How to Be a Woman, Caitlin Moran

So I actually finished this book two days ago and it’s taken me this long to get to writing what I thought.  This fact alone says a lot.  Initially, when I first finished the book I thought I liked it a lot.  In fact, if I had actually sat down and written my thoughts back then, it would be a different review to this one.

Two days ago I would have said I liked it, and that’s it.  But now, I can honestly say I only liked bits of this book.  Part of it I found offensive.  It had nothing to do with the description of masturbation, or the different names for vagina.  No.  It was this passage (and I can’t even recall what Moran was referring to):

“He will react as if he has had a live rat wanged at his head. He will run, screaming, away from you – like that Vietnamese kid covered in napalm.”

What.  The hell.  I actually wanted to stop reading the book then and there.  And it was only about a third of the way in.  But I pushed myself to finish the book, and it was fine.  I bought this on my kindle upon reading a Mammamia book recommendation and they raved about it.  Raved!  So I bought it.  And I think I laughed….oh, maybe twice?  If that?  I concede, I may have lost my funny bone at the mention of the “Vietnamese kid covered in napalm”.  And FYI – her name is Kim Phuc.  I know this because I have read the book “The Girl in the Picture” which is the story behind the famous photo.   Just sayin’.

But back to the book in question.  Moran raised a lot of interesting points that made me pause and think about what I do including what fashion I choose, and why I choose it.  Asking yourself “are the boys doing it?” as a kind of misogyny metre is something I have taken away from this as a very handy tip.  In fact I have come away from this book with a few handy tips and a few a-ha moments.  I will definitely be looking at the world a little differently now, thanks to Moran, so for that I’m thankful.

So overall, it was okay.  Just okay.  I realise that I am in the minority here as a lot of people think this book is the bees knees and they laughed til they cried through the entire book.  But that just wasn't me.