Book Review: Good and Man by Rebecca Traister
4****
I was a little skeptical about this book, the title leaving me apprehensive. I am a quiet person. Obviously a person with opinions and stances, but I rarely think of myself as angry, even righteously angry. Frustrations or disappointments leave me feeling sad rather than incensed, so I didn't know if I could connect to the premise of Traister's book and the idea that anger can be wielded in a constructive rather than destructive way. However, I am happy to report, this was an eloquent and multi-dimensional examination of the degrees and different manifestations and consequences of women's anger. It was a little long and occasionally repetitive, but it definitely drove home the point that women are, first of all, evaluated totally differently than men based on their emotional responses, and secondly, that women can wield those emotions to achieve real change, especially if we band together. Traister acknowledged that there were and are women who feel alienated or turned off by the idea of feminism, yet she also highlights the power of movements led by women when they work together for the greater cause of achieving equality both at home and in their professional sphere. Certainly worth reading!
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