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Witches: What Women Do Together
Covens. Girl bands. Ballet troupes. Convents. In all times and places, girls and women have come together in communities of vocation, of necessity, of support. And wherever women gather, magic happens. Female farmers change the way we grow our food. Online beauty communities democratise the intricacies of skincare. Teen girls invent phrases that enter the urban lexicon, and choose our next pop superstars.
Patriarchal societies have long been content to uphold men's and boys' clubs, while viewing groups that exclude men as sites of rivalry and suspicion. In this deeply personal exploration of what women make together, Sam George-Allen delves into workplaces, industries and social groups to dismantle the cultural myth of female isolation and uncover the inherent revolutionary potential of these groups.
Thoughtful, intimate, and convincing, Witches is a long-overdue celebration of the power and pleasure of working with other women.
Patriarchal societies have long been content to uphold men's and boys' clubs, while viewing groups that exclude men as sites of rivalry and suspicion. In this deeply personal exploration of what women make together, Sam George-Allen delves into workplaces, industries and social groups to dismantle the cultural myth of female isolation and uncover the inherent revolutionary potential of these groups.
Thoughtful, intimate, and convincing, Witches is a long-overdue celebration of the power and pleasure of working with other women.
267 pages, Paperback
First published March 5, 2019
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April 24, 2019
This book's title promises so much, which is perhaps why it has left me so disappointed. The author lacks any real feminist analysis, instead opting for the 'choosy-choice' school of feminism (libfem), the erroneous idea that anything a woman chooses to do is is a feminist act. Here is a good article that breaks down the concept of choice feminism: https://www.feministcurrent.com/2015/...
After lamenting that she used to throw other women under the bus by claiming that she's "not like the other girls", she proceeds to assure the reader that she's not like those other feminists (you know, the unpopular ones who centre women in their feminism).
It starts promisingly, with the first two chapters speaking optimistically about the positive impacts of when girls and women join together, but it begins to unravel in chapter 3: Make-up. A nod to Naomi Wolf's "The Beauty Myth", the author seems to acknowledge the facts about the cost of time and money and expectations of women to conform, as well as the discrimination against women who don't wear makeup, then in the next breath, tells us that women helping each other in their subjugation is somehow a feminist act, rather than a form of horizontal oppression.
Of course, the inclusion of a chapter on Trans makes clear the author's views, but it really does serve to highlight the lack of cogent and thoughtful analysis regarding the issue in liberal feminism. As I went through my checklist of what makes a woman...I saw...the illusion disintegrate. Just as I menstruate and have breasts, I also sprout thick hair on my legs and offensive odours from my pits. The line between male and female is as unreal as national borders... Is the author listening to herself? Body hair and body odour are completely natural and normal parts of being a woman. The idea that these are masculine characteristics and women should be smooth and lovely-scented are lies sold to us by the patriarchy under the neat packaging of 'Gender'. How can any 'feminist' not understand these very basic concepts?
I also find it horribly ironic that for a book titled "Witches", that briefly touches on and acknowledges the history of witches being targeted, she uses the term 'TERF' so freely. TERF is a modern day witch-hunt of those who do not bow to gender ideology. It dehumanises people (mostly women) and legitimises the very real threats and violence towards them. Radical feminists are literally today's witches.
There is nothing in the Trans chapter about women working together, instead it is an all-out attack on radical feminists. There is no mention of lesbians who are losing their spaces or being victimised for their sexual orientation. It was also a hideous affront to feminism to mention the Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter for excluding a trans-identifying man, when only months after publishing, trans activists succeeded in lobbying for funding to be withdrawn from VRR simply for being unapologetically woman-focussed and protecting the needs of some of society's most in need of protection. Likewise, the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival was shut down after 40 years after being targeted by transactivist bullies, in an infantile show of "If we can't have it, no one will!" I suppose they are example of trans working together, but certainly not for good.
The cognitive dissonance continues in the next chapter, Midwives, where she states: Birth is a curious thing. It seems fundamentally female, but of course it isn't; and Women are, of course, not the only people who get pregnant and give birth. How curious that it is only in humans that this confusion occurs...as far as I'm aware, no one is claiming that come tomcats birth kittens, or that roosters can lay eggs. Everyone knows these pregnant 'men' are women. What an insult to women that a chapter on birth - arguably the most fundamentally female thing - could be so tarnished by gender ideology.
More lack of feminist analysis on the systems of oppression in the chapter on Sex Workers. She states that we need to listen to the experiences of sex workers, then completely scoffs at Andrea Dworkin's thoughts on her experiences. She also ignores the fact that many people who are hard-fighting proponents of the Nordic Model (somewhat of an inconvenient afterthought in the essay) are actually exited women from the industry. Exited women who try to speak out against the sex trade say that they are frequently silenced by those associations listed in this chapter. She briefly almost touches on the power imbalance, then bounces straight back into the libfem stance of "but some women choose this", without ever recognising the system under which these 'choices' are made.
All in all, the valuable insights in this book are too few and far between to offset the harmful misinformation. Do not recommend.
After lamenting that she used to throw other women under the bus by claiming that she's "not like the other girls", she proceeds to assure the reader that she's not like those other feminists (you know, the unpopular ones who centre women in their feminism).
It starts promisingly, with the first two chapters speaking optimistically about the positive impacts of when girls and women join together, but it begins to unravel in chapter 3: Make-up. A nod to Naomi Wolf's "The Beauty Myth", the author seems to acknowledge the facts about the cost of time and money and expectations of women to conform, as well as the discrimination against women who don't wear makeup, then in the next breath, tells us that women helping each other in their subjugation is somehow a feminist act, rather than a form of horizontal oppression.
Of course, the inclusion of a chapter on Trans makes clear the author's views, but it really does serve to highlight the lack of cogent and thoughtful analysis regarding the issue in liberal feminism. As I went through my checklist of what makes a woman...I saw...the illusion disintegrate. Just as I menstruate and have breasts, I also sprout thick hair on my legs and offensive odours from my pits. The line between male and female is as unreal as national borders... Is the author listening to herself? Body hair and body odour are completely natural and normal parts of being a woman. The idea that these are masculine characteristics and women should be smooth and lovely-scented are lies sold to us by the patriarchy under the neat packaging of 'Gender'. How can any 'feminist' not understand these very basic concepts?
I also find it horribly ironic that for a book titled "Witches", that briefly touches on and acknowledges the history of witches being targeted, she uses the term 'TERF' so freely. TERF is a modern day witch-hunt of those who do not bow to gender ideology. It dehumanises people (mostly women) and legitimises the very real threats and violence towards them. Radical feminists are literally today's witches.
There is nothing in the Trans chapter about women working together, instead it is an all-out attack on radical feminists. There is no mention of lesbians who are losing their spaces or being victimised for their sexual orientation. It was also a hideous affront to feminism to mention the Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter for excluding a trans-identifying man, when only months after publishing, trans activists succeeded in lobbying for funding to be withdrawn from VRR simply for being unapologetically woman-focussed and protecting the needs of some of society's most in need of protection. Likewise, the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival was shut down after 40 years after being targeted by transactivist bullies, in an infantile show of "If we can't have it, no one will!" I suppose they are example of trans working together, but certainly not for good.
