography looking for interesting academic journal articles to download and read. Unfortunately there weren’t any referenced here – plenty of blogs and YouTube channels though.
If you are interested in learning more about the women listed in this book, I suggest you look them up yourself and do your own research. As an aside, that ‘fake’ beard the author makes such a big deal about Hatshepsut wearing, male pharaohs also attached fake beards to their clean shaven faces; and Hatshepsut did her own fair share of name obliteration too.
May 5, 2020
If for nothing else this book serves as a great list of women who I would love to read more about. Sadly my recommendation for this book is to look up the names if you can elsewhere and not bother reading this.
Some of the women referenced in this are truly remarkable but these accounts are continually let down by a very annoying writing style. Books of this style I typically put into a coffee-table category where you’re going to get a bit of interest from it, but it’s not written to hold your attention. For that reason I’m not particularly fussed that the referencing was very limited as it isn’t being judged as an academic piece.
Why 2 stars? Simple: the book is written like a Buzzfeed article with so much try-hard humour that it became a frustration. See this isn’t so much a book about 50 inspirational women… it’s far more the author’s cringey debut comedy book. The actual stories of the women seem sidelined by the author's repeated attempts to be witty.
I appreciate that different people have different styles they find funny so maybe I'm not the right person for this book... but I'll explain why it grated on me anyway. It seemingly can’t go a single sentence without trying to seem trendy which is going to date the book. Going around the houses to make a Shaggy reference is one thing… directly announcing that you are doing this so you can make Shaggy jokes makes me question whether the author has enough faith in the readers to actually get the jokes she’s telling. Of course if no-one would get the jokes… why tell them? It's always said that if you have to explain the joke it fails to be funny, and this book demonstrates that. The repeated attempts at trendy humour (everything from hashtags to outdated film references and Reddit memes that were last funny a couple of years ago) really detracts from when the book is interesting.
The edition I read on Kindle also seems to be too liberal with the use of italics. It’s a weird thing to pick on but it seems like instead of being to cite a title, or draw attention to a certain word or phrase, it’s arbitrarily gone “that’d look good at the end of the sentence”. When your formatting is becoming a noticeable distraction, you know you’ve done something wrong.
Don’t bother with the book. I got this on Amazon First Reads so didn’t spend anything to get it, but if you’re considering buying this please consider buying a book on any of the women reference in this book: you’ll get far more out of it. There are so many books, both comedic and serious, about inspirational women and the ongoing need for feminist action. This isn't a book that adds to the conversation as much as it thinks it does.
Some of the women referenced in this are truly remarkable but these accounts are continually let down by a very annoying writing style. Books of this style I typically put into a coffee-table category where you’re going to get a bit of interest from it, but it’s not written to hold your attention. For that reason I’m not particularly fussed that the referencing was very limited as it isn’t being judged as an academic piece.
Why 2 stars? Simple: the book is written like a Buzzfeed article with so much try-hard humour that it became a frustration. See this isn’t so much a book about 50 inspirational women… it’s far more the author’s cringey debut comedy book. The actual stories of the women seem sidelined by the author's repeated attempts to be witty.
I appreciate that different people have different styles they find funny so maybe I'm not the right person for this book... but I'll explain why it grated on me anyway. It seemingly can’t go a single sentence without trying to seem trendy which is going to date the book. Going around the houses to make a Shaggy reference is one thing… directly announcing that you are doing this so you can make Shaggy jokes makes me question whether the author has enough faith in the readers to actually get the jokes she’s telling. Of course if no-one would get the jokes… why tell them? It's always said that if you have to explain the joke it fails to be funny, and this book demonstrates that. The repeated attempts at trendy humour (everything from hashtags to outdated film references and Reddit memes that were last funny a couple of years ago) really detracts from when the book is interesting.
The edition I read on Kindle also seems to be too liberal with the use of italics. It’s a weird thing to pick on but it seems like instead of being to cite a title, or draw attention to a certain word or phrase, it’s arbitrarily gone “that’d look good at the end of the sentence”. When your formatting is becoming a noticeable distraction, you know you’ve done something wrong.
Don’t bother with the book. I got this on Amazon First Reads so didn’t spend anything to get it, but if you’re considering buying this please consider buying a book on any of the women reference in this book: you’ll get far more out of it. There are so many books, both comedic and serious, about inspirational women and the ongoing need for feminist action. This isn't a book that adds to the conversation as much as it thinks it does.
