Status
Available
Publication
Beacon Press (2019), 216 pages
Description
Essays. Sociology. Women's Studies. Nonfiction. HTML:A bold and uncompromising feminist manifesto that shows women and girls how to defy, disrupt, and destroy the patriarchy by embracing the qualities they've been trained to avoid. Seizing upon the energy of the #MeToo movement, feminist activist Mona Eltahawy advocates a muscular, out-loud approach to teaching women and girls to harness their power through what she calls the "seven necessary sins" that women and girls are not supposed to commit: to be angry, ambitious, profane, violent, attention-seeking, lustful, and powerful. All the necessary "sins" that women and girls require to erupt. Eltahawy knows that the patriarchy is alive and well, and she is fed the hell up: Sexually assaulted during hajj at the age of fifteen. Groped on the dance floor of a night club in Montreal at fifty. Countless other injustices in the years between. Illuminating her call to action are stories of activists and ordinary women around the worldâ??from South Africa to China, Nigeria to India, Bosnia to Egyptâ??who are tapping into their inner fury and crossing the lines of race, class, faith, and gender that make it so hard for marginalized women to be heard. Rather than teaching women and girls to survive the poisonous system they have found themselves in, Eltahawy arms them to dismantle it. Brilliant, bold, and energetic, The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls is a manifesto for all feminists in the fight against patri… (more)
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User reviews
LibraryThing member Janismin
Mona Eltahawy has written another deeply feminist title, "The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls". She discusses her personal journey and then takes describes a broader landscape to include gender struggles in places like Brazil and Egypt.
After her opening dialogue, this book includes the
Eltahawy writes of fighting for feminism, for fighting against patriarchy, and for change in gender submissions through acts of rage. The chapters mentioned above demonstrate her desire to break through gender, class, race, and faith to actionable means to dismantle patriarchy.
Very liberal myself, I wanted to love this book. I tried to agree with the anger, profanity, and violence. I could somewhat adhere to the attention, ambition, and power with lust was relevant from her distant perspective. I've always taken on career leadership through positive experience and lead my personal life with kindness and intelligence. When the author mentions how Trump used the word pussy, and then she proceeds to use degrading language, it doesn't work for me. I can swear with the best of them, but why bother?
Our fight is real, the battles come one after the other. Worldwide, women must rise up against the patriarchy. Violence and anger begets violence and anger. I will leave that to Mona Eltahawy and thank her for her passion for gender rights today. We need leaders like this, I will just choose a different way.I will teach the girls in my life through education and positive liberal promotion, that is another way.
In parting, I love this quote by Gloria Steinem- "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle".
After her opening dialogue, this book includes the
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following chapters: Anger, Attention, Profanity, Ambition, Power, Violence, and Lust. This is followed by the Conclusion and Notes to document sources throughout the text.Eltahawy writes of fighting for feminism, for fighting against patriarchy, and for change in gender submissions through acts of rage. The chapters mentioned above demonstrate her desire to break through gender, class, race, and faith to actionable means to dismantle patriarchy.
Very liberal myself, I wanted to love this book. I tried to agree with the anger, profanity, and violence. I could somewhat adhere to the attention, ambition, and power with lust was relevant from her distant perspective. I've always taken on career leadership through positive experience and lead my personal life with kindness and intelligence. When the author mentions how Trump used the word pussy, and then she proceeds to use degrading language, it doesn't work for me. I can swear with the best of them, but why bother?
Our fight is real, the battles come one after the other. Worldwide, women must rise up against the patriarchy. Violence and anger begets violence and anger. I will leave that to Mona Eltahawy and thank her for her passion for gender rights today. We need leaders like this, I will just choose a different way.I will teach the girls in my life through education and positive liberal promotion, that is another way.
In parting, I love this quote by Gloria Steinem- "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle".
Show Less
LibraryThing member GailNyoka
This is a call to revolution. "The revolution does not begin in the middle. The middle is too comfortable and too invested in the status quo," states Eltahawy. She's right. The Seven Necessary Sins is a much needed examination of the way patriarchy is tied to racism and other oppression, and how it
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affects the lives of women and men, particularly those on the margins of society. It takes boldness to shake up the status quo, and that's exactly what Eltahawy advocates. She's an important voice for our times. Show Less
LibraryThing member book58lover
I have been struggling with this book and decided to give up. Too many other things to read.
I understand the seven sins and I get the reason behind it but the author seems so angry, understandably so. I just can't read that stuff before I fall asleep and that is when I can get to it.
I understand the seven sins and I get the reason behind it but the author seems so angry, understandably so. I just can't read that stuff before I fall asleep and that is when I can get to it.
LibraryThing member Islam_A
This book is a hefty book on the fact that feminism is the right way to go in a society that already women have rights the same as men. It also contains very unnecessary language. Adding to, Mona is also claiming is the one all for all bad people in society, is Trump because of one word he said.
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People can change, at any cost. As a woman myself, I don't believe that we need feminism. Show Less
LibraryThing member jamieschecter
I really enjoyed this book and the boldness of the language. I read through this with a mix of the paper book and the audiobook (narrated by the author) and recommend both as a good reading experience. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on profanity as the author was able to put into words a lot of
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the discomfort I've felt in policing profane language, especially when used by women and other marginalized people. She didn't shy away from addressing challenges in white feminism in America while also keeping a focus global feminists issues. I was impressed by the scope of the book given the length. Well worth the read. Show Less
LibraryThing member ASKelmore
Best for:
Women. People with women in their lives. Feminists.