The cognitive dissonance continues in the next chapter, Midwives, where she states: Birth is a curious thing. It seems fundamentally female, but of course it isn't; and Women are, of course, not the only people who get pregnant and give birth. How curious that it is only in humans that this confusion occurs...as far as I'm aware, no one is claiming that come tomcats birth kittens, or that roosters can lay eggs. Everyone knows these pregnant 'men' are women. What an insult to women that a chapter on birth - arguably the most fundamentally female thing - could be so tarnished by gender ideology.
More lack of feminist analysis on the systems of oppression in the chapter on Sex Workers. She states that we need to listen to the experiences of sex workers, then completely scoffs at Andrea Dworkin's thoughts on her experiences. She also ignores the fact that many people who are hard-fighting proponents of the Nordic Model (somewhat of an inconvenient afterthought in the essay) are actually exited women from the industry. Exited women who try to speak out against the sex trade say that they are frequently silenced by those associations listed in this chapter. She briefly almost touches on the power imbalance, then bounces straight back into the libfem stance of "but some women choose this", without ever recognising the system under which these 'choices' are made.
All in all, the valuable insights in this book are too few and far between to offset the harmful misinformation. Do not recommend.
April 24, 2019
I wolfed this down in two days (in order to get it back to the library in time, and yet, it was easy). Absolutely adored it. I almost gave it four stars because despite every chapter reflecting women and their magic, I felt it was missing a chapter about fat women and the fat acceptance movement. The author does admit to physical vanity so it had to leave me wondering if she still hadn’t crossed the hurdle of fat bodies being good bodies.
October 6, 2019
I was so excited to read this book. I am ‘into witch shit’; I really liked the idea of using witchcraft as a metaphor for women’s solidarity, and all the powerful feelings and social effects this homosociality can produce.
In the end I found myself wishing it had been more uncompromisingly witchy. While I enjoyed the chapters individually, I felt like the central thread of witchcraft and magic wasn’t necessarily carried through.
It’s a mark of the book’s success that it did invite me to consider the role of lore and ritual in practices as diverse as makeup application, social work and permaculture farming, and how nuns, elders and midwives become guardians of the watchtowers: magical guides across life’s thresholds. I considered how it’s through collaboration with other women that we can access powerful states of transcendence: through playing music, through teenage fandom, through dance and athleticism.
Implicit throughout is the idea that these rituals, facilitated by these relationships, transfigure womanhood itself into something fluid and mercurial, something felt from the inside rather than a stolid category that can be pinned down from the outside. This is an especially powerful concept in regard to the trans chapter co-authored with Liz Duck-Chong.
But I wish Sam George-Allen had been more explicit, more insistent, that all this IS witchcraft! The power of being completely present in your body and mind, feeling you can change the world, and the feeling of belonging completely to your friends, to your passions, to your work, your community and surroundings, just as they in turn sustain you and lift you up… THIS is what witchcraft is – not just tarot or crystals or spells!
The introduction promised this approach, but then the chapters seemed to get bogged down in memoir, or discussions of patriarchal panic over women’s skills and collaborations. The prose was clean and delightful to read, with a lot of evocative scene-setting and observation, and I had a sense of plentiful research and erudition bubbling below the surface; but there was a lot of rumination on what is and isn’t considered feminist, and how men have sought to atomise and belittle women.
I’ve admired SGA’s essays in the past but this book felt like it was pitched to the entry-level feminism market. Reading it felt like riding in a sports car at 40kmh. The sophisticated level of critical analysis I’ve seen from SGA before, and was craving here, seemed to me like it had been dialled down in order to make the book ‘approachable’ and ‘accessible’.
Maybe my own inner witch wanted a more freaky and nerdy book than the Australian trade nonfiction market can sustain?
In the end I found myself wishing it had been more uncompromisingly witchy. While I enjoyed the chapters individually, I felt like the central thread of witchcraft and magic wasn’t necessarily carried through.
It’s a mark of the book’s success that it did invite me to consider the role of lore and ritual in practices as diverse as makeup application, social work and permaculture farming, and how nuns, elders and midwives become guardians of the watchtowers: magical guides across life’s thresholds. I considered how it’s through collaboration with other women that we can access powerful states of transcendence: through playing music, through teenage fandom, through dance and athleticism.
Implicit throughout is the idea that these rituals, facilitated by these relationships, transfigure womanhood itself into something fluid and mercurial, something felt from the inside rather than a stolid category that can be pinned down from the outside. This is an especially powerful concept in regard to the trans chapter co-authored with Liz Duck-Chong.
But I wish Sam George-Allen had been more explicit, more insistent, that all this IS witchcraft! The power of being completely present in your body and mind, feeling you can change the world, and the feeling of belonging completely to your friends, to your passions, to your work, your community and surroundings, just as they in turn sustain you and lift you up… THIS is what witchcraft is – not just tarot or crystals or spells!
The introduction promised this approach, but then the chapters seemed to get bogged down in memoir, or discussions of patriarchal panic over women’s skills and collaborations. The prose was clean and delightful to read, with a lot of evocative scene-setting and observation, and I had a sense of plentiful research and erudition bubbling below the surface; but there was a lot of rumination on what is and isn’t considered feminist, and how men have sought to atomise and belittle women.
I’ve admired SGA’s essays in the past but this book felt like it was pitched to the entry-level feminism market. Reading it felt like riding in a sports car at 40kmh. The sophisticated level of critical analysis I’ve seen from SGA before, and was craving here, seemed to me like it had been dialled down in order to make the book ‘approachable’ and ‘accessible’.
Maybe my own inner witch wanted a more freaky and nerdy book than the Australian trade nonfiction market can sustain?
July 28, 2019
It seems more than fitting that I read this book just before the birth my baby girl, just as it was fitting that I read this book at this time in my life. As a woman, having a baby girl is both a source of pleasure and excitement, and of some anxiety. I know what it's like to be a girl, and it's difficult to say the least. Holding her small, trusting body in my arms, I have gazed into her peaceful face and thought, with a sense of dread, how do I protect her from the vultures of this world? Add to that the niggling worry that I, who has never been 'girly', would have a 'girly-girl' child, well, that just adds to the list of unknowns.
Sam George-Allen, a PhD candidate at UTAS, has filled in some gaps for me in my understanding of women, gaps I hadn't really realised were there before. She also makes me feel not so alone in this broad tapestry of genderhood. Witches isn't an angry examination of the wrongs done to women, which you might say Fight Like a Girl is (a good book but I still haven't finished it because it gets me so riled up!), but a "celebration of the power and pleasure of working with other women." Celebration is the perfect word for it, and she celebrates aspects of being 'woman' that I had previously dismissed as trite or stifling. More on that in a bit.
