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A new way of looking at feminism from one of our funniest writers.
1913 - Suffragette throws herself under the King's horse. 1969 - Feminists storm Miss World. NOW - Caitlin Moran rewrites The Female Eunuch from a bar stool and demands to know why pants are getting smaller. There's never been a better time to be a woman: we have the vote and the Pill, and we haven't been burnt as witches since 1727. However, a few nagging questions do remain... Why are we supposed to get Brazilians? Should you get Botox? Do men secretly hate us? What should you call your vagina? Why does your bra hurt? And why does everyone ask you when you're going to have a baby? Part memoir, part rant, Caitlin Moran answers these questions and more in How To Be a Woman - following her from her terrible 13th birthday ('I am 13 stone, have no friends, and boys throw gravel at me when they see me') through adolescence, the workplace, strip-clubs, love, fat, abortion, TopShop, motherhood and beyond.
About the Author
Caitlin Moran had literally no friends in 1990, and so had plenty of time to write her first novel, The Chronicles of Narmo, at the age of fifteen. At sixteen she joined music weekly, Melody Maker, and at eighteen briefly presented the pop show 'Naked City' on Channel 4. Following this precocious start she then put in eighteen solid years as a columnist on The Times - both as a TV critic and also in the most-read part of the paper, the satirical celebrity column 'Celebrity Watch' - winning the British Press Awards' Columnist of The Year award in 2010 and Critic and Interviewer of the Year in 2011. The eldest of eight children, home-educated in a council house in Wolverhampton, Caitlin read lots of books about feminism - mainly in an attempt to be able to prove to her brother, Eddie, that she was scientifically better than him. Caitlin isn't really her name. She was christened 'Catherine'. But she saw 'Caitlin' in a Jilly Cooper novel when she was 13 and thought it looked exciting. That's why she pronounces it incorrectly: 'Catlin'. It causes trouble for everyone.
REVIEW SNAPSHOT®
by PowerReviews(based on 4 reviews)
Ratings Distribution
75%
of respondents would recommend this to a friend.
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Reviewed by 4 customers
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Comments about How To Be a Woman:
As an "older feminist", I found this book not only thought-provoking but also highly entertaining and readable. I immediately wanted my own daughter and son to read it because I think that the humour and readability would appeal to their generation.
I also found it quite disheartening though, to think about how the current culture is shaping our young people's thinking about women. I thought we'd got well past some of this stuff long ago!
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Comments about How To Be a Woman:
Having trouble reading this one. She's a very good expressive writer but I had to force myself to read each chapter. She makes some excellent salient points re her life experiences and young girls today but it wasn't the book I was expecting. Also, the fact that she refers to a lot of UK situations doesn't make it easy for an overseas reader to comprehend at times. I've only managed to plow through a few chapters and have put it down [in preference to Game Of Thrones]I presume I'll pick it up again eventually....
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A brilliant book. Should be compulsary reading for all 13 years olds before everything gets confusing. Wish there was something around like this for me when I was young and naive.
Many laugh out loud moments. Honest and funny. A call to arms in the era of brazilians and Kardashians!
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Comments about How To Be a Woman:
This is a great big hoot of a book. There are lines in it that will make you snort with laughter, situations so true to life that you will howl in recognition. It is very, very funny. So, you could read it just for that, for the entertainment value.
If you are female, and particularly if you are a female under 30, then, tucked around the jokes, Moran has provided you with a short, sharp, feminist manifesto. It's not academic: she doesn't present a research paper into gender differences in pay or interview women who have suffered domestic abuse. Instead, she uses her own life to examine the everyday niggles of everyday womanhood.
Displaying reviews 1-4
"Moran's writing sparkles with wit and warmth. Like the confidences of your smartest friend" - Simon Pegg
"I adore, admire and - more - am addicted to Caitin Moran's writing" - Nigella Lawson
"Spectacular! Very, very funny, moving and revealing" - Jonathan Ross
"I have been waiting for this book my whole life" - Claudia Winkleman
"Humour and common sense make Moran's redefining of hwat it means to be a feminist as readable as it is essential" - Elle
"A witty and bold account of modern womanhood... she is a genuinely original talent" - Germaine Greer, The Times
"This might just be the funniest intelligent book ever written .. Moran's work packs a feminist punch in a way that Germaine Greer and an entire army of female eunuchs could never do, because she writes about things we've all done, thought, and said - but not quite so eloquently...the book everyone will be talking about" - Stylist
"The book EVERY woman should read" - Grazia
"Hilarious" - Heat
"Very, very funny...however, if you are female and particularly if you are a female under the age of 30, then, tucked around the jokes, Moran has provided you with a short, sharp, feminist manifesto." - Miranda Sawyer, Observer
Other Reviews
"I adore, admire and - more - am addicted to Caitin Moran's writing" Nigella Lawson "I have been waiting for this book my whole life" Claudia Winkleman "This might just be the funniest intelligent book ever written .. Moran's work packs a feminist punch in a way that Germaine Greer and an entire army of female eunuchs could never do, because she writes about things we've all done, thought, and said - but not quite so eloquently...the book everyone will be talking about" Stylist "Moran's writing sparkles with wit and warmth. Like the confidences of your smartest friend" Simon Pegg "It would almost be unkind to call this an important book, because what it mostly is is engaging, brave and consistently, cleverly naughtily funny, but actually it is important that we talk about this stuff" -- Katy Guest Independent on Sunday
ISBN: 9780091940744
ISBN-10: 0091940745
Audience:
Professional
Format:
Paperback
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 320
Published: 1st March 2012
Dimensions (cm): 12.6 x 19.8
x 2.1
Weight (kg): 0.22
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