June 16, 2020
This looked really promising, and I was excited to learn about some more LGBTQIA+ history... but it is so poorly written I couldn't stand it. The author is clearly trying to appeal to teenagers and uses just about every slang term or phrase in existance. I made it about three chapters in.
August 21, 2020
what i expected: a well-sourced collection of biographical essays featuring an intersectional array of non-cis men (i.e. women, non-binary, and trans folx).
what i got: a dubiously-sourced collection of flippantly-written essays occasionally lauding the featured "woman," but more often than not centered around the author lambasting the patriarchy and promoting second-to-third-wave feminism.
i question where the author found her information; i am no historian, but i remember learning in 6th grade that the false beards that ALL pharaohs wore were to imitate god-of-the-dead osiris and indicate they themselves were a living god (http://www.touregypt.net/featurestori..., https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/5...). hatshepsut was not special for wearing one just because she was female and the author’s claim that the “trad-masc” status quo forced her to do so is blatantly false.
furthermore, the author has little working knowledge of trans identities. of the few trans men in the book, the author deadnames them in their chapter titles and continues dead naming and misgendering them until she sees fit to introduce their trans-ness as shock value. the author did not see fit to include any trans women or non-binary folx, though i can think of several off-hand who would be considered rebels. (for an example of a piece of writing that treats dr. james barry with respect, see: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2....)
i also found it rather frustrating that for all her lambasting of men and the patriarchy, the author seems to renounce femininity and avoided highlighting femme women who were still rebellious in their own right. a classic example is ada lovelace, mother of computer programming, who still wore poofy dresses and elaborate hairdos and was altogether quite feminine in appearance (https://www.britannica.com/biography/...).
in summary, this book presents a decent list of people to look up, but i would not recommend actually reading it.
as a note, i listened to the audiobook and had some trouble with several of the chapters not playing properly. i am unsure whether this problem was due to netgalley or due to the files themselves. this issue did not impact my review.
thank you to net galley and w.f. howes ltd for an e-audio-arc in exchange for an honest review.
what i got: a dubiously-sourced collection of flippantly-written essays occasionally lauding the featured "woman," but more often than not centered around the author lambasting the patriarchy and promoting second-to-third-wave feminism.
i question where the author found her information; i am no historian, but i remember learning in 6th grade that the false beards that ALL pharaohs wore were to imitate god-of-the-dead osiris and indicate they themselves were a living god (http://www.touregypt.net/featurestori..., https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/5...). hatshepsut was not special for wearing one just because she was female and the author’s claim that the “trad-masc” status quo forced her to do so is blatantly false.
furthermore, the author has little working knowledge of trans identities. of the few trans men in the book, the author deadnames them in their chapter titles and continues dead naming and misgendering them until she sees fit to introduce their trans-ness as shock value. the author did not see fit to include any trans women or non-binary folx, though i can think of several off-hand who would be considered rebels. (for an example of a piece of writing that treats dr. james barry with respect, see: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2....)
i also found it rather frustrating that for all her lambasting of men and the patriarchy, the author seems to renounce femininity and avoided highlighting femme women who were still rebellious in their own right. a classic example is ada lovelace, mother of computer programming, who still wore poofy dresses and elaborate hairdos and was altogether quite feminine in appearance (https://www.britannica.com/biography/...).
in summary, this book presents a decent list of people to look up, but i would not recommend actually reading it.
as a note, i listened to the audiobook and had some trouble with several of the chapters not playing properly. i am unsure whether this problem was due to netgalley or due to the files themselves. this issue did not impact my review.
thank you to net galley and w.f. howes ltd for an e-audio-arc in exchange for an honest review.
August 16, 2020
DNF
This is tripe.
They just called Joan of Arc the "Justin Bieber of France."
Like, could you possibly be more dismissive of what women have gone through historically because we are female?
Honestly, this is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read:
"Joan almost continuously wore men's clothing. It seemed that for whatever reason, she made up her mind that they were her and they were going to help her progress with her master plan. Perhaps she thought she would be taken more seriously [...]."
If only there were some kind of analysis that we could use to explain why Joan of Arc (referred to as "J of A" by the author) felt the need to hide her female sex?
Also, according to the author, the "reason" we "know" Joan of Arc has "made it" is that she "inspired the bob haircut."
I don't know how much longer I can do this.
The girl was burned at the stake by angry, frightened men, but yeah, what matters is her haircut. You know, the one she needed to hide that she was female so she wouldn't be RAPED.
