Book Review: The Noughtie Girl’s Guide To Feminism

Feminists have become one of the most misunderstood groups around today. At least 100 years ago, everybody knew it was about getting the vote, and in the 1960s it was about sexual equality.

The Noughtie Girl's Guide To Feminism, by Ellie Levenson, examines what feminism hopes to achieve today.

Levenson clearly explains that feminism does not – nay, can not –have one clear definition. Unlike the generations before, where women had specific causes to rally around and fight on a united front, today’s feminists have different points of view on different subjects.

So when the book does define “feminism,” it addresses it in broad, macro fashion: it’s “about believing that no one should be treated differently, judged differently, afforded different rights or forced into specific roles in society according to their sex.”

We might judge and criticise each other, so long as we would judge any man in the same way as a woman who is doing the same thing (like sleeping around; they are either both sluts or both studs). That recognition of equality is what makes us feminists.

There are four types of feminists in Levenson’s world: louds and prouds, unintentional feminists, accidental feminists, and feminisn’ts. And so long as they are all fighting for equal rights, they really are feminists whether they call themselves that or not.

In addressing discrimination, Levenson makes it clear that just because something bad happens – for example, not getting a promotion at work – this isn’t inherently because you are a woman. She argues that it is essential for people to understand this because women who cry foul at every wrong in their lives give the rest of us a bad name.

“We must also be careful not to shoot ourselves in our collective foot, and call everything that isn’t how we want it to be sexist, or we undermine our demands,” she adds.

Perhaps it would be good to consider that maybe you just weren’t good enough for that promotion and the man happened to be the better candidate.

Also, it could be that the woman who didn’t get the promotion was yielding a ”glass umbrella”. This, rather than an external barrier to women rising in the workplace, is an internal one: “the invisible barrier that women put up to prevent themselves getting senior roles by making excuses not to apply.”

Of course, this is not always a bad thing; many women choose to stay in less demanding roles because they prefer more time for their social and family lives. “The bad thing is that because it is women doing the bulk of the caring roles and domestic duties, they often realise the best thing for them is to go no further and to put up their own barriers” –something men rarely have to do.

Feminism in the noughties is summed up as a “pick ‘n’ mix” idea: “We choose the bits of feminism we feel comfortable with and reject other bits.”

Feminism, and noughtie girl feminism in particular, is about acknowledging that we are different while shouting loudly that we are equal. We may not act in a feminist way all of the time, but if we think we are a feminist, then we are one.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in equality of the sexes and feminism. There are some great sections on sex, body image, marriage and children, birth control and emergency contraception, men’s involvement in the movement, and language, among others.

It was intelligent, witty, and funny, while describing some of the serious situations in modern life that the now-decades-old textbooks of feminism never needed to address.

If anyone ever asks me again what it is to be a feminist in today’s world, I’ll simply refer them to the book.

To buy a copy of this book click here.