July Book Club -
"How to be a Woman" by Caitlin Moran
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.
As usual we met
up in the Tiled Hall Cafe in Leeds Art Gallery for Book Club to discuss "How
to be a Woman" by Caitlin Moran which was suggested by Lianne.
There were many bookclub regulars as well as a couple of first timers
which was great and there were certainly lots of different opinions.
Most of the
group really enjoyed the book and many commented that whilst reading it they
had both laughed out loud and cried at points. In general the chapter
around abortion made a lot of the group cry and Vicki said that reading the
book for the second time the chapter about child birth affected her the most.
It was agreed that it was a very accessible book about feminism and that
by comparison a lot of the feminist books available are much more highbrow and
harder to engage with such as "Delusions of Gender" that Shelli
mentioned she had read previously. Claire felt that she perhaps was
irritated by elements of the book and in particular the discussion around
whether to have children or not and that it was almost a feeling of Moran
giving permission for women to not have to have children in one chapter.
We had general
debates around the topics covered in the book including the influence
of fashion magazines, marriage and whether to change your name afterwards,
burlesque vs lap dancing, waxing, menstruation, Katie Price and Lady Gaga.
Siobhan couldn't make the meeting, but was there in spirit and we
discussed some of her comments on the book that she'd posted on the Facebook
page including "The title gets my goat a bit ' how to be a woman' as that
seems to be yet another kind of diktat about how a woman should look/behave and
frankly we get enough of that in the mainstream media as it is. I get that you
need a snappy title but really it should be 'How To Be Me Caitlin Moran'. Plus
it's only how to be a straight childbearing woman though I did like her bit on
not having children too."
It was a really
friendly, but passionate debate across lots of different feminist issues and
also the issue of feminism itself and it was great to have input from people
with really diverse backgrounds and experiences in a really positive discussion
environment.
The
next book on our list is Fifty
Shades of Grey by E L James, however some of the book club members felt quite
strongly that this wasn't something that they wanted to read so we decided to
have a double discussion at the next meeting and discuss first of all
"Lolita" by Vladimir Navokov from 2pm - 3pm and then "Fifty
Shades of Grey" from 3pm onwards. We will be meeting
on Sunday 9th September at the Tiled Hall Cafe at 2pm. We hope that you
will be able to join us.
Review by Lucy
Rider, Buns & Roses WI Secretary
