Bloody Woman

by Lana Lopesi

Bloody Woman gives voice to my lived experience, to the overlooked, to the underrepresented and to the exceptionally complex, multifaceted and contradictory experience of being a woman.'

This wayfinding set of essays explores the overlap of being Sāmoan and a woman, as experienced 'from diaspora', by acclaimed writer and critic Lana Lopesi. Writing on ancestral ideas of womanhood appears alongside contemporary reflections on women's experiences and the Pacific. These often deeply personal essays amount to a complex, rich and multi-layered book.

Playful, speculative and far-sighted, these essays are written to support 'the narratives not yet written' and the new generations to come. As Lopesi writes, 'I hope that in the simple act of articulating something, I will both open space and leave room for others to tell their stories in their way.' With the world confronting fresh questions of gender, race and identity, Bloody Woman opens up new horizons for thinking and writing in Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Indigenous

200 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2021

About the author

Lana Lopesi is an author and critic based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. Lana is the Editor-in-Chief for The Pantograph Punch, was Founding Editor of #500words and author of False Divides (2018).

Reviews

[Chloe Fergusson-Tibble · Rating 5 out of 5]

BLOODY WOMAN by Lana Lopesi (2021) - Essays.

Sometimes, when I finish a book, I have a cry. My chest feels tight and tingly (in a non myocardial infarction way) and my head spins with new understandings of myself and others. Books change us.

So what is it about you ask? It’s the perspective of an incredibly talented Sāmoan woman on all the big kaupapa. Mana wahine vibrates from every page while Lopesi gently weaves a deeper understanding of Sāmoan experiences. Building on the work of many gurus before her, she creates new understandings of Sāmoan culture and womanhood.

I particularly loved “Tautalaitiiti Girls Need No Defence”, “Swimming in Circles” and “Eighty-three Mostly Babies and Children, 3,269 kilometres & Three Generations.” The first unpacks the effects of colonisation, christianity and womanhood. The second is a visceral recount of one woman’s experience with abortion and is the most powerful reminder of why abortion is healthcare. The third borders on poetry as the lives of 83 babies and children are tenderly remembered.

I also loved the letter to her kids at the end. I felt my own mother could have written it to me.

How has it changed me? Well, it’s opened me up a little. I examined some of my internalised misogyny. I also took a look at my baggage with the bible. I have at times been quick to judge the uptake of christianity amongst Pasifika communities and because of that I’ve failed miserably to remain curious about the traditional stories, beloved ancestors and all the important interpretations of them - despite my own experiences as a Māori woman whose life has been enhanced greatly by Mahi a Atua. I’ve been inexcusably dismissive. This book gently reminded me to stay curious. I feel quite humbled having read it.

My copy is from @mcleodsbooksrotorua

Get this as a pick me up for all your brown besties for Xmas!
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#bloodywoman #lopesi #bookstagram #catsofinstagram #bookish #essays #samoa #manawahine #bipoc #pacific #woman

[Malcolm · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this collection of free standing but inter-related essays (with a short preface and wrap-it-up piece) Lana Lopesi begins to explore what a Sāmoan feminism might look like. I’d read some of her work, but first dealt with her approaches in a substantive way in her contribution to the fantastic BWB Texts series, 2018’s False Divides . As she does in that piece, here she weaves into the texts several writing positions and a rich and subtle grasp of some key contemporary social theory. In doing so, she explores notions of and approaches to gender in a way that, in her words, set out to “divorc[e] a story of Sāmoan womanhood from colonisation, Christianity, heteropatriarchy and global influences” (p 13). That’s not to say that this is an inward looking, closed set of essays, rather it is open in outreach but firmly grounded in fa’a Sāmoa and the concepts and outlooks that underpin that way of life and custom.

Alongside the delightfully defiant – the celebration of tautalaititi, or ‘cheeky girls’, and Teine Sā, or ‘spirit girls’, supernatural figures and forces, as markers of figures of a Sāmoan feminism – she is also powerfully reflective, drawing in the horrific death rates among children of a measles epidemic in 2019, grappling with the politics of joy and laughter, the political economy of care, reproductive rights, and character and politics of decision-making that allows an orientation of new ideas to a Sāmoan world. In building her approaches she draws on diverse sources including her own experience, scholarly material, and cultural texts – notably poetry, in one place noting that poetry’s alien form in Sāmoa might make it an easier medium to explore difficult topics, especially for women.

Throughout all of this she is also cautious and self-aware, not in some slightly smug sense of knowing positionality but quite the opposite, a sense of doubt about whether she has gone too far or overplayed her hand; that is to say, she repeatedly draws out objections to her case which has the perverse effect of both showing the likely limits and making that case more secure by acknowledging ways that it might be critiqued. That’s not to say that the doubt is insincere, but quite the opposite, and it is a reminder that these are exploratory essays (the very definition of an essay – to try out an idea) weaving together ways of being and sense making that do not necessarily comfortably fit.

