Caitlin Moran - How to be a Woman

[Trills]

I don't have it yet, but I know I am going to want to talk about it.

Amazon are sending it - I had to buy a paper copy rather than Kindle so I can give it to people and make them read it.

So.... yeah.

have started reading my kindle version
but atm am flitting between books..that's what having loads of books in front of me does...incapable of making a decision

Finally started reading it and been in hysterics for most of it. 4 year old son keeps asking what I'm laughing at, "nothing son, certainly not a joke about being unable to sit down after childbirth"

I loved it. It made me burst out loud laughing several times. And it's just so sensible about feminism. I've been urging all my friends to buy it in the last few days. It is a FABULOUS read.

I enjoyed it but am slightly dubious about her reasoning over pornography and lap dancing.
She likes and uses porn and it's ok 'just people having sex'.
She does not enjoy her lap dancing experience and lo and behold it's not ok.
Hmmm

Verrr funny in loads of ways and so so honest.

Love this book

I am so loving this book. I don't want to read any more because I don't want to finish it!

Sunshine- I think you're being a bit simplistic in saying CM likes porn- her argument is more sophisticated than that. She says the following in her book, "The idea that pornography is intrinsically exploitative and sexist is bizarre: pornography is just 'some fucking' after all. The act of having sex isn't sexist so there's no way pornography can be, in itself, inherently misogynistic....It's the porn industry that's the problem."

She then goes on to argue against the sort of porn that's freely available today, especially on the internet, and why that's damaging, in particular to women but also to men and young boys. Essentially, she argues for more diverse porn- "something that shows sex as something that two people do together, rather than a thing that just happens to a woman when she has to make the rent..."

I thought her analysis of this (and some of the other areas she looks at, especially overeating) was clever and interesting.

Of course I was simplifying it.
I agreed with her that it's the porn industry that's the problem but disagree that pornography is just some fucking.
She uses and would appear to enjoy porn. She defends porn.
She did not enjoy lap dancing. She argues against it.

I was watching an episode of mad men today and there was a beautifully shot sex scene. Id love to see a more graphic version of that as porn.

LOVED this book.

I have reluctantly passed it over to DH to read, although I've been reading bits out to him, in between laughing and shouting YES a lot.

Brilliant book - like she lives in my head - looking forward to the webchat

Am I going to have to nick my dh's kindle to read it then? (he's bought it and read it already)

Is it going to change my life, or just make me chuckle knowingly?

@ lukewarmmama...Hopefully it will do both! I certainly feel much more confident about shouting out loud 'I'm a feminist!' .... best book I've read in ages....Ms Moran, you're the best...

I am loving it. The bit about what women call their, erm, "girly bits" made me laugh until tears were rolling down my cheeks ("my problem"!!! Really?!?!). The chapter on giving birth would have moved me to tears had I not been sitting in my yr 1 classroom at break time with people running in and out. She described, quite brilliantly, the almost indescribable experience of being put on an oxytocin drip and literally going from 0-160 in the space of a nanosecond. I loved the wedding chapter. I am reading the bit about going clubbing with Lady Gaga atm.

No-one has mentioned that she is a beautifully original writer. I find her column a bit much sometimes, to be honest, but diluted in a book her prose just really works and there are hundreds of little gems that I just want to collect and store in my brain. This is one of my favourites about her dog: "She is as stupid as a barrel full of toes. Galaxies of nothing are going on in her eyes."

I'm going to buy for ALL of my girlfriends. Essential reading IMO. I am a little bit in love with her now.

Really enjoying it, hearing it in the brummie voice of my childhood friends. Lots to think about.

I finished it this weekend. Loved it. Was slightly drunkenly making women promise to buy it last night.......She is very clever. And as exactly the same age as me, does make me feel I've been wasting time somewhat, but hey ho.

I enjoyed it as a memoir - I've always liked her writing, and how she comes across, but I have to say in terms of feminism there wasn't much that struck me as new in there...

Dull like being stuck in a bedroom with a showing off 9 year old. Rehashed columns. I left it on holiday. Don't know anyone who liked it.

You can't get the hours back you will waste on this tat. A self indulgent memoir masquerading as a feminist essay Crap!

Ah but at least it provoked a reaction. Personally I loved it, mainly because I liked her writing already. Also, the bit where the bat flys into her face had me crying with laughter. On the train. Poor man sitting next to me.

I hated it and didn't bother to finish it. So glad to see I'm not the only one who didn't like it.