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A review by literatureaesthetic
Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard
3.0
3.5 ☆
Women and Power is a short manifesto, consisting of 2 essays, that interweaves Homer and Ovid's work (the first recorded instances of Western civilisation), with modern society. It focalises on how the silencing of women has been existent since the beginning of Western society & culture.
* important to note that this manifesto does restrict itself to Western cultures (there are one or two passing references to middle eastern countries, but nothing substantial enough to say that this is wholly applicable to all women of different cultural backgrounds).
Mary Beard did touch on a few compelling ideas regarding women's public speech (the most thought-provoking for me, was the discussion on women's public speech being "niched" into only being able to discuss women's issues. providing examples like the notoriously famous, 'ain't i a woman?' speech by Sojourner Truth, which was actually modified and edited to be more female empowering. a form of literary violence that, ironically, contributes to the censorship and monitoring of women's voices).
however the majority of the points being made (barring the example i just gave) felt like surface-level observations, as opposed to exploring and dissecting the roots of these issues. the second the author got close to analysing these problems, the topic would shift.
also, i do feel that this manifesto lacked resolutions. manifesto's are supposed to spark some sort of action, it's inherently a call to arms, and while this text tells the reader to challenge their perceptions of power dynamics, it doesn't really explore that aspect of the discourse. i think this text lacked a third and final section. some readers may prefer the open-ended style of writing, where the author carefully crafts and poses questions, and leaves it down to the reader to determine their own stance on the topic. personally, for what this text is supposed to be (a feminist manifesto), i would've preferred some insight and more depth into the author's stance on how to resolve these issues. don't just tell me to learn about the history of sexism, i need a little more than that. don't just tell me that power structures need to change (of course they need to change, we already know this), i want more details. for a manifesto, this work bizarrely lacked a deeper understanding of the issues being raised.
this text is extremely accessible, and an excellent starting point for people who are either beginners to feminist theory, or for people who are interested in classical literature (like Homer, Ovid etc) and would like to read different interpretations of those texts. subjectively, i felt this needed depth. yes, it explored the silencing of women's voices, and the way women are treated by the media, but those are discourses i've already heard countless times. i just wanted that little bit more from this.
Women and Power is a short manifesto, consisting of 2 essays, that interweaves Homer and Ovid's work (the first recorded instances of Western civilisation), with modern society. It focalises on how the silencing of women has been existent since the beginning of Western society & culture.
* important to note that this manifesto does restrict itself to Western cultures (there are one or two passing references to middle eastern countries, but nothing substantial enough to say that this is wholly applicable to all women of different cultural backgrounds).
Mary Beard did touch on a few compelling ideas regarding women's public speech (the most thought-provoking for me, was the discussion on women's public speech being "niched" into only being able to discuss women's issues. providing examples like the notoriously famous, 'ain't i a woman?' speech by Sojourner Truth, which was actually modified and edited to be more female empowering. a form of literary violence that, ironically, contributes to the censorship and monitoring of women's voices).
however the majority of the points being made (barring the example i just gave) felt like surface-level observations, as opposed to exploring and dissecting the roots of these issues. the second the author got close to analysing these problems, the topic would shift.
also, i do feel that this manifesto lacked resolutions. manifesto's are supposed to spark some sort of action, it's inherently a call to arms, and while this text tells the reader to challenge their perceptions of power dynamics, it doesn't really explore that aspect of the discourse. i think this text lacked a third and final section. some readers may prefer the open-ended style of writing, where the author carefully crafts and poses questions, and leaves it down to the reader to determine their own stance on the topic. personally, for what this text is supposed to be (a feminist manifesto), i would've preferred some insight and more depth into the author's stance on how to resolve these issues. don't just tell me to learn about the history of sexism, i need a little more than that. don't just tell me that power structures need to change (of course they need to change, we already know this), i want more details. for a manifesto, this work bizarrely lacked a deeper understanding of the issues being raised.
this text is extremely accessible, and an excellent starting point for people who are either beginners to feminist theory, or for people who are interested in classical literature (like Homer, Ovid etc) and would like to read different interpretations of those texts. subjectively, i felt this needed depth. yes, it explored the silencing of women's voices, and the way women are treated by the media, but those are discourses i've already heard countless times. i just wanted that little bit more from this.