Book Review: Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies'

We women and girls need to work together, pursue our dreams and shine until our light cannot be ignored

It is rather hard to review a book when it is a collection of wonderful and diverse essays, each writer as different and diverse as the next. “Feminists don't Wear Pink and Other Lies” is a brilliant compendium of feminist essays and poems by activists, journalists, actors, etc., all of whom are women and all of who are feminists.

A lot of the essays focus on why we need feminism, and they range from “You throw like a girl” to “How not to get kidnapped” It is a lot but pretty darn cool. What I like about it is that feminism is universal - there is a branch of feminism that is very Western-centric, which needs to change immediately. Feminism is a global humanitarian cause. Take the essays on ending FGM or how recently, Malala noted how women's rights in Afghanistan have become non-existent and the overturning of Roe v Wade in the United States. So feminism is still very much needed, it's a good fight, but these women sound, and rightly so, annoyed and exhausted from fighting for basic human rights.

I do want to touch on some of my favourite essays, one of which is by Kat Dennings, I chose this because it was funny as it was dark. ‘How not to get kidnapped’ was her guide, straight from her mother, on how to be aware of your surroundings, even in the most innocuous circumstances. What at first seems like a mad joke, a part of you suddenly realises - actually, no, as dramatic as it seems, when have women not always had to be super aware of their surroundings? We always are, even in the women's bathroom, on public transport or walking home at night. An excellent essay - mother always knows best.

The next one is a little more hard-hitting, and that was by Gemma Arterton. She is an actress who is known for many things, but she is also known for being a Bond girl. Bond doesn't exactly have a stellar reputation with women, if you watch back some of those earlier Bond films, you’ll get it - it's gross, and it's basic misogyny 101. Ew. But that's not to say it hasn’t continued into the Bond films of today - sure, it's not as bad as it was, but I wouldn't trust James Bond as far as I could throw him. But, I digress, Gemma played someone called “Strawberry Fields” - did her job, went home, etc. In the film, she is seduced by Bond. In the essay, she is firm, strong, not girlish, but a woman with her own convictions and ideas. She sees through Bond as if he were made of glass and gets out of the situation alive. It shows that men do not know how to write women. And as an avid reader, yeah I get it. I am tempted to read the Bond book by Ian Flemming and then roast them on here, just for fun of course ;)

To end, this book was published in 2018; the world was a very different place back then. but looking at now? This year has been a year of elections across the world, and the year is coming to a close. Donald Trump is back in office, and his policies will reverberate around the world in waves, whether it is fiscal policies or even social ones, yeah, I need feminism, and so does the world. Now more than ever.