This is no dry study, either, but a deeply personal exploration with touches of memoir to it. George-Allen speaks of her own sense of rivalry with other women, a rivalry "we're taught to enjoy. We look for and expect it. Celebrity feuds fuel the whole tabloid industry. [...] Films, books and magazines aimed at women all sell the same, sorry story of women competing with one another, often for the attention of men. And we buy it." (3) She's absolutely right. This is one of the things about being a woman in a Western society that I detest, though I mostly come across it when I glance at the cover of tabloid magazines while queuing in the supermarket, or those rare times I watch MKR (I cannot stand shows like The Bachelor, which would epitomise this). But like the author, I too have felt envy towards other women - there are very few women I haven't envied for something or other (always scratching away at a sense of lack in myself) - and sometimes that envy can turn into resentment.
It is on this premise that Witches moves forward, examining several spheres in which women work well together, and the power that comes through that space of sharing, bonding and supporting each other. George-Allen makes a strong case for celebrating these spaces, as "for those invested in maintaining the [patriarchal] status quo, there's a lot to be gained from preventing women from getting together. [...] As Naomi Wolf observed in The Beauty Myth [...] a population divided, distracted and economically depressed is unable to demand to be released from oppression." (3) Examples of this abound, such as in Beyond the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo which immerses the reader into the real-life stories of several families living in a Mumbai slum, always competing over who has the better home to the extent that they never turn their gazes - or their anger - towards their society or government and demand change. This strategy has been used in times of war, and is no less true of women.
Sam George-Allen notes in her introduction that her purpose in writing this book was partly as a self-help exercise. "I was finally trying to stitch together my feminist theory and my deeply flawed practice." (6) Much of this work is anecdotal, but supported by wide-ranging statistics and reports. It is a deeply feminist work, and reminds us that
In the spirit of the confessional, personal tone used by George-Allen, I felt it only right to reflect on the chapters in the same vein. Because this is a book that encourages you to reflect on your self, and where you fit into your culture, and which messages of the patriarchy you have unwittingly absorbed and used to further fragment and divide. The book is laid out into chapters that each explore the diverse ways in which women work together in positive relationships, including 'the beauty club', sportswomen, dancers, midwives, farmers, sex workers, trans women, nuns and musicians. I felt almost reluctant to read the chapters on fan girls, makeup and nuns because I've never identified with such girls/women or pastimes, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I learned and how deftly, and gently, the author helped me examine my own prejudice and think of these women and their interests in new, more sympathetic ways. It was also empowering to read about the "stealthy cultural heft of teen girls" (20), as evidenced by the pop idols and classic hits that they actively choose, the buying power they have - or that their parents wield on their behalf. Growing up below the poverty line, I never really experienced that, and while I went through the motions of putting up posters of teen heartthrobs while a young teen, I didn't actually like or care about any of them. I just kept that quietly to myself and tried to engage in what I felt were normal, regular teen girl activities. I was an outsider who faked being a member of the teen girl club, because what else can you do as a girl but try to fit in? Especially in a small regional town.
Likewise with Chapter 3: Make-up - The Beauty Club. Another chapter I couldn't personally relate to, and another topic for which George-Allen convinced me to have more respect. I don't wear make-up: I have sensitive skin, so it makes me break out in hives; it's stupidly expensive, hard to maintain and time-consuming to put on. Honestly, there are more important things in life, I've always felt. I sometimes study my reflection, though, and acknowledge that of course I'd look "better" with make-up - if it's applied well, everyone does. I've also felt resistant to the pressure to wear it and look a certain way, feeling like it's one shackle too many. George-Allen, though, takes a different perspective, and it's a fascinating one. She looks at the 'beauty club', the hugely successful YouTube channels devoted to sharing tips and techniques, and how women have claimed ownership of the beauty rituals. "Membership of this club might be forced upon you, but the upside is admission to a worldwide VIP room full of secrets, esoteric knowledge and your best mates." (53) She notes that these spaces are full of positive expression and that there's no place for men in them. Men are simply ignored, when they trespass. It's heady, and perhaps the only way women can subvert the social pressure of always looking good: by owning it. "We know that beauty is not as simple as trying to outcompete our peers for male attention or praise. We know that an understanding of beauty, and membership to the club, is really about gaining and sharing the means to move through the world easily, skilfully, and without detection - a means of smoothing the system from the inside." (57) Her argument is compelling, and she convinced me to soften my dismissive views on make-up.
The chapter on Sportswomen - subtitled "The Body is a Verb" - was likewise of little interest to me at first. The few times I have tried to play team sport it has been a mostly miserable experience. I'm just not equipped to handle the catty, bitchy game of netball (it was fascinating to learn why it was invented - in that sense, rural Tasmanian netball really gives decorum the finger), or indoor cricket, or bitchy girls in general, and they always seemed to turn up for and dominate sport. After grade six I gave up and simply tried to avoid sport altogether, which I regret now (it probably has more to do with where I lived than sport itself, to be fair). This chapter focuses on women in sport, the pay disparities - she compares the Matildas (female soccer team, ranked 6th in the world) with the Socceroos (male team, ranked 43rd): "in 2015 it was reported that world-renowned player and Matildas co-captain Lisa De Vanna made about $27,397 for the whole year, while Socceroos star Tim Cahill made about that figure per day" (79) - and the popularity of women's AFL. The chapter on nuns, the one I thought might be the least interesting, was possibly the most interesting (after midwives). This review will get way too long if I go into it but get yourself a copy of this book yourself!
By combining social justice issues with a sensitive, sympathetic and empowering exploration of women's relationships with each other, George-Allen both caught and held my attention, taught me ways to subvert the ingrained misogyny even women have (without realising it), and helped empower me in celebrating the things women do together, rather than being dismissive of them, or embarrassed by them (that classic internal cringe: unless it's something men do or men approve of, it's not worthy, right?). You could say that there's a lot she doesn't go into or cover, things missing that were surprising - such as roller derby - and perhaps I wanted more on what women are up against, to balance out the celebration. But at the end of it what I really take home is the idea that women do work well together despite the patriarchy, that if we embrace the things that we want to do and enjoy doing and share these things, that we form stronger connections with other women and that it is this, the joyful, often exuberant relationships between women, that the patriarchy rightly fears because it is how we can break free. Witches: What Women Do Together showed me that to help my new daughter grow into a strong woman, I need to embrace what makes her Woman, in whatever ways that appears, and model healthy, mutually supportive female-female relationships. (This does, of course, need to be balanced with consideration of age-appropriateness etc. Girls are being pressured to grow up too fast these days; I feel so sad when I see very young girls wearing hooker boots and boob tubes.)
Sam George-Allen, a PhD candidate at UTAS, has filled in some gaps for me in my understanding of women, gaps I hadn't really realised were there before. She also makes me feel not so alone in this broad tapestry of genderhood. Witches isn't an angry examination of the wrongs done to women, which you might say Fight Like a Girl is (a good book but I still haven't finished it because it gets me so riled up!), but a "celebration of the power and pleasure of working with other women." Celebration is the perfect word for it, and she celebrates aspects of being 'woman' that I had previously dismissed as trite or stifling. More on that in a bit.
