Reading Women & Power and The Vagina Bible have pushed me down a feminist literature rabbit hole. I have about nine books on hold at the library, including The Second Sex and The Feminine Mystique.
… ye be warned.
I spotted Men Explain Things to Me on a feminist reading list – and, being in a male-dominated STEM field, figured it might be an interesting read. Mansplaining is a thing I’ve had to contend with on more than one occasion.
The book itself is a collection of seven (eight?) essays, written by Solint across about a decade. Most come with post scripts, describing her thought process, the public’s response to the essay, and/or how things have changed since then. Most of the essays deal directly with feminism, though there’s one right in the middle about Virginia Woolf that may or may not have put me to sleep.
The essays – minus the Virginia Woolf one – cover pretty basic feminist themes, with emphasis on domestic and sexual violence. The primary arguments are that (1) women are yet to acheive the status of “person” within society, and (2) there is still a lot of violence toward women perpetrated by men
I found the ideas presented in this book pretty rudimentary, and the writing was … well, pretty disorganized. The text had an erratic, almost-flow-of-consciousness style that darted all over the place. Concepts were glossed over rather than explored. For instance, in the title essay Solnit describes an encounter with a man … but, that’s about it. There’s no in-depth analysis, historical perspective, critical reflection. It’s just the event. It left the book feeling hollow and superficial.
First lines:
I still don’t know why Sallie and I bothered to go to that party in the forest slopes of Aspen. The people were all older than us and dull in a distinguished way, old enough that we, at forty-ish, passes and the occasion’s youngest ladies.
Highs and lows …
✔️ It’s a basic overview to feminist themes / violence against women. If you’re entirely new to feminism, the book is an acceptable resource … though, I’d suggest something like Women & Power or We Should All Be Feminists or Invisible Women before it.
✔️ Some ideas strike a cord … Why are women told to stay inside at night when there’s been occurrences of assault by men? Why aren’t men told to stay inside so the women can move about freely?
… OK. Definitely not an original idea. But, jeez, isn’t it the truth?!
❌ I! am! an! important! feminist! scholar! One of my biggest irks about this collection was how Solnit tried to market herself as an important feminist scholar. She explicitly links herself to important advocates/theorists, and presents herself as belonging to this grand tradition. Not only have I never heard of Solnit before now (and, I’ve taken multiple women’s studies courses), but her ideas are not that inventive. They’re the sort of talking points that you see in Cosmo.
❌ Please cite your sources. Call me an snob, but I need to see where stats come from.
Final thoughts …
Meh. And this is why I’m happy to be using the public library … read it, return it, rant about it.Men Explain Things To Me was your basic, pseudo-deep collection of feminst essays: full of enough stratling stats and ancedots to raise the blood pressure a bit, but – at the end of the day – neither innovative or particularly impactful.
The details:
Book: Men Explain Things to Me
Author: Rebecca Solnit
Published: 2017, Liveright
My copy: Public Library
Read date: February 26-27, 2021
Rating/5: 👨🏼👨🏼
The Geeky Jock 
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