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emily.'s Reviews > Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women
Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women
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by
wrote a long essay about my thoughts on this but goodreads (predictably) ate it so I'm just going to summarise:
A lot of what this book talks about rang true to me - the deep, unexamined misogny in feminist and left-learning spaces, the willingness of younger feminists to throw out the work of second-wave feminists to avoid being cast as 'problematic', the lazy way 'karen' has been co-opted to mean 'women', the downplaying of sex-based oppression in favour of a more confusing, perpetrator-less idea of patriarchy.
My issue is the framing of all feminist debate as a generational conflict - Dutchman-Smith tries to frame the 'gender debate' as older, more 'experienced-laden' feminists who, by virtue of hitting female milestones e.g menopause, birth, have a more wordly understanding of sex and gender than 'naive', 'accomodating' younger feminists, who do not have the grasp on their own politics or feelings because they're too afraid of being called bigoted, or they're too foolish to understand they're aiding the patriarchy, or at one point Dutchman-Smith implies that women who call older women transphobic are simply trying to steal their careers - a suggestion that is awful, patronising and frankly misogynistic.
My thoughts is that it would be hugely reductive to frame other feminist debates - e.g, the sex wars - in this way, but that is exactly what the author does. It seems intellectually lazy to not consider the actual ideas that are being debated - that in fact, the trans-inclusive feminists may have their own ideas and politics that are fully formed and cannot be attributed to naivety or ignorance. The book talks a bit about the sex wars, but barely touches on the gender debate - which in some ways is fair, since it's not what the book is about, but it becomes increasingly distracting in it's efforts to talk "around" what the issue even is!
The book is also bizarrely approving of Mumsnet as this supportive haven of middle aged women, talking about their issues with other women, which is strange to me as it's probably one of the most vitrolic websites I've ever been on.
It's a strange one so I'm not going to rate it, but it's worth reading if only to disagree.
A lot of what this book talks about rang true to me - the deep, unexamined misogny in feminist and left-learning spaces, the willingness of younger feminists to throw out the work of second-wave feminists to avoid being cast as 'problematic', the lazy way 'karen' has been co-opted to mean 'women', the downplaying of sex-based oppression in favour of a more confusing, perpetrator-less idea of patriarchy.
My issue is the framing of all feminist debate as a generational conflict - Dutchman-Smith tries to frame the 'gender debate' as older, more 'experienced-laden' feminists who, by virtue of hitting female milestones e.g menopause, birth, have a more wordly understanding of sex and gender than 'naive', 'accomodating' younger feminists, who do not have the grasp on their own politics or feelings because they're too afraid of being called bigoted, or they're too foolish to understand they're aiding the patriarchy, or at one point Dutchman-Smith implies that women who call older women transphobic are simply trying to steal their careers - a suggestion that is awful, patronising and frankly misogynistic.
My thoughts is that it would be hugely reductive to frame other feminist debates - e.g, the sex wars - in this way, but that is exactly what the author does. It seems intellectually lazy to not consider the actual ideas that are being debated - that in fact, the trans-inclusive feminists may have their own ideas and politics that are fully formed and cannot be attributed to naivety or ignorance. The book talks a bit about the sex wars, but barely touches on the gender debate - which in some ways is fair, since it's not what the book is about, but it becomes increasingly distracting in it's efforts to talk "around" what the issue even is!
The book is also bizarrely approving of Mumsnet as this supportive haven of middle aged women, talking about their issues with other women, which is strange to me as it's probably one of the most vitrolic websites I've ever been on.
It's a strange one so I'm not going to rate it, but it's worth reading if only to disagree.
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Reading Progress
March 25, 2023
–
Started Reading
March 27, 2023
– Shelved
March 27, 2023
– Shelved as:
feminist
April 3, 2023
–
Finished Reading
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by
Elly
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rated it 5 stars
Aug 28, 2023 02:21AM
I think the approval of Mumsnet is that it allows women to come together to speak. No matter what people think of how they speak, that's a positive thing.
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