In a nutshell:
Author and activist Eltahawy makes the case for the sins women should embrace as we seek to destroy the patriarch.
Worth quoting:
“I don’t want to be protected. I want to be free.â€
“I refuse to be civil with someone who
“But who indoctrinated those Republican white women? Who taught them to submit to patriarchy? Those are questions often reserved for Muslima women, but I demand we ask them now of white women - whose votes uphold the benefits of whiteness but hurt the rest of us.â€
Why I chose it:
I was looking for a little motivation, and I wanted to read some quality, bad-ass writing.
Review:
What a perfect book to reach my Cannonball Read goal on: a call to action written by a queer woman of color. Fuck yeah.
Within the first ten pages of this book, Eltahawy shares two different experiences of sexual assault, and how she has changed as a person between them. The second one ends with her beating the shit out of her assailant.
Eltahawy frames this book around seven actions - sins - that she argues women are taught to stay away from but that indeed very necessary in overthrowing the patriarchy. The sins are Anger, Attention, Profanity, Ambition, Power, Violence, and Lust. In each exploration of sin, she offers examples of how that action was necessary in fighting back against the harm patriarchy inflicts on us all. Some, I have no problem embracing - anger, profanity, even ambition. Others I do have somewhat of a negative response to - attention, violence. But Eltahawy makes strong cases for each, with the constant refrain that we need to dismantle and overthrow the patriarchy, that it hurts women and girls, and being polite and asking to be respected hasn’t worked.
We have to demand it, and take the power back, by force if necessary.
I finished this with the backdrop of what’s been going on in the US this week, where a court that includes two men accused of sexual harassment / sexual assault (Thomas and Kavanaugh) along with a woman Eltahawy would definitely characterize as a foot soldier of the patriarchy (Coney Barrett, who probably wouldn’t have to do much acting to take on a Commander’s Wife role in The Handmaid’s Tale) will help to bastardize the US Constitution and take away one of the most fundamental human rights from people who can get pregnant. Its disgusting, it pisses me off, and having such an obvious marker of the patriarchy in the background as I read made this hit a little different than it might have if I’d read it at a different time.
There’s so much to unpack here, I wish I’d read this with other women, and could discuss each of the chapters separately. But it’s one of my favorite books of the year, and one I can see myself referring back to often.
Recommend to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Recommend to a Friend
Women. People with women in their lives. Feminists.
In a nutshell:
Author and activist Eltahawy makes the case for the sins women should embrace as we seek to destroy the patriarch.
Worth quoting:
“I don’t want to be protected. I want to be free.â€
“I refuse to be civil with someone who
Show More
refuses to acknowledge my humanity fully.â€â€œBut who indoctrinated those Republican white women? Who taught them to submit to patriarchy? Those are questions often reserved for Muslima women, but I demand we ask them now of white women - whose votes uphold the benefits of whiteness but hurt the rest of us.â€
Why I chose it:
I was looking for a little motivation, and I wanted to read some quality, bad-ass writing.
Review:
What a perfect book to reach my Cannonball Read goal on: a call to action written by a queer woman of color. Fuck yeah.
Within the first ten pages of this book, Eltahawy shares two different experiences of sexual assault, and how she has changed as a person between them. The second one ends with her beating the shit out of her assailant.
Eltahawy frames this book around seven actions - sins - that she argues women are taught to stay away from but that indeed very necessary in overthrowing the patriarchy. The sins are Anger, Attention, Profanity, Ambition, Power, Violence, and Lust. In each exploration of sin, she offers examples of how that action was necessary in fighting back against the harm patriarchy inflicts on us all. Some, I have no problem embracing - anger, profanity, even ambition. Others I do have somewhat of a negative response to - attention, violence. But Eltahawy makes strong cases for each, with the constant refrain that we need to dismantle and overthrow the patriarchy, that it hurts women and girls, and being polite and asking to be respected hasn’t worked.
We have to demand it, and take the power back, by force if necessary.
I finished this with the backdrop of what’s been going on in the US this week, where a court that includes two men accused of sexual harassment / sexual assault (Thomas and Kavanaugh) along with a woman Eltahawy would definitely characterize as a foot soldier of the patriarchy (Coney Barrett, who probably wouldn’t have to do much acting to take on a Commander’s Wife role in The Handmaid’s Tale) will help to bastardize the US Constitution and take away one of the most fundamental human rights from people who can get pregnant. Its disgusting, it pisses me off, and having such an obvious marker of the patriarchy in the background as I read made this hit a little different than it might have if I’d read it at a different time.
There’s so much to unpack here, I wish I’d read this with other women, and could discuss each of the chapters separately. But it’s one of my favorite books of the year, and one I can see myself referring back to often.
Recommend to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Recommend to a Friend
Show Less
LibraryThing member WriteNowCoach
This is the manifesto that the young girls, teens, and women in your world need. That you need! Delivered in time for the #metoo movement, this book offers a rallying cry for justice.
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
216 p.; 9.27 inches
ISBN
0807013811 / 9780807013816