Between this and the glossing over of actual history, give this book a big fat miss. You're better served reading the wikipedias of these women.
The narration was fine, but spoiled by the "I'm hip and cool and edgy" explosions of nonsense in the writing.
Also, Hatshepsut was not a king, she was a pharaoh, which is a GENDER-NEUTRAL term.
I received a copy of this audiobook for free from NetGalley and W.F. Howes Ltd in exchange for an honest, voluntary review.
This is tripe.
They just called Joan of Arc the "Justin Bieber of France."
Like, could you possibly be more dismissive of what women have gone through historically because we are female?
Honestly, this is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read:
"Joan almost continuously wore men's clothing. It seemed that for whatever reason, she made up her mind that they were her and they were going to help her progress with her master plan. Perhaps she thought she would be taken more seriously [...]."
If only there were some kind of analysis that we could use to explain why Joan of Arc (referred to as "J of A" by the author) felt the need to hide her female sex?
Also, according to the author, the "reason" we "know" Joan of Arc has "made it" is that she "inspired the bob haircut."
I don't know how much longer I can do this.
The girl was burned at the stake by angry, frightened men, but yeah, what matters is her haircut. You know, the one she needed to hide that she was female so she wouldn't be RAPED.
Between this and the glossing over of actual history, give this book a big fat miss. You're better served reading the wikipedias of these women.
The narration was fine, but spoiled by the "I'm hip and cool and edgy" explosions of nonsense in the writing.
Also, Hatshepsut was not a king, she was a pharaoh, which is a GENDER-NEUTRAL term.
I received a copy of this audiobook for free from NetGalley and W.F. Howes Ltd in exchange for an honest, voluntary review.
December 25, 2020
EDIT 25/12/2020: Changing this to one star, as I re-evaluate things at the end of the year.
I got this through the Amazon First Reads... whooo boy, let's just say I agree with everyone saying the style is difficult to swallow. The author not only gives basically every woman in this book a nickname, but she also inserts A LOT of inane comments, some inappropriate and some so... alien. Her sense of humour is unusual, and she takes things too far. I'm not sure if this was employed in order to lure in a young/cool crowd, but it was excessive, and unfortunately undermined the credibility of the sources and of the author.
The two stars (ie the extra one) is due to the people presented in this book - I haven't heard about 90% of them. So this is a good list to check out later, as the book spends only a limited amount of time on each - some felt lacking. I know it was difficult to collect information on the earlier figures, but some of the descriptions/actions were so exaggerated - I suppose historical sources did that.
Book got better later, not sure if it was easier to tolerate because I skipped most digressions, or I got used to it...
2020 Popsugar Challenge: book written by a journalist (I think it applies? Anyway).
I got this through the Amazon First Reads... whooo boy, let's just say I agree with everyone saying the style is difficult to swallow. The author not only gives basically every woman in this book a nickname, but she also inserts A LOT of inane comments, some inappropriate and some so... alien. Her sense of humour is unusual, and she takes things too far. I'm not sure if this was employed in order to lure in a young/cool crowd, but it was excessive, and unfortunately undermined the credibility of the sources and of the author.
The two stars (ie the extra one) is due to the people presented in this book - I haven't heard about 90% of them. So this is a good list to check out later, as the book spends only a limited amount of time on each - some felt lacking. I know it was difficult to collect information on the earlier figures, but some of the descriptions/actions were so exaggerated - I suppose historical sources did that.
Book got better later, not sure if it was easier to tolerate because I skipped most digressions, or I got used to it...
2020 Popsugar Challenge: book written by a journalist (I think it applies? Anyway).
May 16, 2020
I know some people do have issues with the language used in this book but as someone who doesn't read detailed biographies of historical figures, this book was fun and a great way to learn about some badass women breaking boundaries in society. It isn't incredibly detailed and each women gets only a handful of pages but it kept me engaged and I did laugh out loud at the modern style of writing. Take the style with a pinch of salt if it isn't your thing but I think it's brill!
July 11, 2023
I hated this and finished it out of spite. This book covered such an interesting topic but was filled with so many stupid jokes and interjections that I wanted to rip my hair out. The whole tone of the book and a bunch of the analogies were super inappropriate and there was no nuance at all. Worst of all the author provided beyond stupid commentary CONSTANTLY CENTRING HERSELF. Genuinely don’t think a single page of this book was touched by an editor.
