Samhita Mukhopadhyay

Nasty Women is a collection of 23 essays responding to the Great Betrayal that was the 2016 election. Edited by Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding, this collection unites the voices of women with all kinds of identities in contemplation of the world we woke up to on November 9th.

For some reason, the media is far more interested in the belligerent whining of white men and white women whose feelings were hurt by black hands on the steering wheel of state and who were damn sure they didn’t show more want no woman’s hands driving next. We are supposed to have compassion for all the suffering they endure in their victory.

Meanwhile, the media has no interest in what it feels like to work for and support the candidate who won the most votes, who was the most qualified, only to see a constitutional defect to protect slavery hand the country over to an ignorant, unqualified, thuggish grifter. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a more interesting story. After all, we won the most votes and they got the White House anyway – in large part due to structural failings that should disturb us. After all, two of the last three guys handed the keys to the national car lost the popular vote. That’s no democracy. Why isn’t the media interested in what it feels like to be robbed of America’s promise again?

Thankfully, the editors of Nasty Women are interested. With essays by women who are White, Black, Asian, Latino, Native American, straight, lesbian, transgender, citizens, immigrants, urban, rural, blue state and red state, this is a cross-section of Hillary voting women who have every right to be angry and who have something to say about it. These are voices we are not hearing from enough. These are the real stories of this election.

Nasty Women is as good as anthology like this can be. Not every essay spoke to me and a few of them made me roll my eyes when they fell into the familiar “flawed candidate” rut that prefaced every statement of support for Hillary before the election. She’s not running for anything now, so must we still follow that script? The majority of essays though were affirming, empowering, and challenging pieces that dissected the misogyny than demands we enumerate her flaws before saying anything positive. Sarah Jaffe’s essay was particularly discordant, echoing many of the familiar denunciations of Clinton, even bringing up her very short service on the Wal-Mart board and repeating Sanders’ smears on her character. But that is just one of twenty-three and many are excellent.

I was particularly moved by editor Samhita Mukhopadhyay’s defense of identity politics. It’s appalling that post-election analysis is so shoddy as to suggest abandoning the voters we have in pursuit of voters presumed more worthy because they are white and male. This is not giving up a bird in hand for two in the bush. It’s giving up a bird in hand for a myth in the bush. Rebecca Solnit’s essay was perhaps my favorite. She called out the “flawed candidate” trope in particular and took on the pathology of “progressive” men who hated Clinton. How many of us were floored during the primary by the atavistic hatred of her voiced by men we had always thought of us a liberal, smart, and feminist? Sady Doyle’s essay is important, too, in pointing out how calling Trump crazy is excusing his evil and the evil of those who voted to give him power. Carino Chocano’s essay was another that spoke to me because, to be honest, I am far more angry with those on the left who helped elect Trump by hating Clinton than with those on the right from whom I did not expect better.

Rebecca Solnit’s essay was perhaps my favorite. She called out the “flawed candidate” trope in particular and took on the pathology of “progressive” men who hated Clinton. How many of us were floored during the primary by the atavistic hatred of her voiced by men we had always thought of us a liberal, smart, and feminist? Sady Doyle’s essay is important, too, in pointing out how calling Trump crazy is excusing his evil and the evil of those who voted to give him power. Carino Chocano’s essay was another that spoke to me because, to be honest, I am far more angry with those on the left who helped elect Trump by hating Clinton than with those on the right from whom I did not expect better. Though, on the other hand, Nicole Chung’s essay makes me ask if I should have challenged the Trump voters in my family more. They voted for Trump in spite of Black and Native American family members who will be hurt by Trump’s bigotry. They voted for Trump despite gay, lesbian, and trans children and siblings. What can someone say in the face of that indifference to the human cost of their votes? Their identity as white and rural was more powerful than their identity as sister or brother, mother or father. What can anyone say in the face of that and still be family?

Nasty Women is not comforting unless the notion that other people are just as mad as you are is comforting. What it does is challenge us to not give in, not give up and to pick up the struggle and persist. If you were broken-hearted on November 9th, this won’t mend your heart, but it will pick up and set you in the direction of fixing what breaks us.

