Though they have the vote and the Pill and haven’t been burned as witches since 1727, life isn’t exactly a stroll down the catwalk for modern women. They are beset by uncertainties and questions: Why are they supposed to get Brazilians? Why do bras hurt? Why the incessant talk about babies? And do men secretly hate them?
Caitlin Moran interweaves provocative observations on women’s lives with laugh-out-loud funny scenes from her own, from the riot of adolescence to her development as a writer, wife, and mother. With rapier wit, Moran slices right to the truth—whether it’s about the workplace, strip clubs, love, fat, abortion, popular entertainment, or children—to jump-start a new conversation about feminism. With humor, insight, and verve,How To Be a Woman lays bare the reasons why female rights and empowerment are essential issues not only for women today but also for society itself
About Caitlin Moran
Caitlin Moran was named the Columnist of the Year by the British Press Awards in 2010, and Critic and Interviewer of the Year in 2011 for her work at the Times of London. You can follow Caitlin on Twitter @caitlinmoran.
Editorial Review
With equal amounts snarky brio and righteous anger, Moran brings the discussion of contemporary women’s rights down from the ivory tower and into the mainstream. Although women have come a long way from the battles fought by the early suffragettes and the first-wave feminists of the 1960s and ’70s, they have also lost ground in some disturbing ways. Society still scrutinizes female sexual behavior for incipient signs of “sluttiness”; girls still grow up dreaming of becoming brides and wives (aka princesses), and pornography and strip clubs still objectify women. Moreover, celebrity culture puts women under a magnifying glass, dismissing their talents in favor of crowing over their physical flaws, their marital status and whether or not they have children. Into this sorry mess strides Moran, a self-deprecating, no-nonsense guide to womanhood. She frames her debate via a series of chapters detailing her own journey toward becoming not only a woman, but also a good person—polite, kind, funny and fundamentally decent. After all, feminism, she argues, is not a form of man hating; it is a celebration of women’s potential to effect change and an affirmation of their equality with men. That such an important topic is couched in ribald humor makes reading about Moran’s journey hilarious as well as provocative. With nary a hint of embarrassment, she reveals personal anecdotes about her miserable early adolescence as an overweight girl and her evolution into a music journalist who took London by storm on a quest to fall in love—or at least to kiss a lot of boys. She proves equally forthright in her views on abortion, childbearing and high heels. While some American readers may struggle with the British references and slang, they will find their efforts rewarded. – Kirkus Reviews
How to Be a Woman
Banes & Noble Review – July 17, 2012 (Excerpt)
How funny is Caitlin Moran’s neo-feminist manifesto and memoir, How to Be a Woman? Don’t read it with a full bladder — and not just because in Moran’s opinion, “100,000 years of male superiority has its origins in the simple basis that men don’t get cystitis.” Never mind discussion: you could spend a whole book group session flagging favorite lines. And, although it’s decidedly female-centric, open-minded men should enjoy the ribald humor and privileged view. Here she is, for example, excoriating high heels, which she thinks are suitable for “only ten people in the world, tops…. And six of those are drag queens”: “Women wear heels because they think they make their legs look thinner, end of. They think that by effectively walking on tiptoes, they’re slimming their legs down from a size 14 to a size 10. But they aren’t, of course. There is a precedent for a big fat leg dwindling away into a point — and it’s on a pig.”
Moran, a wildly entertaining, award-winning, profane, and prolific LondonTimes columnist born in 1975, takes up where one of her heroes, Germaine Greer, left off in The Female Eunuch. While she acknowledges the importance of traditional feminist issues like pay inequality and domestic abuse, her focus is on smaller indignities, including such painful trappings of nouvelle womanhood as skimpy underpants and torturous bikini waxes. Just as New York’s Mayor Giuliani once adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward graffiti and broken windows, she argues, we must do the same for these sexist “broken windows.” Why? Because “if we live in a climate where female pubic hair is considered distasteful, or famous and powerful women are constantly pilloried for being too fat or too thin, or badly dressed, then, eventually people start breaking into women, and lighting fires in them.” Moran’s brand of consciousness-raising stresses the importance not just of equality but of politeness and respect. [Read the full article...]