Sad to see such a cool topic butchered by constant interjections and insensitive coverage. Would have benefited from a more serious tone and deeper dive into a selection of these incredible women.
Every third sentence sounds like this btw.
“Joan may not have shed any blood on the battlefield but she came to SLAY.”
“Joanna showed mad skills as a military leader.”
“Clara carpe'd that diem.”
“Mary didn't just pass, she SURPASSED and SASSED and I for one am in all respects GASSED about it (hence all the yelling).”
“If Loreta was around today she'd be a big whoop reality star on the rise, rocketing like all the Mentos in a Diet Coke ocean.”
First kindle book!, trip book #10
Sad to see such a cool topic butchered by constant interjections and insensitive coverage. Would have benefited from a more serious tone and deeper dive into a selection of these incredible women.
Every third sentence sounds like this btw.
“Joan may not have shed any blood on the battlefield but she came to SLAY.”
“Joanna showed mad skills as a military leader.”
“Clara carpe'd that diem.”
“Mary didn't just pass, she SURPASSED and SASSED and I for one am in all respects GASSED about it (hence all the yelling).”
“If Loreta was around today she'd be a big whoop reality star on the rise, rocketing like all the Mentos in a Diet Coke ocean.”
First kindle book!, trip book #10
June 1, 2020
This book had such a good premise and I was so excited to read about these 50 amazing people who history had written away, to see them brought to light and life again. Unfortunately, the way it’s written just felt insincere and demeaning to the people it talked about - I believe it was meant to be funny, but it read more cringey and annoying. I actually don’t think I’ve ever put a book down so fast, and I’ve read some real shockers.
If you like reading faintly embarrassing attempts to speak “cool” lingo (and saying this, I have made myself uncool I am sure), then fine, go ahead, but I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who actually wants to learn anything about any of these fantastic historical figures. Please go find a better book on any of them.
I wouldn’t normally rate or review a DNF but this was an exception, just for how infuriating I found it.
If you like reading faintly embarrassing attempts to speak “cool” lingo (and saying this, I have made myself uncool I am sure), then fine, go ahead, but I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who actually wants to learn anything about any of these fantastic historical figures. Please go find a better book on any of them.
I wouldn’t normally rate or review a DNF but this was an exception, just for how infuriating I found it.
May 25, 2020
This was painful. A fantastic idea of looking at 50 (often) less known but influential people lives however the writing really let it down. Harry tries too hard and the result is a lot of the lives are lost in amongst all the asides/slang/trying to be cool, especially disappointing as the biographies would have been more than capable of being interesting without all of this. One good thing is some of the people mentioned I would like to research further at some point. On the whole though give this one a miss.
April 28, 2021
Den är briljant. Jag tror detta kan vara första boken jag skrattat högt åt flertalet gånger (jag är mycket svårflirtad när det kommer till "roliga" böcker). Fantastisk kombo av historiska karaktärer och humoristiskt skrivande. Lättsam. Informativ (till en viss grad, väldigt svepande subjektiva beskrivningar såklart). Härlig.
Jag lyssnade på den som ljudbok och bytet av uppläsare för varje kapitel satte pricken över i:et. (Den påminner om podcasten "Herstory", fast med en mer brittisk humor och givetvis att det är kvinnor istället för män som berättar historierna).
Jag lyssnade på den som ljudbok och bytet av uppläsare för varje kapitel satte pricken över i:et. (Den påminner om podcasten "Herstory", fast med en mer brittisk humor och givetvis att det är kvinnor istället för män som berättar historierna).
February 25, 2021
Funny and important in equal measures. An empowering read. Not perfect, but near it, honestly.
June 4, 2020
I know mine is of the unpopular opinion but I really enjoyed this book! The biggest complaint I've heard about this book is the writing style. I, however, really enjoyed it. It's a modern and informal twist on accounts of historical figures (for the majority). As somebody who doesn't read a lot of non-fiction this worked so well for me! If you know that you won't like this writing style then I would recommend to give this book a pass, but I learnt so much from this book and had a great time whilst doing so. This was so up my street and I look forward to any more work that Anneka Harry releases!
Kindly gifted to me by Ed PR.
Kindly gifted to me by Ed PR.
November 14, 2020
No. Don't read this.
It's extremely badly written, and in some cases, transphobic, or racist, and sometimes both!
It's like it's written by a sixty year-old trying to be Down With the Kids, and it's cringe-inducing. WHO edited this? Did ANYONE?