There are many aspects of the case where the fit of ideas and practices drawn from multiple systems fit well – the discussions of care and reproductive rights for instance are well grounded in notions drawn from Marxist feminism, noting that these issues are widespread among feminist discussions. In other cases, including cultural work such as fine art, poetry, and other forms of literature, she is much more aware of the limitations and potential for epistemological violence in the way she is integrating sets of ideas and approaches. Here she positions herself carefully, as third generation diaspora, aware that many of the fa’a Sāmoa concepts she is drawing on are not always inherently part of her everyday world in Aotearoa New Zealand, whereas they are more likely to be in Sāmoa.

The factors combine to make these essays a delicate, nuanced exploration. She is adept at weaving the personal and the conceptual into the same piece, while also not afraid of making sure we get the theoretical when it’s needed. That’s what makes these essays so exciting – they sit between and in several arenas, speak to multiple audiences, deploy Sāmoan worldviews while remaining acutely aware of the dangers of doing so – including that those concepts might be “flattened, stripped of life” (p 129).

I went into these with high hopes, which can be dangerous; those hopes were entirely realised, and more.

[Suzanne Whatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bloody Brilliant!

[Nevena · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a lot of thought-provoking ideas explored in the book but I found it dry. The author overuses quoting and I felt like her own experiences were buried in amongst the literature analysis.

It’s well written but not what I was expecting or hoping to read when I picked it up.

[Nat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 1 - “Bloody Women by Lana Lopesi”
Date Finished - 04/02/2023
Review : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A nice short one to kick off the NZ Goodreads Book Pool Challenge . Thanks to whomever added this one to the pool , an interesting dissection of Samoan Womanhood .
I found at times this one was almost a little too intellectual for me as I much preferred the anecdotal parts of it but overall an honest and powerful read .

[Reena Kainamu Softail_stories · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lourde says "your silence will not protect you" and Samoan writer Lĺana says "breaking silence is not necessarily about big gestures" (p.158). Loved this read. Unsurprising knowledge of Mead's research In Samoa. My daughter said why would young brown women share their truth with other like a western entitled academic. Loved this read. For speaking to cisheteropatriarchy, colonialiality, religion and capitalism on the oppression of wahine power. Loved this read. For acknowledging the place of art and poetry in the early breaking of the silence about womens truths. Leave it to creatives to untell the many lies.In her open letter to her children Lana urges them to be 'complex and multidimensional'. Hated reading about the 83 babies and young children dying of measles pre-covid. I cried back then too.

[Marytianna Galo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chooohooo for all the girls/women who have been labeled as tautalaitiiti. I felt seen on the pages of this book. I can't wait to give my family this book because it will help open up the conversation of what respectability politics does to our folks throughout the diaspora.

[Soph]

Every time something about this book frustrated me, the author acknowledged it and I was forced to take back my frustrations. Particularly how Lana Lopesi “writes in circles” - I sometimes felt I had to sit and really think about what I’d read and what she meant, but by the end of the book I understood why it was written this way. Lopesi wrote something that is intentionally sort of unfinished, and able to be built on. I think it was still a bit difficult for me personally to get through (Sāmoan women are clearly the intended audience and would bring knowledge to it that I didn’t) but I got a lot out of my reading experience regardless.

[Lynda Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just finished this thought-provoking book. One of my favorite essays was the one about the turtles. I also loved the final letter to her children. My husband has, more than once, referred to me as 'a bloody lunatic' and I now see this abhorrent misogyny as being imbued with even more fraught layers of misogyny and meaning, prompting me to think of exploring this in greater depth in my own writing.

[Meg selianakis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book encouraged me to practice reflexivity and breakdown my own epistemologies and binary beliefs that I wasn’t even know I had. Lopesi encourages her readers to deepen their understanding of the world and invite plurality and nuance while learning about Samoan diaspora in Aotearoa. It’s an incredible resource for anyone studying, intercultural practice, gender studies, feminism, de-colonialism. I really really enjoyed it!

[Allyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

such a special read; feels like i am reading my own experiences, ideas and thoughts. samoan women really are IT. only criticism is that i would have liked it to be less surface level, i wanted to get a bit deeper into the weeds. but that's my pacific studies graduate brain, and not the general reader brain. hits you right in the fatu - all samoan woman from aukilani need to read this.

[Briar Wyatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Invigorating!! So many of my favourite beloved texts and authors are referenced here in a totally new and important context and it’s just…. Something extremely special (and educational) to encounter. Beautifully written and incredibly important.

[Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Her mind!!! I love new perspectives with which to think deeply about my fav topics like capitalism and femisnism and society. And this was like something that is seriously underrepresented and fascinating. So good.

[Emerald Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Ipshita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Refreshing take on feminism from a Pasifika writer. She describes her writing so well herself on going around in circles, but it's real, sometimes vulgar and refreshingly authentic.

[Lydia Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Joseph Trinidad · Rating 5 out of 5]

She’s so Tinā for this.

(a re-read)

[Lucia Campbell-Reeves · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

A beautiful and thought-provoking book. Difficult for me to understand and very slow-reading due to how abstract and academic most of the essays were; I could only read them in quite particular moods, when I had enough energy to take in what I was reading. My favourite essays were '82, Mostly Children and Babies' and 'Green Sea Turtles', likely because they were less abstract and easier for me to take in.