Mother Tongue: book by Jenni Nuttall

[persister]

I came across this book while Christmas shopping and thought I'd have a look at the reviews on Good Reads. What a fool I am.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/63946906-mother-tongue

I should have known we're not allowed anything about just women, ever.

BTW can anyone enlighten me - does the 'queer uterus haver' reviewer mean she's queer, or does she mean her uterus is, in which case I suppose she may well be 'cis het' but with a queer uterus. How does that work?

Maybe he keeps his uterus in a jar by the door?

But yes, there are already a couple of whinging reviews from people accusing the author of giving both sides of the argument. How very dare the author do such a thing!

Thanks for the link, the book looks interesting.

The reviews were helpful in that some of the negative reviewers set out their personal bias very clearly (“any good in it was quickly covered up by incredibly heavy political screeching” “while this book had lots of potential, it falls hilarously short - and, does so in a very stereotypically toxic feminine way. While I assume that all of her ranting and raving somehow makes Jenni Nuttall feel like she's tearing down the "evil patriarchy," it comes off as a snobbish feminist lacking all emotional intelligence and blubbering in your face” “to veiled gender critical whinging about inclusive language”), making it easy to spot the less thoughtful and less considered reviews.

That's an excellent point about the reviews - screeching, blubbering, whinging, all very sex-based pejoratives. If the reviews were genuinely written by women then that's some serious internalised misogyny going on there.

A classic in this (neglected) field is 'Man Made Language' by Dale Spender (1985). It was an eye-opener for me when I first read it: I picked it up again last year and it was worth a re-read. Angry, funny and, at the time, breaking very new ground.

Here's a review: "One of the great classics of the women's movement, Man-Made Language opened our eyes to the myriad ways in which the rules and uses of language promote a male, and so inherently partial, view of the world. Often imitated, never replaced, Man-Made Language has become a cornerstone of modern feminist thought."

Thanks for the link. I love this sort of stuff.

I loved this book, got it from the library after hearing the author on Word of Mouth on R4.

Thank you for the link. I've just ordered it.

Thanks for the recommendation @RhinestoneCowgirl , always good to hear someone else has enjoyed a book. Looks like I'll be getting this and the Dale Spender book @Olderbadger1 recommended, it sounds great!

Spender did some great research on how much men hogged conversations - yet were convinced that they’d barely said a word. I spent most of the book in a state of tutting and swearing. Come to think of it I spend most of my life in that state these days!

Another thing men do a lot is repeat what a woman has said as if it were a new insight - I've taken to saying 'she just made that point' and they generally look completely astonished. Because they genuinely didn't retain what the woman said, or because of the temerity of pointing out what they're doing?

Tutting and swearing is increasingly part of my life too. And a raised eyebrow stare.

Ooh this sounds like a great read. Especially because of the prissy hand-wringjng reviews. 😊