This is no dry study, either, but a deeply personal exploration with touches of memoir to it. George-Allen speaks of her own sense of rivalry with other women, a rivalry "we're taught to enjoy. We look for and expect it. Celebrity feuds fuel the whole tabloid industry. [...] Films, books and magazines aimed at women all sell the same, sorry story of women competing with one another, often for the attention of men. And we buy it." (3) She's absolutely right. This is one of the things about being a woman in a Western society that I detest, though I mostly come across it when I glance at the cover of tabloid magazines while queuing in the supermarket, or those rare times I watch MKR (I cannot stand shows like The Bachelor, which would epitomise this). But like the author, I too have felt envy towards other women - there are very few women I haven't envied for something or other (always scratching away at a sense of lack in myself) - and sometimes that envy can turn into resentment.
It is on this premise that Witches moves forward, examining several spheres in which women work well together, and the power that comes through that space of sharing, bonding and supporting each other. George-Allen makes a strong case for celebrating these spaces, as "for those invested in maintaining the [patriarchal] status quo, there's a lot to be gained from preventing women from getting together. [...] As Naomi Wolf observed in The Beauty Myth [...] a population divided, distracted and economically depressed is unable to demand to be released from oppression." (3) Examples of this abound, such as in Beyond the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo which immerses the reader into the real-life stories of several families living in a Mumbai slum, always competing over who has the better home to the extent that they never turn their gazes - or their anger - towards their society or government and demand change. This strategy has been used in times of war, and is no less true of women.
Sam George-Allen notes in her introduction that her purpose in writing this book was partly as a self-help exercise. "I was finally trying to stitch together my feminist theory and my deeply flawed practice." (6) Much of this work is anecdotal, but supported by wide-ranging statistics and reports. It is a deeply feminist work, and reminds us that
"everywhere, women are doing things together - wonderful things, magical things - in spite of all the bullshit we're told about women being catty, backstabbing, untrustworthy bitches. [...] This book is a letter to my former self, and to anyone who's ever felt like her. Look at all these women, I want to say. Look what happens when we come together. Magic, some people say, is change driven by intent. Of course we are witches." (10)
In the spirit of the confessional, personal tone used by George-Allen, I felt it only right to reflect on the chapters in the same vein. Because this is a book that encourages you to reflect on your self, and where you fit into your culture, and which messages of the patriarchy you have unwittingly absorbed and used to further fragment and divide. The book is laid out into chapters that each explore the diverse ways in which women work together in positive relationships, including 'the beauty club', sportswomen, dancers, midwives, farmers, sex workers, trans women, nuns and musicians. I felt almost reluctant to read the chapters on fan girls, makeup and nuns because I've never identified with such girls/women or pastimes, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I learned and how deftly, and gently, the author helped me examine my own prejudice and think of these women and their interests in new, more sympathetic ways. It was also empowering to read about the "stealthy cultural heft of teen girls" (20), as evidenced by the pop idols and classic hits that they actively choose, the buying power they have - or that their parents wield on their behalf. Growing up below the poverty line, I never really experienced that, and while I went through the motions of putting up posters of teen heartthrobs while a young teen, I didn't actually like or care about any of them. I just kept that quietly to myself and tried to engage in what I felt were normal, regular teen girl activities. I was an outsider who faked being a member of the teen girl club, because what else can you do as a girl but try to fit in? Especially in a small regional town.
Likewise with Chapter 3: Make-up - The Beauty Club. Another chapter I couldn't personally relate to, and another topic for which George-Allen convinced me to have more respect. I don't wear make-up: I have sensitive skin, so it makes me break out in hives; it's stupidly expensive, hard to maintain and time-consuming to put on. Honestly, there are more important things in life, I've always felt. I sometimes study my reflection, though, and acknowledge that of course I'd look "better" with make-up - if it's applied well, everyone does. I've also felt resistant to the pressure to wear it and look a certain way, feeling like it's one shackle too many. George-Allen, though, takes a different perspective, and it's a fascinating one. She looks at the 'beauty club', the hugely successful YouTube channels devoted to sharing tips and techniques, and how women have claimed ownership of the beauty rituals. "Membership of this club might be forced upon you, but the upside is admission to a worldwide VIP room full of secrets, esoteric knowledge and your best mates." (53) She notes that these spaces are full of positive expression and that there's no place for men in them. Men are simply ignored, when they trespass. It's heady, and perhaps the only way women can subvert the social pressure of always looking good: by owning it. "We know that beauty is not as simple as trying to outcompete our peers for male attention or praise. We know that an understanding of beauty, and membership to the club, is really about gaining and sharing the means to move through the world easily, skilfully, and without detection - a means of smoothing the system from the inside." (57) Her argument is compelling, and she convinced me to soften my dismissive views on make-up.
The chapter on Sportswomen - subtitled "The Body is a Verb" - was likewise of little interest to me at first. The few times I have tried to play team sport it has been a mostly miserable experience. I'm just not equipped to handle the catty, bitchy game of netball (it was fascinating to learn why it was invented - in that sense, rural Tasmanian netball really gives decorum the finger), or indoor cricket, or bitchy girls in general, and they always seemed to turn up for and dominate sport. After grade six I gave up and simply tried to avoid sport altogether, which I regret now (it probably has more to do with where I lived than sport itself, to be fair). This chapter focuses on women in sport, the pay disparities - she compares the Matildas (female soccer team, ranked 6th in the world) with the Socceroos (male team, ranked 43rd): "in 2015 it was reported that world-renowned player and Matildas co-captain Lisa De Vanna made about $27,397 for the whole year, while Socceroos star Tim Cahill made about that figure per day" (79) - and the popularity of women's AFL. The chapter on nuns, the one I thought might be the least interesting, was possibly the most interesting (after midwives). This review will get way too long if I go into it but get yourself a copy of this book yourself!
By combining social justice issues with a sensitive, sympathetic and empowering exploration of women's relationships with each other, George-Allen both caught and held my attention, taught me ways to subvert the ingrained misogyny even women have (without realising it), and helped empower me in celebrating the things women do together, rather than being dismissive of them, or embarrassed by them (that classic internal cringe: unless it's something men do or men approve of, it's not worthy, right?). You could say that there's a lot she doesn't go into or cover, things missing that were surprising - such as roller derby - and perhaps I wanted more on what women are up against, to balance out the celebration. But at the end of it what I really take home is the idea that women do work well together despite the patriarchy, that if we embrace the things that we want to do and enjoy doing and share these things, that we form stronger connections with other women and that it is this, the joyful, often exuberant relationships between women, that the patriarchy rightly fears because it is how we can break free. Witches: What Women Do Together showed me that to help my new daughter grow into a strong woman, I need to embrace what makes her Woman, in whatever ways that appears, and model healthy, mutually supportive female-female relationships. (This does, of course, need to be balanced with consideration of age-appropriateness etc. Girls are being pressured to grow up too fast these days; I feel so sad when I see very young girls wearing hooker boots and boob tubes.)
