Happy International Women's Day!
A joy of a topic for me today: time to shine as I yell about the ladies...
The theme this week is women writing and / or talking about women. There is a mix of fiction and non-fiction as well as the educational and the comedic. Obviously women’s stories and their work should be shouted about all year long as part of all stories put out there but I am always thrilled when a weekly theme is handed to me on a plate.
To be honest, writing this was tougher than usual as I didn’t want to wind up delivering yet another magnum opus as per last week, however there is such an extraordinary wealth of stories from which to choose.
TL;DR
Read Girl Woman Other by Bernardine Evaristo, Difficult Women by Helen Lewis and Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez; watch Promising Young Woman and RBG; listen to The Guilty Feminist, Now You’re Asking and Sentimental Garbage; watch Hacks and Extraordinary Escapes.
READ
First a foray into fiction: Girl Woman Other by Bernardine Evaristo. I inhaled this book when I started it - not knowing exactly what to expect and before I became aware of the enormous buzz around it. It is magnificent.
Weaving together the stories of twelve characters (do not be put off! It’s so elegantly constructed that it’s not in any way a heavy lift to manage that number of storylines), Girl Woman Other explores the intersection of different female experiences of things such as racism, gender, sexuality and socioeconomic background through the various characters. It’s masterfully done and nigh on impossible to put down.
I am currently reading Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights by Helen Lewis and I adore it.
I can often struggle with non-fiction books that are too dry and hard to get into, with this no such struggle. However it taking me longer than usual to read a book I’m enjoying quite so much - but that’s because I’m reading every sentence several times in an attempt to commit it to memory. Who doesn’t want to know about fights? And who doesn’t want to know about feisty women? In a lot of instances, Lewis examines well-known stories with a fresh perspective and refuses to gloss over the less PR-friendly aspects of certain well-known personalities who fought & won battles we have all benefitted from.
I read Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez when it first came out five years ago, but I think I need to revisit it because I haven’t retained enough of the information - hence my rereading tactic with Difficult Women!
It’s a wonderful explanation of how the gender gap relating to data and the default of any and all research being done from a man’s perspective has made life trickier, unhealthier and unsafer for women. None of this is done in a reductive “woman good; man BAD” way nor is it a moan about how tough women have it. Criado-Perez is way too intelligent for that - but the facts are stark and a lot of the book has you thinking ‘how has it been like this for so long, and why is so much still like this right now?’ Then of course, you take one look at the news and remember the world we live in. There is so much information in here that we all - not just women - need to know about.
WATCH
Emerald Fennell and her whole family epitomise cool and it makes me depressed. If I dressed in those beautiful dresses her wildly talented sister Coco makes, I look like a frilly nightmare. And I’m not sure I will ever reach the level of earning-potential that would enable me to purchase a piece of her father Theo’s exquisitely designed jewellery, and her mother Louise is also a successful screenwriter and novelist. So of course Emerald herself is just as sodding talented as the rest of them, and that’s FINE.
Fennell wrote, directed and co-produced Promising Young Woman - because if you want something done right, you often need to do it yourself. Carey Mulligan stars as Cassie who spends her days working in a cafe after dropping out of medical school and her evenings going to bars & clubs, pretending she’s pissed as a skunk and then challenging those who try to sexually assault her due to her inebriation. Cassie’s best friend Nina was victim of rape but when the case was dismissed, Nina killed herself - leaving all those complicit in the clear.
Reconnecting with an old classmate, Cassie learns that Nina’s rapist is due to get married and this sparks a desire for vengeance. And holy smokes, does she wreak her revenge…
Look, I get it: she should have retired safely during the term of a Democratic president and not clung on til literally the absolute very bitter end but there can be no denying that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a hero.
If you haven’t read a biography or watched this documentary - RBG - to learn about her, then for the love of something good & holy, would you please rectify that?
Like, in the early years of her marriage while both she & her beloved husband Marty were still in law school & he fell ill with testicular cancer. RBG not only cared for him and their three year old daughter, she attended all of her classes and completed her coursework as well as attending Marty’s classes, typing up his notes, submitting his work and meeting with the dean (the same total sh*t who had previously ask Ruth why she was at law school “taking a man’s place”) to ensure that Marty would still graduate on time.
She was a real ‘think around the problem’ type of person as well. When tackling the issue of equality she had quite the knack of getting past right-wing conservatives who were all too happy to prevent any legislative moves towards improvements for women by looking at the issue from a slightly different angle but with the same goal in mind. In 1968, RBG opted to represent Charles Moritz in her battle against sex discrimination. On what possible planet could a white guy called Charles face a problem with gender-based discrimination, I hear you ask. Well, Mr Moritz was the sole carer for his elderly mother but the United States Government would not allow him to avail of a caregiving tax deduction due to his being an unmarried man.
