Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud

[toastykitten]

I really like Anne Helen Petersen's writing, and I've been following it for a long time. I like what she's been doing over at Buzzfeed, so I was thrilled when someone actually bought this book for me at the office Christmas Secret Santa. I'm trying to make myself actually read these days, so this was a light, though not necessarily breezy read, and it still took me like a month to finish. Anyway, she profiles ten women, and points out the specific ways in which they are "unruly" - "too fat", "too slutty", etc. Some of these essays worked better than others.

1. Did not like Jennifer Weiner's chapter because it was mostly about her beef with Jonathan Franzen, and ended up being mostly about what an asshole Jonathan Franzen is. Let's actually talk about Weiner, if we want to celebrate her, yeah?
2. Hillary Clinton's chapter is good, but it also just leaves sooo much out. I guess if we want to talk about her it would end up taking several books. Honestly though I'm always dissatisfied when it comes to writing about her because there's always so much left on the table.
3. Loved the chapter on the "Broad City" women - they were "too gross".
4. The Serena Williams chapter was really good.
5. The Lena Dunham "too naked" chapter focuses on how much she likes to be naked and not nude. It does not cover any of her problematic racial issues.

This book could use some more women of color, for sure. She covers Nicki Minaj and Serena Williams and everyone else is white. It's also interesting reading this after #metoo - there's so much more to talk about now with everything coming out.l