Member Reviews
A fantastic and thoughtful look at the experiences of feminists. Ahmed's writing is unparallelled. I enjoyed this so much more than reading another book about theory.
RATING: 4 STARS
(I received an ARC from the NETGALLEY)
(Review Not on Blog)
I have been reading a lot of literature on feminism, rape culture, social justice, etc and I find that more that I read and learn, the more I am angered by the injustice of it all. This is one book that helps to arm your mind and life on how to go about doing good and resisting. Instead of a guidebook, I would say this is food for thought that helps you set up your own plan. I highly recommend reading, and having your own copy of this book. I did read it in one shot, but I think it is one I will reread as there are chapters I want to explore further.
Reading this book was such an eye opener as I learned a lot about alternative views on feminism.
I like to switch up my reading a little, going from fiction, to non-fiction and vice-versa. I saw Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed some months ago, and was really looking forward to read it and learn from its content.
I thought about whether or not I should share my review of the book with you, as I really don't like leaving negative reviews. I am always looking to promote authors and encourage them in their labor. However, life is not all made of roses.
Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed aims to show how feminist theory is generated from everyday life and the ordinary experiences of being a feminist at home and at work. The promise to the reader is huge; to understand what feminism is and how to lead a feminist life. However, within the first pages of the book, I quickly realized that I was not going to finish it. I tried my best to get through the book, telling myself that I just needed to get through the (long) introduction and that then! the book and all its promises would be revealed to me. I should have known better. The introduction sets the tone to the book, serving as a preview of what is yet to come. Sara Ahmed starts off the book as one would expect, through a recollection of memories of her childhood that led her to become a feminist. However, her writing is very scattered and quite redundant. She justifies repetition as a way to reinforce an idea. Although it may be true, I found it quite annoying to find words and concepts to be regurgitated to me every two paragraphs, as if I, the reader would not be able to grasp the highlighted concepts and understand the full implications of what being a feminist or leading a feminist life entails.
I also could not really agree with Sara Ahmed's view of feminism. It seems that for her, feminism is really a result of either sexism or harassment. However, I believe that feminism embraces many social injustices and seeks to bring social justice as a whole, by promoting an egalitarian and respectful society. Also, Sara Ahmed thinks of feminism as being something that is "sensational". In fact, she goes through several paragraphs to define the term for us readers (in case we do not understand it), and reiterate that feminism is sensational. I can't agree with that, as it seems like feminism is a superficial cause, that is not even a cause, but merely a trend which everyone is slowly adopting. Feminism is much more that that.
Living a Feminist Life, should have been a guide to all those who seek to lead a feminist life. Instead, I thought it was more of a memoir, a recollection of life events that lead the author to become a feminist. It is also a repository of inspirational quotes by other famous feminists. As such, I think the book should have been titled more like "A collection of personal experiences" or something like "How I live a feminist life, and what inspires me". I personally have not learned much from this book, and probably this is because I couldn't make my way through its end. I guess, not all books are meant to be finished, and despite my reluctance to give up, I had to make amends and close the book.
Of course, this is my take on Living a Feminist Life. Another person might have actually enjoyed it better than I did. I really wish it had been me.
Thank you to NetGalley, and Duke University Press for an ARC of Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed, in exchange for an honest review.
In the second decade of the 21st century, "feminism" has become a buzzword of sorts. As varied technologies allow for wider inclusion in and engagement with feminist discourse, theories of feminism have become increasingly used in daily parlance. But what does it mean when theory doesn't align with practice? What happens when we separate feminist theory from the everyday events and occurrences that gave theory life? In this book, Ahmed uses critical theory, cultural studies, literary analysis, memoir and personal reflection to bring practice and theory back together, to remind us that feminism is just as much of an experience as it is an idea. The experience matters; how we live our lives as feminists is meaningful. I wouldn't say that the text serves as an introduction to feminist theory: it's written in a very accessible manner, but Ahmed assumes her readers have prior engagement with feminist philosophy.
Ahmed's analysis of the feminist killjoy, the willful feminist, and institutional passing are illuminating. Part II of the text, the section in which Ahmed recounts her experience as a diversity worker within academia, was truly the heart of the text. Here Ahmed's incisive critique of sexism and racism within universities, amongst other forms of marginalization, truly shined.
Ahmed's work, while insightful, is difficult to follow. At times, remaining engaged with the text was difficult because of the loose, stream-of-consciousness-esque style. Ahmed would begin elaborating on a concept, pause to share a personal story or reference other feminist writers, or provide an analysis of a book or film, and then return to the concept without fully showing how the previous reference was related. Consequently, as a reader, I had a difficult time following some of her analyses. Nonetheless, the book is timely and deeply necessary.
a lively and original collection of essays discussing a plethora of topics.
This was a very powerful read. I'd never read anything by the author before, but after finishing this book I'm very curious about the rest of her works. Right off the bat I appreciated her citation policy of only citing other female authors, so refreshing! I found myself appreciating this decision more and more as I made my way through the text, and later reading the notes at the end of the book. I trawled through the citations and treated it as a list of recommended texts - adding about 10 or so to my 'to-read' list on goodreads!