The real cherry on top was that when the Government responded by highlighting the hundreds of thousands of laws that distinguished between men & women on the basis of sex and how they couldn’t all be wrong, the court ruled that they, in fact, were.
Honestly, learning about RBG is a joy - and I guess, given the state of the USA at the moment, a bit of a downer as well - so if you haven’t already done so, I beseech you: get stuck in!
LISTEN
Deborah Frances-White and Sofie Hagen created The Guilty Feminist together in 2015 and hosted it together for almost a year.
Since Hagen’s departure, Frances-White has carried on from strength to strength. She truly is a tour de force, if you haven’t seen her TED talk on charisma and stage fright click here and watch for some extraordinarily sound advice. But back to the podcast: each week Frances-White and a guest discuss feminism and the ways in which they fail to meet the supposed expectations the -ism places on women. Sometimes you get a chat with Gillian Anderson, at other times a discussion about the Windrush Generation - it’s always funny and informative: a winning combination.
Irish women are brilliant: creative, funny and always inspiring; in fact, to any of you who know us, you’re all welcome. And just when you thought we’d done enough for the world, two of Ireland’s greatest daughters are here to answer your questions and dish out the advice.
Now You’re Asking is hosted by The Actual Marian Keyes and the inimitable Tara Flynn. Unless you’ve been living under an extremely large rock, you’ll know Keyes as the prolific author and creator of the Walsh sisters series of books (currently being turned into a TV series) and Flynn is an actor, writer & generally very funny person. The show has been going since 2021 recorded mostly in Keyes’ front room where this hilarious duo respond to listeners’ pleas for guidance on sticky situations. They don’t exactly solve each problem, but they are amusing about every one and excellent company for half an hour at a time.
Sentimental Garbage is the brainchild of author Caroline O’Donoghue, creator of The Rachel Incident, which if you haven’t read, you should.
Each week she and a different guest discusses in detail the merits of movies and TV shows which have been consigned to the scrapheap by the world of critics yet adored by most of ‘dumb women’ as the aforementioned critics seem to see us. From Stepmom and Waitress to Pride & Prejudice (one week dedicated to the 1995 TV version with a dripping wet Colin Firth and the next focussing on the 2005 movie adaptation with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen), O’Donoghue covers a wide span of the cultural gamut with a level of wit, insight and incisive humour that regularly has me terrifying people on public transport as I grin widely and often guffaw whilst listening. (& yes, I’ve mentioned before …be warned: I’ll likely mention it again!)
WATCH
Female characters are often still depressingly one of a limited number of stereotypes: the ditzy ingenue, the bitter spinster or the overachieving control freak etc etc. Mercifully, in (very) recent times, this has started to change.
Hacks is about Gen Z writer Ava and septuagenarian comic Deborah. The former has a reputation of being tough to work with and has just been cancelled. The latter has a style of comedy that has not really moved with the times has rendered her almost completely irrelevant. So the two are paired up to work together and each in turn offer something the other does not have: Ava needs industry kudos and Deborah needs new material.
The true glory of this show (seen even more in later seasons) is that it isn’t about the pair discovering just how awful they are and ‘fixing’ themselves. It’s not about learning a lesson and becoming sweet, saccharine, demure little women. Instead it is about them accepting their awfulness and in turn leaning right into it.
And finally, something a little bit different. I am an expert in ‘casual viewing’: I love Sort Your Life Out with Stacey Solomon, Love It or List It with Kirstie & Phil, and Selling Sunset. & if you even let me get started on certain franchises of the Real Housewives there is a very real likelihood that I will bore you to death as I opine on the utterly batshit behaviour of disgustingly rich women in various parts of the United States - none of whom I am ever likely to meet. (That said, Kathy Hilton did once like a load of my Instagram posts…so I guess that makes us friends now…)
But one that combined my love of seeing inside houses along with lovely gentle chat between wonderful women is Extraordinary Escapes with Sandi Toksvig.
There are three seasons with a varying number of episodes. In each, Toksvig takes her guest on to different destination - mostly around Britain, but there are also episodes set in Ireland and Norway. They stay in a couple of calm oases (mostly, if not all, available for anyone to rent) and do a few a fun, unusual activities in the area. It’s easy to watch, the perfect company for a broadcast hour (47 minutes) and a helpful source of inspiration should you want to book a weekend away.