SUMMARY:
You know the type: the woman who won’t shut up, who’s too brazen, too opinionated–too much. It’s not that she’s an outcast (she might even be your friend or your wife, or your mother) so much as she’s a social variable. Sometimes, she’s the life of the party; others, she’s the center of gossip. She’s the unruly woman, and she’s one of the most provocative, powerful forms of womanhood today.
There have been unruly women for as long as there have been boundaries of what constitutes acceptable “feminine” behavior, but there’s evidence that she’s on the rise–more visible and less easily dismissed–than ever before. In Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud, Anne Helen Petersen uses the lens of “unruliness” to explore the ascension of eleven contemporary powerhouses: Serena Williams, Melissa McCarthy, Abbi Jacobson, Ilana Glazer, Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian, Hillary Clinton, Caitlyn Jenner, Jennifer Weiner, and Lena Dunham.
Petersen explores why the public loves to love (and hate) these controversial figures, each of whom has been conceived as “too” something: too queer, too strong, too honest, too old, too pregnant, too shrill, too much. With its brisk, incisive analysis, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud will be a conversation-starting book on what makes and breaks celebrity today.
(Goodreads)
REVIEW + THOUGHTS
This book was a required book for one of my courses, but what piqued my attention was the author’s name. I had heard Anne Helen Petersen talk at my school last year—part of which was about this book, though the topic in general was gossip and journalism—and I remember being intrigued by her style and work. I’ve been casually following her journalism since, because I find a lot of her pieces innovative and thought-provoking.
As it turns out, this was probably the best and most fun required course text I’ve ever read.Continue reading “January Reads: TOO FAT, TOO SLUTTY, TOO LOUD: THE RISE AND REIGN OF THE UNRULY WOMAN by Anne Helen Petersen”
A. C. Wyatt 