And please, for the love of all that's holy, STOP INCLUDING TRANS MEN OR NONBINARY PEOPLE IN LISTS OF WOMEN. It doesn't matter if you acknowledge that they were probably trans if you're still going to include them in a book you state is about women! Especially if you use names and pronouns that they preferred not to!
Also, DON'T call non-Western countries backwards, please.
FFS.
It's extremely badly written, and in some cases, transphobic, or racist, and sometimes both!
It's like it's written by a sixty year-old trying to be Down With the Kids, and it's cringe-inducing. WHO edited this? Did ANYONE?
And please, for the love of all that's holy, STOP INCLUDING TRANS MEN OR NONBINARY PEOPLE IN LISTS OF WOMEN. It doesn't matter if you acknowledge that they were probably trans if you're still going to include them in a book you state is about women! Especially if you use names and pronouns that they preferred not to!
Also, DON'T call non-Western countries backwards, please.
FFS.
February 3, 2022
“(how’s about THAT for an opener to a book about powerful WIMMIN!)”
Gender Rebels is woke on feminism from the past to today and throws shade on the patriarchy, spilling the tea on women who had to dress as men to get somewhere in the world.
If how women were treated in the past makes you salty, and you want to know how women slayed in a world that only wanted them to be mothers (because surely that’s the GOAT job!), this may be the book for you.
However, if those sentences were as difficult for you to read as they were for me to write, I wouldn’t recommend.
Gender Rebels has a great premise. It’s a short non-fiction book, full of 50 women from history who dressed as men - either to be taken seriously or to feel comfortable in their own skin (because of the age since these people were alive, we cannot just assume they’re just women dressing as men, but they are all born female). They dress as men to escape or just to be free to do what men did and do without thought - we even have someone from 2019 who had to dress as a man to be allowed to watch a football match, and is arrested when she is caught.
Each biography is only 3-5 pages long - a feat considering how little historical evidence we have for them. The book covers a wide range of time, all the way from the Ancient Egyptians to now. It did give me a lot of women I want to do my own research on.
But it felt like it was written by a 13 year old feminist on tumblr - or a 40 year old author, in the height of the YA boom, writing down for teenagers in a “relatable” way. It was so cringey. It wasn’t funny. I could only read it for a few chapters each time because it was so bad.
It also wasn’t just cringey, sometimes it was downright uncomfortable. To name but two instances: Mocking a Native American tribal name (Ququnok) by making duck noises; and choosing to name an unknown lesbian lover ‘Ellen DeGeneres’ for the sake of convenience (we don’t know her name was Ellen, she could have been called literally anything).
Gender Rebels is woke on feminism from the past to today and throws shade on the patriarchy, spilling the tea on women who had to dress as men to get somewhere in the world.
If how women were treated in the past makes you salty, and you want to know how women slayed in a world that only wanted them to be mothers (because surely that’s the GOAT job!), this may be the book for you.
However, if those sentences were as difficult for you to read as they were for me to write, I wouldn’t recommend.
Gender Rebels has a great premise. It’s a short non-fiction book, full of 50 women from history who dressed as men - either to be taken seriously or to feel comfortable in their own skin (because of the age since these people were alive, we cannot just assume they’re just women dressing as men, but they are all born female). They dress as men to escape or just to be free to do what men did and do without thought - we even have someone from 2019 who had to dress as a man to be allowed to watch a football match, and is arrested when she is caught.
Each biography is only 3-5 pages long - a feat considering how little historical evidence we have for them. The book covers a wide range of time, all the way from the Ancient Egyptians to now. It did give me a lot of women I want to do my own research on.
But it felt like it was written by a 13 year old feminist on tumblr - or a 40 year old author, in the height of the YA boom, writing down for teenagers in a “relatable” way. It was so cringey. It wasn’t funny. I could only read it for a few chapters each time because it was so bad.
It also wasn’t just cringey, sometimes it was downright uncomfortable. To name but two instances: Mocking a Native American tribal name (Ququnok) by making duck noises; and choosing to name an unknown lesbian lover ‘Ellen DeGeneres’ for the sake of convenience (we don’t know her name was Ellen, she could have been called literally anything).
July 29, 2020
This book relied far too much on the cringeworthy jokes than actually focusing on the subject matter, so much so that I think it ended up achieving the opposite of what it was trying to achieve. The writing style reminded me of someone who was trying extremely hard to relate to the younger generation, and even I, a bitter thornback, could feel the second-hand embarrassment radiating out of my phone.
