had high expectations from a podcast I really enjoyed with Rebecca Traister on Know Your Enemy, but was a little underwhelmed by the book. I would characterize Good and Mad as a contemporary history on women's movements and their anger - as an emotional reaction, as rhetorical strategy, etc. it was nice to read after Angela Davis's Women, Race, and Class - this is less class-focused, but does connect the various women's movements that Davis describes into the present with an intersectional lens. Traister paints female anger as inspiring, authentic, and powerful, and critiques the sexist ways that anger has been misconstrued. one of my favorite takeaways was noticing how women are "pushy" but men do the literal pushing/assault, or women are "opportunistic" but men get the literal opportunities. however, Traister does better on the history front than the theory front, and while she cited the intellectual tradition of (Black) female rage, that tradition wasn't explained. beyond cursory mentions of intersectionality ("angry Black woman" myth), I didn't learn how the functions and perceptions of women's anger evolved over time or in the context of different movements. obviously, there's no cut-and-dry definition of anger/rage/etc., but it would have been nice to see more of an attempt at definitions and boundary-setting. I think she intended this to be an empowering tribute to female anger in the face of a society that has always rejected it. but I think it was a little "rah rah" at the cost of nuance? the book lent less attention to the structure of oppression and the process of political struggle, and relatively more to the women who led resistance efforts. in its unrelenting positivity, descriptions of individual movements blurred together, and I didn't get a sense of how to best deploy anger as an educator, activist, woman, etc. maybe making anger pragmatic is what the book refutes, but I think my desire comes from a cynical place of not yet believing in truly free/authentic expression under patriarchy - especially for women of color, who Traister acknowledges face worse consequences for their rage. as someone who is angry a lot, all I can say is that I hope she's right. mar 13, 2020
To reply you need to sign in.