August 8, 2020
This is a story about Sam, and what Sam thinks about being a woman. Good for you Sam! Sam has not had children, hence, no chapter on mothers (ever heard of a mother’s group?) or motherhood. Sam forgot about lesbians. Sam has a friend who is trans, who has told her all about TERFs, but not about TEMMs (Trans Exclusionary Misogynist Males), so we get a whole chapter on that. Just to clarify, not a chapter about the experience of transwomen, a chapter on what some transwomen think TERFs think about transwomen.
I must admit, I didn’t read the whole thing, life’s too short. After a few chapters, I checked the cover, thinking I must have misunderstood the title. I did. “Women working together” tricked me: I thought this would be a feminist book. It isn’t.
I must admit, I didn’t read the whole thing, life’s too short. After a few chapters, I checked the cover, thinking I must have misunderstood the title. I did. “Women working together” tricked me: I thought this would be a feminist book. It isn’t.
March 18, 2021
uhhhh i expected so much more from this book. the opening chapters were powerful, and there’s some great content in there but as a critical care/anaesthetic nurse the chapter on midwifery supremely pissed me off, and honestly put me off the whole book.
Yes, obviously midwives are incredible and do (and have done) amazing empowering things for women (for centuries). But the chapter was SO DAMNING on modern medicine (ie. caesarean sections), with little recognition for the other roles that woman play in healthcare (nurses, doctors, allied health).
The author clearly has no idea about perioperative obstetrics, she clearly spoke to a few midwives who argued strongly for natural birth - which all midwives do - and took that for gospel. It’s not always the case. There are a plethora of advantages to caesarean sections, not the least of which is PRESERVING THE LIFE OF BOTH MOTHER AND CHILD and ensuring PATIENT SAFETY. Additionally are many MANY health advantages for the mother such as avoiding perineum tearing, postpartum haemorrhage, loss of bladder control, and vaginal prolapse. For the baby there is less risk of asphyxia, hypoxia and shoulder injury. There are obviously pros and cons for both options that should all be considered on a patient by patient basis. but I felt that this chapter was very one sided.
Personally I believe that giving women the power to choose what birth they want, empowers them to make their own choice about their own BODY. I have worked in the specialty for 7 years and i’m telling you right now it’ll be an elective caesarean for me when the times comes. Women deserve the right to make that choice without being SHAMED because it’s “not natural”.
I think that damning caesareans is actually an extremely archaic anti feminist approach and it really doesn’t sit well with me. very disappointing.
Anyway. my 2c.
Yes, obviously midwives are incredible and do (and have done) amazing empowering things for women (for centuries). But the chapter was SO DAMNING on modern medicine (ie. caesarean sections), with little recognition for the other roles that woman play in healthcare (nurses, doctors, allied health).
The author clearly has no idea about perioperative obstetrics, she clearly spoke to a few midwives who argued strongly for natural birth - which all midwives do - and took that for gospel. It’s not always the case. There are a plethora of advantages to caesarean sections, not the least of which is PRESERVING THE LIFE OF BOTH MOTHER AND CHILD and ensuring PATIENT SAFETY. Additionally are many MANY health advantages for the mother such as avoiding perineum tearing, postpartum haemorrhage, loss of bladder control, and vaginal prolapse. For the baby there is less risk of asphyxia, hypoxia and shoulder injury. There are obviously pros and cons for both options that should all be considered on a patient by patient basis. but I felt that this chapter was very one sided.
Personally I believe that giving women the power to choose what birth they want, empowers them to make their own choice about their own BODY. I have worked in the specialty for 7 years and i’m telling you right now it’ll be an elective caesarean for me when the times comes. Women deserve the right to make that choice without being SHAMED because it’s “not natural”.
I think that damning caesareans is actually an extremely archaic anti feminist approach and it really doesn’t sit well with me. very disappointing.
Anyway. my 2c.
March 17, 2019
Brilliant, thoughtful essays about a wide variety of women's experiences. George-Allen focusses especially on the ways that groups of women work together - nuns, sportspeople, dancers etc etc etc. Every essay is bursting with ideas, the writing is clear and George-Allen comes across like your very smart friend who's fundamentally optimistic about the world.
April 8, 2019
Sam George-Allen weaves her own story through the book in a way that is considered and careful not to overwhelm the core of her chapter - groups of women from a range of backgrounds, identities, and vocations.
I particularly loved Liz Duck-Chong's writing on gender and transness, and I learned a lot about sex work and its Australian advocates and activists. I didn't necessarily agree with all the conclusions the author drew - particularly in the chapter centering on dancers, due to my experiences with pursuit of that career - and sometimes felt as if the benefit of the doubt was being given, but I enjoyed the conversational tone, the way the reader felt as if they were learning alongside the author, and the care taken to represent women in their own words as much as possible.
I particularly loved Liz Duck-Chong's writing on gender and transness, and I learned a lot about sex work and its Australian advocates and activists. I didn't necessarily agree with all the conclusions the author drew - particularly in the chapter centering on dancers, due to my experiences with pursuit of that career - and sometimes felt as if the benefit of the doubt was being given, but I enjoyed the conversational tone, the way the reader felt as if they were learning alongside the author, and the care taken to represent women in their own words as much as possible.
June 25, 2019
I love this younger woman’s exploration of feminism and the nature of girlhood and womanhood. I might not agree with her about the magical but I find her thesis around women as witches intriguing and a bit persuasive. Her take on contemporary female youth culture is particularly educational to this old crone.
September 10, 2019
I really wanted to like this book more, some of the chapters were great and insightful and others rubbed me the wrong way. Everyone's experience is different and I feel like that's something that is hard to incorporate in any book that's set out like this.
December 8, 2025
What girls / women do together is amazing but not always acknowledged. It can be seen as subversive or truly innovative. An interesting trip into the obvious as we women already know.
October 25, 2019
✔️ 10. (adv.) A book set on an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage, or convent
🌟🌟🌟💫 3.5 stars
I thought this had a good combination between history and current culture. It was an interesting foray into the intersects of feminine identity, though it got a little ramble-y at times.
Good dose of magic throughout ✨
🌟🌟🌟💫 3.5 stars
I thought this had a good combination between history and current culture. It was an interesting foray into the intersects of feminine identity, though it got a little ramble-y at times.
Good dose of magic throughout ✨
July 20, 2020
I really wanted to love this book, but it just missed the mark for me. I was a bit trepidatious at first because books about collective women’s groups can be quite TERFy, but someone gave this book a one star review and complained about the fact that Sam George-Allen used the word TERF and that the book was trans inclusive so thanks to that reviewer, I was on board!
I really appreciate that the author made sure to include the voices of marginalized women and had them telling their own stories. I love the discussion around the power behind groups of people who aren’t cis dudes working together to do awesome stuff and how that has been depicted as scary because the cis dudes don’t like it when they don’t understand it and aren’t included.