A Little Advice On ‘How To Be A Woman’
NPR Book Review – July 18, 2012 (Excerpt)
Funny feminists should never die; there are too few of them who’ve gained any cultural prominence in the first place. That’s why Nora Ephron’s death earlier this summer flattened me, even though I hadn’t read her in a while and had mixed feelings about the whole “I Feel Bad About My Neck,” self-flagellation routine. Still, she made me laugh at the same time she often made me think: I wanted her playing on Team Feminist forever.
I don’t mean to give the impression that Caitlin Moran is some midgame replacement, but it is bracing in this season of losing Ephron to discover a younger feminist writer who scrimmages with the patriarchy and drop-kicks zingers with comic flair. Moran is a 30-something-year-old columnist for the London Times, and her book, newly published here, was a best-seller when it came out in Britain last year. CalledHow to Be a Woman, it’s a collection of essays that constitutes a rough memoir. [Read the full article...]
These Stilettos Are Not Made for Walking, Nor Is the Thong
The New York Times Book Review – July 26, 2012 (Excerpt)
There are lots of things to love about Caitlin Moran’s “How to Be a Woman,” an invective against backsliding attitudes toward feminism that, this time last year, every woman in Britain seemed to be reading. There is the stand it takes against bikini waxes. There is its protest against the pornography and stripping industries. Above all there is its deployment of sweary British slang to remind us, in this era of manufactured outrage, what a truly great rant should look like: rude, energetic and spinning off now and then into jubilant absurdity. “Strident feminism needs big undies,” Ms. Moran says at one point — it’s in the decidedly anti G-string section — and even if you’re not familiar with all the language, the delivery will leave you sniggering like Muttley the dog.
Ms. Moran is a columnist for The Times of London, and her combination memoir and polemic, just published in the United States, grows out of the easy conversational style of her day job. In lesser hands the focus on Brazilians and heels might feel like a trudge through the overvisited subject matter of an increasingly exhausted genre — the wry personal essay — but “How to Be a Woman” is too forceful for that. Ms. Moran, who is 37, has two young daughters, and the book is, in part, a protective reflex against them growing up to idolize Kim Kardashian and spend half their disposable income on depilation. It also springs from her horror at the shuffling unwillingness of many women to claim a use for feminism. [Read the full article...]
‘Moranthology,’ ‘How to Be a Woman’
SFGate.Com Book Review – December 7, 2012 (Excerpt)
Until recently, humorlessness and feminism were considered synonymous. But Caitlin Moran, the British author of “How to Be a Woman” and the new “Moranthology,” is part of the crop of female writers and comics busy debunking that stereotype. Judging by their success, they must be hitting a nerve.
Although things may be more equitable between the sexes than they used to be, “How to Be a Woman” shows what a tricky business it remains to be a woman today. Moran rants on such subjects as the ubiquity of over-waxed pubic hair, the lack of enthusiasm exhibited by ladies in porn, and why high-profile women should cop to having had abortions. Through it all, she makes her point – that sexism is far from dead – with humor instead of anger.
While reading “How to Be a Woman,” I repeatedly annoyed my husband by insisting he stop whatever he was doing, “just one more time,” and listen as I struggled to snort out some particularly funny passage through my laughter. Perceptive and chatty, whip smart and self-deprecating, Moran felt like my new best friend, with a gift for pointing out absurdities that I’d noticed but never put words to. I was sorry to lose her company when I finished the book, and overjoyed to learn that “Moranthology” was being released on its heels. [Read the full article...]
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Painted Wings and Giants’ Rings
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss
The loss of innocence, when “painted wings and giants’ rings made ways for other toys” is the central theme of this festival of children’s dream world adventures against the harsh reality of adult life.
In his newest novel, Wilfried F. Voss delivers a unique and insightful view into a child’s world and how it relates to the harsh reality of adult life, in this case the life of Roger Wilkinson, a businessman who is haunted by childhood memories and the ultimate fear of mistreating his own children. Wilkinson is in a coma after a car accident on the Massachusetts Turnpike, and he does not respond to physical stimulation. The doctor, assuming psychological issues, describes his condition as dwelling in a dark place. Consequently, Roger’s children, Patrick and Siobhan, decide to rescue their father from the dark place and bring him to Never-Neverland, because, in their view, nobody dies in Never-Neverland.
Painted wings, childhood’s great defender, And giants’ rings are such great splendor. Keep these treasures, don’t grow old In a world of tears and full of cold. - The Faery’s Silly Song
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Painted Wings and Giants’ Rings
