Book review - Cunt (Inga Muscio)
Feb. 28th, 2011 12:20 pmI've read this book before, and probably reviewed it here, but it was in the dark and dirty pre-tag days so god knows if I'd ever be able to find it. Not even going to bother to try. The thing I probably like most, on the surface, about this book is that normally I would avoid sitting next to someone on the bus reading the Daily Mail, but if I had this in my pocket, I would go for it on principle.
I remember getting a lot more out of it the first time round. Practical stuff, like changing my method of sanitary protection to give less to The Man, and ideological stuff like having a personal manifesto, taking care of and supporting other women, protecting myself. I'd just come out of a relationship that had become very bad for me as a female, not because the guy I was with was some sort of chauvinist asshole, but just because it was a long relationship which I'd started when I was young and unformed and had just become riddled with bad habits. Plus the guy was a bit of a twat in that he was extremely resistant to change, and if you resist my change too long, then, well, bad things happen.
I got less out of it this time. Partly because the lessons outlined above are just a normal part of my psyche. Partly because I no longer particularly feel that my being a woman is a significant part of my issues with the world right at this point in time. It's honestly got so bad, that as the strange little girl in Resident Evil gnomically pointed out (as they are wont to do), you're all going to die down here. To paraphrase Crowley in Good Omens, there's nothing going on that we're not doing to ourselves, and that transcends the genital divide. And after that tiny Monday morning pearl of optimism, it's also written in a slightly irritating right-on talking-to-your-grrlfriends way that always grates on my intellectually androgynous tendencies.
Saying that, there are three well thought out sections re the etymological, the gynaecological (*), and the ideological that give plenty of ideas. If I knew any young ladies in a remotely influential way, I'd probably buy them a copy for their 18th birthday :)
* need a new word for this that doesn't remind me of the film Dead Ringers</I
I remember getting a lot more out of it the first time round. Practical stuff, like changing my method of sanitary protection to give less to The Man, and ideological stuff like having a personal manifesto, taking care of and supporting other women, protecting myself. I'd just come out of a relationship that had become very bad for me as a female, not because the guy I was with was some sort of chauvinist asshole, but just because it was a long relationship which I'd started when I was young and unformed and had just become riddled with bad habits. Plus the guy was a bit of a twat in that he was extremely resistant to change, and if you resist my change too long, then, well, bad things happen.
I got less out of it this time. Partly because the lessons outlined above are just a normal part of my psyche. Partly because I no longer particularly feel that my being a woman is a significant part of my issues with the world right at this point in time. It's honestly got so bad, that as the strange little girl in Resident Evil gnomically pointed out (as they are wont to do), you're all going to die down here. To paraphrase Crowley in Good Omens, there's nothing going on that we're not doing to ourselves, and that transcends the genital divide. And after that tiny Monday morning pearl of optimism, it's also written in a slightly irritating right-on talking-to-your-grrlfriends way that always grates on my intellectually androgynous tendencies.
Saying that, there are three well thought out sections re the etymological, the gynaecological (*), and the ideological that give plenty of ideas. If I knew any young ladies in a remotely influential way, I'd probably buy them a copy for their 18th birthday :)
* need a new word for this that doesn't remind me of the film Dead Ringers</I