I was mainly disappointed by three things. First, the author’s anti-fatness that cropped up a few times throughout the book (eg saying after a dance class “I felt fat” as a catch-all to mean she felt awkward, out of place or ungraceful, and when she made a joke about a nun being happy that at least the serge was formless enough to hide her “large body” - with no critique of what that means). It was disheartening for a forward thinking book to still show signs of being so entrenched in diet culture and anti-fatness.
Secondly, the chapter on midwifery & childbirth was exclusively about cis women. Towards the end of the chapter George-Allen has a very brief discussion about this very fact, but it felt like an afterthought and really should have been prioritized in the chapter, considering the previous chapter was about trans women.
Finally, I was so uncomfortable with the chapter about nuns, especially the quote saying that all nuns are feminist, even the anti-abortion ones. NOPE. While I see the argument of women being cloistered together as a way for them to resist societal expectations, they are choosing to operate within the Catholic Church which is peak patriarchy. I just could not come to terms with any kind of argument that doesn’t discuss the terrible things that have happened within the Catholic Church. The author briefly mentions how baby boomers in Australia were educated by nuns and all have stories about their cruelty, but doesn’t call this what it was - abuse. She also doesn’t touch on the fact that nuns played a part in the stolen generation or a shopping list of other atrocities in very recent history. This chapter really threw me, I only kept reading it out of the desperate hope that George-Allen would do some deep analysis and problematise what she was sharing. She did not.
I had such high hopes for this book and it was an absolute roller coaster of empowerment and discomfort. I would definitely read more of Sam George-Allen’s writing because I like her voice and her style but I would have loved the concepts in this to be a bit more nuanced.
I really appreciate that the author made sure to include the voices of marginalized women and had them telling their own stories. I love the discussion around the power behind groups of people who aren’t cis dudes working together to do awesome stuff and how that has been depicted as scary because the cis dudes don’t like it when they don’t understand it and aren’t included.
I was mainly disappointed by three things. First, the author’s anti-fatness that cropped up a few times throughout the book (eg saying after a dance class “I felt fat” as a catch-all to mean she felt awkward, out of place or ungraceful, and when she made a joke about a nun being happy that at least the serge was formless enough to hide her “large body” - with no critique of what that means). It was disheartening for a forward thinking book to still show signs of being so entrenched in diet culture and anti-fatness.
Secondly, the chapter on midwifery & childbirth was exclusively about cis women. Towards the end of the chapter George-Allen has a very brief discussion about this very fact, but it felt like an afterthought and really should have been prioritized in the chapter, considering the previous chapter was about trans women.
Finally, I was so uncomfortable with the chapter about nuns, especially the quote saying that all nuns are feminist, even the anti-abortion ones. NOPE. While I see the argument of women being cloistered together as a way for them to resist societal expectations, they are choosing to operate within the Catholic Church which is peak patriarchy. I just could not come to terms with any kind of argument that doesn’t discuss the terrible things that have happened within the Catholic Church. The author briefly mentions how baby boomers in Australia were educated by nuns and all have stories about their cruelty, but doesn’t call this what it was - abuse. She also doesn’t touch on the fact that nuns played a part in the stolen generation or a shopping list of other atrocities in very recent history. This chapter really threw me, I only kept reading it out of the desperate hope that George-Allen would do some deep analysis and problematise what she was sharing. She did not.
I had such high hopes for this book and it was an absolute roller coaster of empowerment and discomfort. I would definitely read more of Sam George-Allen’s writing because I like her voice and her style but I would have loved the concepts in this to be a bit more nuanced.
April 8, 2021
This book had it's moments but overall seemed unfocused and needed editing. The chapters on teen girls and witches captured the essence of what I think the book was aiming for. However, it did celebrate women, in particular some groups that often get overlooked when discussing feminism and female power such as Nuns and Farmers. Mixed feeling for this one.
August 29, 2021
A strong & intriguing introduction that didn’t deliver. I think the author needed to sit down and rethink the structure and framing of this book - it probably would have worked better to separate out some of her ideas and put them into different projects. Interesting moments, but a slog to read.
Read
August 9, 2022Eh… this book was just okay. Very ambitious, ultimately a little lacking *but* I do have a clearer idea of what I want to read more about now (nuns, for example).
January 5, 2023
Very surface level, nothing new. Also written by an Australian woman so I didn’t get a lot of the references lol
February 24, 2021
As someone who has researched and published about the positive factors that help women gain leadership skills and positions, it was so refreshing to read a book about the power of women working together and supporting one another. I have a few criticisms, which are more accurately labeled discussion points (e.g. the urban focus in the farming chapter), but overall I appreciated reading the stories and successes written about here. Keeping in mind that it is written from the author’s perspective, I appreciated the places where the author talked about her privilege and gave space for other women to speak and write rather than speaking for them. Overall, I found this a fascinating and joyful read.
April 4, 2019
I loved absolutely every chapter of this book and the case studies chosen were so interesting (the chapter on women in farming!!). This book just felt like a massive celebration of women getting together and doing amazing things (exactly what was intended) and I felt energised after reading it. It's exactly the kind of book you want to have with you and dip into for a couple of minutes when you need a little optimism boost in your day. I have always been a witch at heart and it is a joy hearing about my sisters in spirit from another Weird Sister. Blessed be!
December 30, 2021
4 stars
Christianity was actually further legitimized thanks to teen women using it to rebel against parents wishes for marriage etc. but it has gotten written out of history.
In Salem the first to be condemned for witchcraft were teenage females. It was also women that explained it in court as witchcraft and was believed.
Emma Gonzales 6 min silent speech
Females have only been apart of Olympic weightlifting since 2000
Young men seeing girls and women lift more than them deters them but it drives and motivates other women to push harder and improve faster in the weightlifting gym
2017 Australia finally created women’s football and by 2020 nearly every state would have a team as the games and teams continue breaking records
Breanna Brock CEO to an AFLW the Brisbane Lions team. She was actually a player the year the team debuted.
Emma Gonzalez anti gun speech (6 minute silence) after her school was a massacre.
_____________________________________________________________
“But the lovely thing about girls engaged in fandom like that around one direction- or Ariana Grande, whose very young fans rallied bravely around one another after the terrorist attack at her concert in Manchester in May 2017- is that they don’t need to engage with older male critics who dismiss their contributions. Like so many other groups of teen girls, they are creating their own culture; the rest of us just happen to feel the impact of that boundless, obsessive joy” (Allen, 26).
“I am a feminist because, as a teenage girl, I am constantly told that I should watch more news, and get more involved, but the minute I open my mouth and speak, I am told I am just a teenage girl, and do not understand, but I do understand”(28).
“The contemporary anti-gun movement is led by teenagers, and it’s powered by the white-hot core of teen emotion: their anger, despair, betrayal, hope. No one’s more passionate than a teenage girl” (31).