The audiobook narrator tried her best with the material she had been given, but I'm afraid nothing was saving this mess.
The audiobook narrator tried her best with the material she had been given, but I'm afraid nothing was saving this mess.
May 29, 2020
There was so much potential in this book and giving these individuals their moment in the spotlight can only be a positive thing, but the narrative style wasn't for me and I felt more social context would have added value to the book.
August 30, 2021
At one point, the writer describes some good news as "boomshakalaka news", and that should tell you how infuriating, slang-filled and often "I'm down with the kids, me!" the writing style is. Borderline offensive to the featured women in some cases; just too flippant and doesn't convey the gravity of some of the stories within. I only finished this because I am a completionist idiot.
July 16, 2022
Two stars because of the subject but the way the stories were told was…the worst.
February 1, 2023
Seen some moody reviews about this but I had no qualms - I just took it with a pinch of salt. Although also maybe the audio b was a better format to communicate the TOV more easily
May 19, 2020
Great topic Lousy writter
February 18, 2021
Summary: Wait for the live show, but for now the interview at the end of the book is well-worth a read/listen.
'Feminism means equality' - an inspiring message in an excellent interview between Harry and her co-readers towards the end of the audiobook of Gender Rebels. The discussion was a highlight, combined with the very fact of a compendium of inspiring gender-bending women, old and new.
In the interview, the role if humour is mentioned. We are told that male authors would tend towards the dry and dusty, whereas women often take a more playful approach. I may therefore be self-condemning myself to charges of patriarchy by saying that I didn't find the jokes landed. Often it felt like padding. Beneath the stale styrofoam beads of Dad (Mum?) jokes was a neat little nugget of history. The job was finding it under the weighty false-levity of all those words.
Who is the audience for the book? At first I thought I'd picked up a Horrid Histories for the under 10s (no bad thing, and I'd have adjusted expectations). Then I thought it was for late teens or early 20s. Then the Spice Girls and Alanis references came, and I wondered whether I was the right age group. None of which matters, beyond how it suggests the jokes didn't make it more accessible, they just made for a distraction.
At the end, it was mentioned that Harry is a performer. Actually, I think this could make a great stand-up show. I'm imagining an overhead projector, and panel- or sofa-based format loosely modelled on Loose Women. I'd buy a ticket, and if it was in Nuneaton I'd get the train back home after.
'Feminism means equality' - an inspiring message in an excellent interview between Harry and her co-readers towards the end of the audiobook of Gender Rebels. The discussion was a highlight, combined with the very fact of a compendium of inspiring gender-bending women, old and new.
In the interview, the role if humour is mentioned. We are told that male authors would tend towards the dry and dusty, whereas women often take a more playful approach. I may therefore be self-condemning myself to charges of patriarchy by saying that I didn't find the jokes landed. Often it felt like padding. Beneath the stale styrofoam beads of Dad (Mum?) jokes was a neat little nugget of history. The job was finding it under the weighty false-levity of all those words.
Who is the audience for the book? At first I thought I'd picked up a Horrid Histories for the under 10s (no bad thing, and I'd have adjusted expectations). Then I thought it was for late teens or early 20s. Then the Spice Girls and Alanis references came, and I wondered whether I was the right age group. None of which matters, beyond how it suggests the jokes didn't make it more accessible, they just made for a distraction.
At the end, it was mentioned that Harry is a performer. Actually, I think this could make a great stand-up show. I'm imagining an overhead projector, and panel- or sofa-based format loosely modelled on Loose Women. I'd buy a ticket, and if it was in Nuneaton I'd get the train back home after.
May 19, 2020
Why we don’t know about half of these inspirational women and the sacrifices they made in order to pursue their dreams living in a “man’s world” is absurd. One to be surely studied as part of the school curriculum and if I have a daughter I’d be sure to tell her a few of these tales. Also liked the witty banter of the author, definitely helped lighten the load on what could’ve been quite a heavy read.
July 9, 2020
A genuinely interesting read full of fun and feminism.
Read
August 28, 2023DNF. I got 10 pages into it and couldnt read any longer. I appreciate what this book is trying to achieve however there is way too much commentary from the author that just made it longer than it needed to be.
June 4, 2020
I liked reading the stories of the lives of the Gender Rebels, many of them are quite fascinating and these women kick ass. I did not like the authors attempt at humor or her tired puns.