I received an e-galley of Nasty Women from Picador through NetGalley.

Nasty Women at Macmillan / Picador
Samhita Mukhopadhyay author site
Kate Harding author site

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2017/10/04/9781250155504/ show less

Rating based on Sarah Hollenbeck & Melissa Arjona's essays. Brilliant in the way they gut you with their fierce analysis of living under Trump.

"There is something to be said for opening your eyes to the world as it is, and not as we want it to be."

On 11/9/2016, that we're NOT living in a post-racial America was a sobering realization (for mostly white women I suspect).

Most powerful were the essays in which it was pointed out -- hey, white women, you may think Trump is the worst thing that's happened to America, but we're here to tell you, it's been horrible from the minute white men decided to take what wasn't theirs. And it's been show more happening every single day since then.

In other words, just because you are experiencing something for the first time doesn't mean that's the first time it's ever been or is currently being experienced by someone else or other peoples.

While I appreciated this collection as a whole, some of the essays fell flat for me; namely, Strayed's "She Will." The beginning of the collection is more focused on the election and Hillary's loss, then steadily they become more broad in the frame of feminism.

On my current journey to decolonizing my mind, these were my favorite essays: "Advice to Grace in Ghana"; "Beyond the Pussy Hats"; "Dispatches From A Texas Militarized Zone"; "We've Always Been Nasty" and "How to Build a Movement."

3.5 stars

Table of Contents with quotes and my notes, if any.

"I'm A Woman, Vote For Me": Why We Need Identity Politics / Samhita Mukhopadhyay
identity politics
coalitional politics - recognizing and fighting for the diverse needs of many

"That Trump's explicit appeals to white identity and resentment were considered legitimate rallying cries that supposedly united an unheard working-class base, while Clinton was called divisive, suggests that calls for 'universality' generally mean centralizing white, male experience."

Are Women Persons? / Kate Harding
speaks to white feminists/feminism
Women are still fighting for the same thing as 100 years ago - where's the progress?

"Systemic racism isn't something you can opt out of; it's only something you can consciously resist."

She Will / Cheryl Strayed
Personal story about how sad she was after the election

As Long As It's Healthy / Sarah Michael Hollenbeck
Disabled author discusses the impacts of Trump's election as well as her feelings around pregnancy and motherhood. Internal struggle with being okay with who she is and wanting to be "normal"

"My experience being a disabled woman is discovering in small, sharp explosions what I look like through the feedback of strangers."

We Have A Heroine Problem / Carina Chocano
How "woman" is presented and marketed, her "story"
Author's experience with Bernie Bros

"Revolutions - it's right there in the word - tend toward circularity. As often as not, they are followed by counterrevolutions, reigns of terror, Thermidorian Reactions; or they cycle straight into totalitarian dictatorships, regimes indistinguishable from the ones they toppled.

Advice To Grace In Ghana: Trump, The Global Gag Rule, And The Terror Of Misinformation / Jill Filipovic
Puts a face on the global impacts of Trump's presidency

Beyond The Pussy Hats / Katha Pollitt
Loss of reproductive rights and women's health care needs. I just keep thinking, and people think Red Clocks is sooooo far-fetched: HA!

Is There Ever A Right Time To Talk To Your Children About Fascism? / Kera Bolonik
The author and partner striving to teach (and protect) their adopted Black son

"...and what Meredith and I may be correcting, what we can correct: that we can pair difficult, vicious truths with action and community, and that lends a genuine sense of hope."

Country Crock / Samantha Irby
As per yuhz, Irby simultaneously makes me laugh and makes me think

Refusing To Numb The Pain / Sarah Hepola
Sobriety in the face of pain
Clarity in order to prep for resistance

"Part of my education has been discovering how much I have in common with people I don't like, and how much another side can teach me. These are uncomfortable truths, but discomfort can also be a sign you are growing."

"There is something to be said for opening your eyes to the world as it is, and not as we want it to be."