“Collectively, beauty vloggers construct a narrative completely devoid of the male gaze. I have never heard any YouTube beauty celebrity mention a man’s opinion. I’ve never heard any of them address a potential male viewer. Which might seem weird, on the surface of it, because a broad cultural understanding (read: a male understanding) of make-up is that it’s suppose to appease and attract men” (59).
“You can find their comments on any YouTube beauty tutorial if you scroll down far enough: among the hundreds of women commenting ‘You look great!, their are the ugly boils of “This is why men have trust issues’, ‘Take her swimming on the first date’, ‘False advertising’, and, my personal favorite, ‘You’re hotter without make-up’ All of these attitudes are evidence of a tired and prevalent male understanding of cosmetic, which is as a tool of seduction and nothing else. The jokes on the chicks, these guys are thinking, because they’ve put all this shit on their faces and men don’t even like it” (60).
“Naomi Wolf’s book highlighted, a woman isolated and worn down by the pressure to be beautiful, robbed of her financial freedom by the requirement that she purchases products, clothing and diet plans to maintain her beauty quotient, and suspicious of other women who she considers obstacles to her success-this women woman does not agitate for change, argue with the status quo or walk away from a discriminatory workplace. The isolated women feels incurably ugly, struggling alone in uncomfortable shoes up an installable mountain, putting on lipstick in a locked toilet stalling worrying about doing it wrong, always feeling like the only one failing at correct womanhood. But we’re lucky to be around in a time that gives an access to the best antidote to the debilitating solitude: an internet connection and the right search terms” (66).
“We talk about the tricky aspects of beauty; we tease apart the political mess of wanting to be pretty but maybe not wanting to want to be pretty; we get theoretical. I couldn’t do the work that I do on this topic without those women to work through things with me” (67).
“Dad’s are now bringing their daughters, so their having a different kind of relationship around the sport than they previously would have, because the daughters would have gone shopping off to netball with mum. There’s some great research that says if you’ve got a boy in the household, it’ll be his sport prioritized first, because dad will take him to that sport on Saturday. Mum’s still got to do the shopping, so daughter goes with her, she’s not playing a sport. But now the daughter can of off with dad and brother, and play the same sport. They’re not getting left behind as much” (82).
“Female ballet dancers learn at a very young age that in order to be employable, they must be obedient and willing to conform; they learn that they are replaceable. And that’s to say nothing of the numerous dancers seriously injured in the course of their career” (100).
“In western culture, physical strength and femininity are believed to be incompatible. Ballet dancers get to have both in spades” (101).
“I think the shock of seeing ballet dancers’ feet has more to do with gender than anything else. They are gnarled and raw, sure, but any sportsperson alters their body in the pursuit of their goal, an awe don’t linger indecently on the cauliflower ears of rugby players-or, indeed, on the the calloused fingers of professional string musicians, or on a farmers’ sock-tans. I thing there’s something magnetic about the juxtaposition of a realm that seems superficially to be entirely feminine with something genuinely hardcore as willful self-mutilation in the pursuit of artistic excellence” (103).
“But ballet dancers are an unusual choice for a paragon of femininity. They do not use their bodies to care for others, in the way so many women in coded-feminine professions do (nurses, midwives, aged carers, sex workers). They use their bodies for art. They spend a lifetime whittling their bodies into eternal objects, mangling their feet permanently, in order to spend a comparatively brief moment making something beautiful. That they work within a structure so rigid it dictates every aspect of themselves only makes their art purer. I can’t help it: I am more amazed by ballet dancers than by astronauts. Ballet is grotesque and gorgeous, sublimed strange. I can’t look away” (110).
“If you don’t spend all your time with a man, you don’t have anything to fight about” (207).
“Men live better where women are in charge: you are responsible for almost nothing, you work much less and you spend the whole day with your friends. You’re with a different women every night. And on top of that, you can always live at your mother’s house”(207).
Christianity was actually further legitimized thanks to teen women using it to rebel against parents wishes for marriage etc. but it has gotten written out of history.
In Salem the first to be condemned for witchcraft were teenage females. It was also women that explained it in court as witchcraft and was believed.
Emma Gonzales 6 min silent speech
Females have only been apart of Olympic weightlifting since 2000
Young men seeing girls and women lift more than them deters them but it drives and motivates other women to push harder and improve faster in the weightlifting gym
2017 Australia finally created women’s football and by 2020 nearly every state would have a team as the games and teams continue breaking records
Breanna Brock CEO to an AFLW the Brisbane Lions team. She was actually a player the year the team debuted.
Emma Gonzalez anti gun speech (6 minute silence) after her school was a massacre.
_____________________________________________________________
“But the lovely thing about girls engaged in fandom like that around one direction- or Ariana Grande, whose very young fans rallied bravely around one another after the terrorist attack at her concert in Manchester in May 2017- is that they don’t need to engage with older male critics who dismiss their contributions. Like so many other groups of teen girls, they are creating their own culture; the rest of us just happen to feel the impact of that boundless, obsessive joy” (Allen, 26).
“I am a feminist because, as a teenage girl, I am constantly told that I should watch more news, and get more involved, but the minute I open my mouth and speak, I am told I am just a teenage girl, and do not understand, but I do understand”(28).
“The contemporary anti-gun movement is led by teenagers, and it’s powered by the white-hot core of teen emotion: their anger, despair, betrayal, hope. No one’s more passionate than a teenage girl” (31).
“Collectively, beauty vloggers construct a narrative completely devoid of the male gaze. I have never heard any YouTube beauty celebrity mention a man’s opinion. I’ve never heard any of them address a potential male viewer. Which might seem weird, on the surface of it, because a broad cultural understanding (read: a male understanding) of make-up is that it’s suppose to appease and attract men” (59).
“You can find their comments on any YouTube beauty tutorial if you scroll down far enough: among the hundreds of women commenting ‘You look great!, their are the ugly boils of “This is why men have trust issues’, ‘Take her swimming on the first date’, ‘False advertising’, and, my personal favorite, ‘You’re hotter without make-up’ All of these attitudes are evidence of a tired and prevalent male understanding of cosmetic, which is as a tool of seduction and nothing else. The jokes on the chicks, these guys are thinking, because they’ve put all this shit on their faces and men don’t even like it” (60).
“Naomi Wolf’s book highlighted, a woman isolated and worn down by the pressure to be beautiful, robbed of her financial freedom by the requirement that she purchases products, clothing and diet plans to maintain her beauty quotient, and suspicious of other women who she considers obstacles to her success-this women woman does not agitate for change, argue with the status quo or walk away from a discriminatory workplace. The isolated women feels incurably ugly, struggling alone in uncomfortable shoes up an installable mountain, putting on lipstick in a locked toilet stalling worrying about doing it wrong, always feeling like the only one failing at correct womanhood. But we’re lucky to be around in a time that gives an access to the best antidote to the debilitating solitude: an internet connection and the right search terms” (66).