January 14, 2024
Gender Rebels - Anneka Harry
Women dressing as, and pretending to be, men to pursue their careers in the face of misogyny in a patriarchal society, to secure an education, to love who they want to love, to avoid responsibility for crimes committed etcetera etcetera etcetera.
It's a great idea for a book and I was looking forward to reading about both brave and wily woman from history who had either been written out of it, or had been misrepresented or demonised.
It's time to set the record straight and here was a book that gave the impression that it would do just that.
Only it didn't.
What I got was a bit like a Horrible Histories snapshot of lives with cracks papered over, holes in stories filled with preferred content, and a flagrant disregard for facts.
It's difficult as a man to take issue with how poorly written this is as the accusation would be made that my being less than enamoured with it is rooted in gender tribalism.
Of course I must be talking bollocks as I have bollocks.
If I was a woman expressing the same views then the claim would be made of her being a gender traitor, a handmaiden for the patriarchy.
Its very easy to silence a critique in this way.
But dont take my word for it and dispassionately consider these quotes.
Quotes that aren't out of context and are just three of many that could have been used.
"Some sources even say she found the energy to make a dad joke with her final breath by saying she was dying ‘with Onorata’ (her name meant ‘honour’). Let’s just call this a fact because it’s the most beautiful, poignant dad joke I ever did hear."
Some sources? Well that stands up to scrutiny doesn't it? Let's just call it a fact? No. Let's not do that. Let's just call evidenced facts facts.
"All cards on the table from the take-off here, there’s no actual archaeological proof that Mulan ever existed . . . but if Disney said she did in their 1998 animated comedy-drama-action-musical-box-office-smash-that-went-down-a-total-treat then she must have been real."
Oh, so let's slip in a fictional folk heroine in with the real flesh and blood women mentioned as a good story trumps reality.
"my mind can’t help but rove on over to thinking about modern-day examples such as J. K. Rowling. There may have been a plan behind her Slytherin on to the shelves as something other than ‘Joanne’ but now Joanne is RICHER THAN THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND, I think we can all do well to remember that she forever possessed that genius, she was just told to find a way to get boys and men to recognise it."
Hands up who though the J in JK Rowling was a John. Nope? No one? Is that because she never claimed to be anything other than Joanne? Was the author of the Harry Potter books ever looking to pull the wool over the eyes of anyone by letting people think she was male?
Of course not.
This whole book is riddled with a slapdash approach to facts. Ultimately my impression of it is that it provides ammunition for men to ridicule it and that draws attention away from other books that make feminist points far better.
Women dressing as, and pretending to be, men to pursue their careers in the face of misogyny in a patriarchal society, to secure an education, to love who they want to love, to avoid responsibility for crimes committed etcetera etcetera etcetera.
It's a great idea for a book and I was looking forward to reading about both brave and wily woman from history who had either been written out of it, or had been misrepresented or demonised.
It's time to set the record straight and here was a book that gave the impression that it would do just that.
Only it didn't.
What I got was a bit like a Horrible Histories snapshot of lives with cracks papered over, holes in stories filled with preferred content, and a flagrant disregard for facts.
It's difficult as a man to take issue with how poorly written this is as the accusation would be made that my being less than enamoured with it is rooted in gender tribalism.
Of course I must be talking bollocks as I have bollocks.
If I was a woman expressing the same views then the claim would be made of her being a gender traitor, a handmaiden for the patriarchy.
Its very easy to silence a critique in this way.
But dont take my word for it and dispassionately consider these quotes.
Quotes that aren't out of context and are just three of many that could have been used.
"Some sources even say she found the energy to make a dad joke with her final breath by saying she was dying ‘with Onorata’ (her name meant ‘honour’). Let’s just call this a fact because it’s the most beautiful, poignant dad joke I ever did hear."
Some sources? Well that stands up to scrutiny doesn't it? Let's just call it a fact? No. Let's not do that. Let's just call evidenced facts facts.
"All cards on the table from the take-off here, there’s no actual archaeological proof that Mulan ever existed . . . but if Disney said she did in their 1998 animated comedy-drama-action-musical-box-office-smash-that-went-down-a-total-treat then she must have been real."
Oh, so let's slip in a fictional folk heroine in with the real flesh and blood women mentioned as a good story trumps reality.
