Women Living Deliciously

November 4, 2024
This rousing guide from activist Given (Women Don’t Owe You Pretty) urges women to break out of rigid, socially prescribed roles and “take center fucking stage as the main character in your life.” Highlighting social messaging that demands women make themselves thinner, more conventionally attractive, and more focused on pleasing others, Given argues that such messages distract women from the increasing abuses of the patriarchal state while causing them to miss out on their own lives. Once readers become aware of such damaging narratives in advertisements and popular culture, they can find the right answers to questions like “Why does getting dressed always make me feel crap?” (“It might be because you believed you needed to prove yourself with every outfit,” Given writes.) Explaining how readers can discover their own voices, she recommends being “brutally fucking honest about the things in our lives we do out of obligation,” as well as tuning in to how emotions register in one’s body. Given’s chatty tone is an effective conduit for her sound advice, which often boils down to “choosing what feels good,” and she cheerfully exposes the subtle manifestations of patriarchal oppression (medications that are tested exclusively on men; cars and phones designed for male bodies) without underplaying their dire effects. Readers will feel empowered. Illus.