I loved the academic approach tempered with personal experiences and anecdotes to make it more accessible, and Ahmed's own forthrightness in writing style. It's hard for me to pick out a favourite passage or topic - although the conclusion's Manifesto was easily the most powerful part of the text for me personally and did an amazing job of pulling together themes that had been discussed and interwoven throughout the chapters.
The writing style takes a bit of getting use to & may feel a bit rambling or stream of conscious. However, Ahmed writes a good work that centers the self attempting as well as actively challenging sexism & patriarchy. Her feminist killjoy manifesto towards the end requires backbone but she does the work to get us there
Living a Feminist Life demonstrates how feminist theory grows out of daily life, how taking the words of daily life, living them up and inspecting them from all sides, deeper understanding of how the world is structured, how oppression is given force through expectations and demands to be happy, accommodating, kind, willing and helpful. How being feminist requires us to be assert our will, for example, to be willful in truth. But willful is pejorative while strong-willed is not…and you are reminded of all the ways what is good in a man is unwelcome in a woman.
Sara Ahmed spinning the fabric of feminism reminded me of my grandmother who grew her own flax, harvested it, spun it into thread, wove it into fabric and made her own linens. Like my grandmother, Ahmed harvest her personal experiences, spins them into understandings and weaves them into theory. There is something organic in her approach, drawing from her experiences as a woman, as a woman of color, as a queer woman of color.
Reading Living a Feminist Life was timely. Just this week, the local NAACP rescinded its endorsement of the Portland Women’s March on January 28th because the organizers said that talking about the issues affecting immigrant women, Muslim women, queer women, and women of color is “too political” and took to deleting the comments on the Facebook organizing page demanding inclusion. Reaction has been what one expects with white defensiveness and anger such as “it wasn’t YOUR march to begin with.” Again and again, Ahmed’s perspective deepened my understanding of what was happening right here, right now When Ahmed wrote that perceiving women of color contributions as interruptions defines feminism as centered on white women, a conversation that is not theirs. When Ahmed wrote about willfulness, that was so obvious what is happening here, being unwilling to be excluded is perceived as being willful. When new organizers were brought in after the NAACP voted, Ahmed’s writing about how appointments can be about appearances, that being willing to appoint someone is not the same as being willing to be transformed. Reading Living a Feminist Life has been like a commentary on this local issue.
I think this book is important and insightful enough to merit five stars, but I offer some caveats. I am a straight, white woman who is not overly defensive about my whiteness. I believe that just as I can’t swim in a pool without getting wet, I cannot grow up white in America without getting a little bit racist–and I accept my job is to limit the damage and work to counter racism as much as I can. But still, I felt uncomfortable from time to time, wondering where is my place in feminism if my presence makes it so difficult for women of color to express their feminism. There’s a lot of stepping aside we need to be doing while stepping up in support of women of color and queer women and others who experience sexist oppression through more than one lens. We know this, but knowing does not make it easy to do.
Ahmed is not here to make us comfortable, but to make us think, to make us go beyond thinking to acting to becoming what she calls a killjoy. We need to be willing to kill some joy. OK. Believe me, it makes sense when you read it.
The one thing I found most difficult about Living a Feminist Life is Ahmed’s love of chiasmus. Sometimes it was to good effect, sometimes it just was silly. Since I read an advance galley which could be changed in the final copy, I can’t quote directly, but when she wrote about affect aliens and alien affects I just said, “huh?” What is an affect alien? I still don’t know. Most of the time, her chiasmus are less bizarre, sometimes they are even profound, but I found it often would interrupt my reading and I would note that yet again, a figure of speech was performing as theory, as insight, and it was disappointing. She has much to say that is original and valuable and this writing tic detracts from her effectiveness.
I appreciated Ahmed’s transforming everyday words that we don’t think about, words like willful, arm, wall, and snap and making us think more deeply and see them as something profound, something activist and powerful. But this is a book that demands a lot of the reader, active engagement, an open mind, a lack of defensiveness, a willingness (oh my!) to be poked a few times, to be taken to uncomfortable places. It is, I think, going to be much more meaningful to women of color and to queer women of color in particular, but white women should read it, too, because sometimes we are the problem and we need to hear it and do better.
Living a Feminist Life will be released February 3rd, 2017. I was provided an advance e-galley by the publisher through NetGalley.
This book is a great introduction to feminism and the first chapter is extremely helpful. The writing is quick and witty, although a tad bit repetitive. There are many thing worth quoting and the reading of the book goes relatively fast because of her perspective. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to be introduced to feminist theory, as Ahmed goes through topics such as diversity, activism, and consciousness.
I was sold from the introduction - Ahmed's discussion of the importance of feminist citations is an important statement from someone with an academic history. Ahmed strongly states many truths about feminism that white feminists especially are loath to acknowledge as being core issues that affect us all. Incredibly well-written, this book is going to be one of my main recommendations.