Kali J Desautels

❤️❤️❤️

Mary Beard’s 115 page manifesto is a well-researched and clever reminder that Western women have been publicly shushed since Classical periods of Greece and Rome. With an acerbic wit, Beard reaches back to the epic poems and plays (i.e. Lysistrata and Agamemnon) and deftly compares them to our current treatment of women in power and in public spheres. She matches the Twitter attacks of women who speak out to Thelemachus sending his mother, Penelope, out of the room and telling her that “speech will be the business of men”. She discusses the infamous excluding of Elizabeth Warren (which famously resulted in the feminist slogan “Nevertheless She Persisted”) from a debate, but not excluding Bernie Sanders and other male Senators from sharing the same letter she was attempting to read, in conjunction with Telemachus. She discusses that many of the famous androgynous speeches attributed to women may have been rather the fiction of angry male authors, including Elizabeth I’s speech at Tilbury, where she is said to have referred to her body as that of a “weak, feeble woman”. Readers with an interest in history, feminism, politics or power, and looking for a quick read, for a plane ride, or a bath, this book is a must. As Beard is a Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, there is little doubt that all who read this will learn something of value. (115 pgs)

…….……

#womenandpower #women #power #history #herstory #nonfiction #book #review #bookstagram #books #read #reading #bibliophile #feminism #feminist #manifesto #reviews #cambridge #voices #marybeard #professor #england #greece #rome #classics #classic #hrc #elizabethwarren #neverthelessshepersisted #empowered #lfl #like #follow #likeforlikes #followforfollow #followforfollowback #kalidesautelsreads