Dispatches From A Texas Militarized Zone / Melissa Arjona
Dealing with checkpoints in TX; floating border walls (balloons w/ cameras!)
reproductive-justice issue

Pulling The Wool Over Their Eyes: The Blindness Of White Feminists / Collier Meyerson
If you're white and a "feminist" read this, especially if you don't know what intersectionality is

A Nation Groomed And Battered / Rebecca Solnit

The Pathology Of Donald Trump / Sady Doyle
Okay, so he's technically not crazy nor does he have NPD. He's just a rich white man (same thing as crazy or narcissist? lol j/k)

Nasty Native Women / Mary Kathryn Nagle
This election is no different for Native women than any other election. This president no different than the previous 44.

"Today, Native women are more likely to be murdered, raped, and abused than any other American population*. Until all individuals - not just President Trump - are held accountable for their trivialization of Native women's identity and bodies, we will continue to be murdered and abused at rates that originated at the time of colonization. Such trivialization, in my view, isn't 'making America great again'; it is extremely polarizing."
*https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/2005/05/10

Farewell To Meritocracy / Jamia Wilson
"I lost what faith I had in the system and decided to trade in my ballot-box pantsuit for the armor of a resistance warrior. Clinton's loss led me to actively reject social conditioning and internalized oppression, by focusing less on how to be included in systems with ever-moving goalposts, and more on paving insurgent ground by building new structures and more inclusive movements with my own community."

Permission To Vote For A Monster: Ivanka Trump And Faux Feminism / Jessica Valenti
"And that's the most important thing to understand about the trend that Ivanka represents: It's not just about any one woman who chooses to present herself as a feminist while supporting policies that oppress others. It's about the way these women and their appropriation of feminism are used to enable misogyny as tangible force in people's lives."

"...to ensure that the next wave of feminist activism is so clearly defined that it will be impossible for conservative women to claim it."

Donald Trump's War On The Working Class / Sarah Jaffe
Marches and protests must have risks involved; they must threaten or else there's no effect on system

"That solidarity does not mean we are all the same, or that we all face the same challenges or have the same levels of power. But it means that we understand our struggles as connected and understand that a winning movement must use the power and talents we all posses in order to bring about justice."

We've Always Been Nasty: Why The Feminist Movement Needs Trans Women And Gender-Nonconforming Femmes / Meredith Talusan
Another criticism of the Women's March not being inclusive

"We cannot be truly included in the current movement if we are spoken of primarily as victims, occasionally as inspirations. To include representatives of a marginalized community only when they agree to the structures and frameworks set up by the majority is the definition of respectability and tokenist politics."

"When faced with large-scale injustice, we must be prepared to rebel and disobey, to risk physical harm or imprisonment. To confront state power, we must be dangerous enough to foment actual resistance."

X Cuntry: A Muslim-American Woman's Journey / Randa Jarrar
Travel journal format

Trust Black Women / Zerlina Maxwell
Yes!!

"In politics, the proximity to power is often the first step toward actual power and progress, and the Clinton campaign employed more black women than any other presidential campaign in American history."

How To Build A Movement / Alicia Garza
Explores how Alicia wasn't going to join the Women's March (for all the criticisms previously mentioned in this collection and other articles online), but then she re-thought her decision. What an inspiration she is!

"Building a movement requires reaching out beyond the people who agree with you."

All-American / Nicole Chung

Really puts a face/ reality to transracial adoption from adult adoptee's POV. I was first introduced to transracial adoption in the novel, The Leavers.
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Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America, edited by Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding, contains essays from professors, journalists, authors, and activists dealing with the wake of Trump's election. They offer advice on how to remain engaged and what to do next, how to face the reality of America rather than the teleology of progress, when and how to discuss Trump's antics with children, and more. Beyond the practical advice, this volume helps just to read show more these women's honest, firsthand accounts and find people articulate the aftershock of the election or offer insight or a glimmer of hope through tentative plans for what to do next. Even though we're now in our 466th day with this madman, Mukhopadhyay and Harding's collection helps. show less