I’ve been heartened to see some perceptive reviews of Laura Bates’s new book – the imaginatively-titled Everyday Sexism – on Amazon. I’m hurt to think only 17 out of 50 people didn’t find my review helpful. Or possibly not. I invite you to submit your own comments, here’s the link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everyday-Sexism-Laura-Bates/dp/1471131572/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399317656&sr=1-1&keywords=laura+bates+everyday+sexism
The reviews, in reverse chronological order:
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Crying ‘Wolf’, 4 May 2014
This review is from: Everyday Sexism (Paperback)
Having read this book and some of the postings on the Everyday Sexism website, I am reminded of Ben Thompson’s excellent ‘Ban This Filth!’ Thompson’s book concerns itself with clean up campaigner Mary Whitehouse and her organisation, The National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association. It contains examples of letters sent by Mrs Whitehouse and her NVALA rank and file to the long suffering BBC, ITV etc. It is clear from many of the letters printed that Whitehouse and co. were ultra-sensitive, hair-triggered zealots who saw smut, violence, blasphemy and left wing subversion virtually everywhere; where the antics of Tom & Jerry were the start of a slippery slope into moral anarchy. This, it seems to me, is the same world-view held by Laura Bates and many of her posters; except now instead of ‘filth’, the obsession is with sexism and paternalism; where the logical conclusion of a builder’s wolf-whistle is rape and murder.Depressingly, whilst Mary Whitehouse was and is seen as an amusing crank, Laura Bates is taken seriously by a great many influential people and organisations. What a shame it would be if we were to live in a world where the the dynamic relationships enjoyed between men and women were to become poisoned by suspicion and mistrust; where the nuance of every man’s word, look and act had to be vetted for ‘inappropriate content’ before delivery. How very worrying, too if the more hysterical elements of ‘everyday sexism’ went to de-sensitise us, so that when women-hating men did inflict outrages upon w omen (and there indeed many examples of this in Bates’ book) we didn’t take them seriously, and that it was just women moaning on again. This, to my mind, is the real danger of Laura Bates’ Everyday Sexism project.
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11 of 22 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Awful – A Nasty Little Book, 30 April 2014
This review is from: Everyday Sexism (Paperback)
I was given this book to read by a friend who did not finish it as she also disliked it.
It is a book full of misandry, propaganda & paranoia. It feels like an insult to all good sane women & all good decent men in equal measure. As a woman myself I did not recognise any part of the World the author tried to portray and assumes ALL women live in.
Sorry but definitely not for me, Conclusion:
Unbelievable, neurotic nonsense with an angry agenda.
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13 of 29 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars complete rip off, 29 April 2014
This review is from: Everyday Sexism (Paperback)
I tried to engage on an equal level with Laura Bates before the book was published, as she was “gathering evidence”, as she calls it. She blocked me from any platform simply because I disagreed with something she said and constructively tried to illustrate my reasons. I find her scared, weak, narrow. I think she acts out of previous personal traumas, rather than clear open positive belief and enlightenment. Her attitude to debate and difference of opinion is fascist, to say the least.
As for the “book”, for me it is biased, one sided, a collection of many anecdotes that would make a child laugh, let alone be defined “sexism”. Just some clever marketing to make some more cash on her part. I am disgusted by this, a scam and a rip off as far as I’m concerned.
I read the book,
regret it massively,
waste of my time,
waste of money,
what a shame such a good cause is trivialised and offended by the paucity of this lady’s widely insufficient brains. I am hugely disappointed, as a human being and even more as a woman.
it’s a BIG FAIL for me.
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14 of 36 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Everyday blathering on about mainly everyday occurrences that most people don’t even register., 29 April 2014
This review is from: Everyday Sexism (Paperback)
Imagine living in a world where every slight perpetrated by the opposite sex, no matter how ridiculously tiny, prompts you to analyse yourself into a frenzy ofvictimhood. This book will teach you how to use every utterance, every gesture demonstrated towards you, as a vehicle to fuel your sense of entitlement to epic levels (and when I say epic entitlement, we’re talking more than Elton John and Mariah Carey put together).If you read the whole book and have a creeping sense of discomfort that the men you know don’t really behave this way, congratulations, part of your rational mind is still residing in your brain. Listen to it, before ‘feministitis’ takes hold and you begin to strenuously fear and dislike anyone with a Y chromosome.
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17 of 44 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Will somebody change Laura’s diaper?, 28 April 2014
This review is from: Everyday Sexism (Paperback)
Western women today are just about the most privileged and pampered group in the history of humanity, but that doesn’t stop Laura Bates wailing like an incontinent toddler about how tough she and her sisters have it.Seriously Laura , is this where 50 years of feminism has brought you and British women?
Time for you and the other infantilised whiners to grow up!
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17 of 50 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars A whine collection from the world’s most prominent whine merchant, 28 April 2014
By
Mike Buchanan (UK) – See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everyday Sexism (Paperback)
Just what the world needs, a whine collection from the leader of The Everyday Whining Project, the inaugural winner of the ‘Whiny Woman of the Month’ award presented by our political party. Her award certificate is downloadable from a link on the menu of our website, ‘Laura Bates – The Everyday Whiner’. Bates and other whiny feminists e.g. Caroline Criado-Perez – winner of both our ‘Lying Woman of the Month’ and ‘Whiny Woman of the Month’ awards – attract a RIDICULOUS amount of mainstream media attention. They get more attention than all the world’s men’s human rights advocates collectively over the past 30+ years. All I hear when LB or CC-P on TV or radio is, ‘Wah! Wah! Wah!’ like you’d expect from obnoxious toddlers. Of course there are a few sexist men around, but thinking this book will do anything to stop them is absurd. Women are demanding men treat them ever more as Entitlement Princesses, whose feelings are never to be hurt, rather than acting as strong mature adults. Women are infantilising THEMSELVES. It’s truly pathetic. Welcome to the fourth wave of feminism – the whiny wave. With this book out and presumably selling well to whiny women – of whom the world has no shortage, heaven knows – Bates has officially become a professional whine merchant. Making money out of persuading women to buy her books, thereby making them more dysfunctional, miserable, and whiny. She must be SO proud of her ‘achievement’. I see men get a mention in chapter 10. The difference between the sexism faced by women and that faced by men is that men don’t whine about it. If you want to get any sense of the sexism faced by men – which has FAR more serious consequences than the sexism faced by women – visit the website of The Alternative Sexism Project. Mike Buchanan Justice for men & boys (and the women who love them)
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