“We talk about the tricky aspects of beauty; we tease apart the political mess of wanting to be pretty but maybe not wanting to want to be pretty; we get theoretical. I couldn’t do the work that I do on this topic without those women to work through things with me” (67).
“Dad’s are now bringing their daughters, so their having a different kind of relationship around the sport than they previously would have, because the daughters would have gone shopping off to netball with mum. There’s some great research that says if you’ve got a boy in the household, it’ll be his sport prioritized first, because dad will take him to that sport on Saturday. Mum’s still got to do the shopping, so daughter goes with her, she’s not playing a sport. But now the daughter can of off with dad and brother, and play the same sport. They’re not getting left behind as much” (82).
“Female ballet dancers learn at a very young age that in order to be employable, they must be obedient and willing to conform; they learn that they are replaceable. And that’s to say nothing of the numerous dancers seriously injured in the course of their career” (100).
“In western culture, physical strength and femininity are believed to be incompatible. Ballet dancers get to have both in spades” (101).
“I think the shock of seeing ballet dancers’ feet has more to do with gender than anything else. They are gnarled and raw, sure, but any sportsperson alters their body in the pursuit of their goal, an awe don’t linger indecently on the cauliflower ears of rugby players-or, indeed, on the the calloused fingers of professional string musicians, or on a farmers’ sock-tans. I thing there’s something magnetic about the juxtaposition of a realm that seems superficially to be entirely feminine with something genuinely hardcore as willful self-mutilation in the pursuit of artistic excellence” (103).
“But ballet dancers are an unusual choice for a paragon of femininity. They do not use their bodies to care for others, in the way so many women in coded-feminine professions do (nurses, midwives, aged carers, sex workers). They use their bodies for art. They spend a lifetime whittling their bodies into eternal objects, mangling their feet permanently, in order to spend a comparatively brief moment making something beautiful. That they work within a structure so rigid it dictates every aspect of themselves only makes their art purer. I can’t help it: I am more amazed by ballet dancers than by astronauts. Ballet is grotesque and gorgeous, sublimed strange. I can’t look away” (110).
“If you don’t spend all your time with a man, you don’t have anything to fight about” (207).
“Men live better where women are in charge: you are responsible for almost nothing, you work much less and you spend the whole day with your friends. You’re with a different women every night. And on top of that, you can always live at your mother’s house”(207).
October 9, 2020
I’ll be real and say I picked up the book for the cover but I still read it so WHATEVER.
This was a fun light easy read - nothing wildly revolutionary but some chapters were very interesting. The first two chapters and the chapter on nuns was a great time. Nuns have always kind of been mythical creatures to me who just exists in movies as tropes so it was v fun to dive into that world.
Some of this book felt a bit weird, contradictory and not well explained. Some bits felt out of place and like the author just wanted to include it even if it didn’t fit the theme but that didn’t bother me too much. It’s sort of fun to read through someone’s own grapplings and understandings of feminism and how to piece that in with their lives. Although I do feel like she has this stance of every choice someone makes is a feminist issue (for example she waves off criticism of Gal Gadot’s pro military anti Palestinian stance as people just loving to give women shit when newsflash there are issues that don’t fit into your well if it’s good for women it’s good simplistic view of the world.)
Feel like she tries to be nuanced but because of the size of the book, some of her chapters feel simplistic and surface level but others are fab hence the 3 star rating.
Overall had a good enough time with it!
This was a fun light easy read - nothing wildly revolutionary but some chapters were very interesting. The first two chapters and the chapter on nuns was a great time. Nuns have always kind of been mythical creatures to me who just exists in movies as tropes so it was v fun to dive into that world.
Some of this book felt a bit weird, contradictory and not well explained. Some bits felt out of place and like the author just wanted to include it even if it didn’t fit the theme but that didn’t bother me too much. It’s sort of fun to read through someone’s own grapplings and understandings of feminism and how to piece that in with their lives. Although I do feel like she has this stance of every choice someone makes is a feminist issue (for example she waves off criticism of Gal Gadot’s pro military anti Palestinian stance as people just loving to give women shit when newsflash there are issues that don’t fit into your well if it’s good for women it’s good simplistic view of the world.)
Feel like she tries to be nuanced but because of the size of the book, some of her chapters feel simplistic and surface level but others are fab hence the 3 star rating.
Overall had a good enough time with it!
February 24, 2020
The back of this book made it seem so amazing and I immediately bought it. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. The first chapter is strong, but the entire middle is very weak and her thesis of this book is totally lost. The last few chapter are pretty good, but they couldn't make up for the middle. The author herself seems to only have surface level knowledge of trans issues, matriarchal societies, and sustainable agriculture. She also references YouTube, tv, and movies way too much! Film is not an accurate representation of real life most of the time. It's very exaggerated to make it entertaining. I enjoyed the narrarives and interviews (especiallly aunty dawn's), but she depends too much on them to carry her book. She needs ideas and opinions of her own and to use the interviews as a supplement. I wish this book dived deeper, it just came off as very shallow.
April 13, 2020
This was a really interesting take on women and how we work, live, and associate together with other women throughout the years. Each of the 13 chapters is broken into groups such as Teen Girls, Trans Women, Farmers, Nuns, etc, each chapter delves into how these specific groups of women, grouped by age, work, and social means, work together and how powerful that truly is and the amazing work that gets created through that.
Within all the chapters, I learned something; Each chapter is a blend of personal stories and historical background and through this, I was able to learn that I'm not the only one that feels more free and empowered in my way of thinking and talking with other women, I'm not alone in thinking of how one small sentence of encouragement can change a mindset, I'm not alone in wondering why don't women support other women.
Within all the chapters, I learned something; Each chapter is a blend of personal stories and historical background and through this, I was able to learn that I'm not the only one that feels more free and empowered in my way of thinking and talking with other women, I'm not alone in thinking of how one small sentence of encouragement can change a mindset, I'm not alone in wondering why don't women support other women.
January 27, 2024
I enjoyed the australian POV of this book, but wanted more magic. It's more community based than magic based, so will be great for those looking for that. Quite a good read still though. The farmer chapter gave me great inspiration and hope for the future.
January 8, 2020
✔️ a book set in an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage, or convent (this book is not set in any of those places but it has a whole chapter on nuns and I’ve decided that’s as close as I’m going to get to fulfilling this prompt) 🌟🌟🌟💫 3.5 stars
January 23, 2020
A brilliant and well written book, full of food for thought.
I liked the style of writing, how well the author explains the different situations and how engrossing it is.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine
I liked the style of writing, how well the author explains the different situations and how engrossing it is.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine
May 10, 2021
I had a lot of expectations for loving this book but I think the title proposed there would be certain ideas that weren’t achieved in the writing. I found the chapters on the matriarchal society and nuns to be the most interesting.
March 16, 2020
Inspiring take on how women empower each other. Learned things about Aussie culture
Locks intersectionality
Locks intersectionality
November 11, 2020
Some insightful personal musings from the author and a nice concept of doing a chapter on different female groups of workers such as dancers, girl bands and midwives.
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