"my mind can’t help but rove on over to thinking about modern-day examples such as J. K. Rowling. There may have been a plan behind her Slytherin on to the shelves as something other than ‘Joanne’ but now Joanne is RICHER THAN THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND, I think we can all do well to remember that she forever possessed that genius, she was just told to find a way to get boys and men to recognise it."
Hands up who though the J in JK Rowling was a John. Nope? No one? Is that because she never claimed to be anything other than Joanne? Was the author of the Harry Potter books ever looking to pull the wool over the eyes of anyone by letting people think she was male?
Of course not.
This whole book is riddled with a slapdash approach to facts. Ultimately my impression of it is that it provides ammunition for men to ridicule it and that draws attention away from other books that make feminist points far better.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 8, 2021
In this book, Anneka Harry describes fifty 'gender rebels': women, or people born as women, who had to hide their sex/gender to do what it was they wanted to do (be it to write a novel, play music, fight in the army or run a marathon, all perfectly normal things to do if you happen to be a man of course. Sigh). The list is absolutely not exhaustive but I didn't expect it to cover every aspect of 'gender rebellion', so to speak - that would be nearly impossible.
Looking at the other reviews, I feel like I'm a bit in the minority here when I say I didn't really mind the unsubtle humour used to describe the gender rebels' lives. As Harry says in her self-interview at the end of the book, it did actually help to lighten some of the doom & gloom of the stories. I also feel this is a typical way of British comedy-writing, where the fact that you want to cringe or roll your eyes repeatedly is part of the joke, and the 'bantery' humour actually shows respect (as in: you really made it when people make fun of you).
However, it did get distracting at times, and some of it was definitely over the edge, especially when it came to cultures or groups Harry isn't a part of. As others have pointed out, she sometimes seems to be a bit baffled by trans and possibly non-binary identities - of course it is hard to retroactively assign these identities to people from the past, but in the case of several 'gender rebels' it felt weird to me to refer to them as 'she', even if it was only at the start of the chapter. Overall, though, I felt she handled it as carefully as she could with the information that is known. (n.b. there are no trans women in this book, which I think could have made a great addition especially in the later chapters, though maybe I'm overthinking).
I do have to say that Harry's later chapters (about those who are still alive or might still have living relatives) were standing out, bringing tears to my eyes as you could feel her anger seeping through. It is indeed sad that the list almost comes full-circle, that women still have to fight for a place in this world; and that women are continuously being ignored or forgotten throughout history. That is what this book is trying to shine a light on, and while it has its flaws (see above), I love it for that.
Still, I would have loved it more if Harry had only picked a few 'rebels' to discuss in more detail (in the last chapter, about women in Iran, you can see the potential for that, when she incorporates interviews). The chapters are very short and often left me wanting for more. As it stands, this book is a great starting point to do a bit more research about these rebellious pioneers myself.
Looking at the other reviews, I feel like I'm a bit in the minority here when I say I didn't really mind the unsubtle humour used to describe the gender rebels' lives. As Harry says in her self-interview at the end of the book, it did actually help to lighten some of the doom & gloom of the stories. I also feel this is a typical way of British comedy-writing, where the fact that you want to cringe or roll your eyes repeatedly is part of the joke, and the 'bantery' humour actually shows respect (as in: you really made it when people make fun of you).
However, it did get distracting at times, and some of it was definitely over the edge, especially when it came to cultures or groups Harry isn't a part of. As others have pointed out, she sometimes seems to be a bit baffled by trans and possibly non-binary identities - of course it is hard to retroactively assign these identities to people from the past, but in the case of several 'gender rebels' it felt weird to me to refer to them as 'she', even if it was only at the start of the chapter. Overall, though, I felt she handled it as carefully as she could with the information that is known. (n.b. there are no trans women in this book, which I think could have made a great addition especially in the later chapters, though maybe I'm overthinking).
I do have to say that Harry's later chapters (about those who are still alive or might still have living relatives) were standing out, bringing tears to my eyes as you could feel her anger seeping through. It is indeed sad that the list almost comes full-circle, that women still have to fight for a place in this world; and that women are continuously being ignored or forgotten throughout history. That is what this book is trying to shine a light on, and while it has its flaws (see above), I love it for that.
Still, I would have loved it more if Harry had only picked a few 'rebels' to discuss in more detail (in the last chapter, about women in Iran, you can see the potential for that, when she incorporates interviews). The chapters are very short and often left me wanting for more. As it stands, this book is a great starting point to do a bit more research about these rebellious pioneers myself.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 122 reviews