Pretty Bitches

December 1, 2019
New York Times Magazine columnist Skurnick (That Should Be a Word, 2015, etc.) curates a feminist anthology that gathers essays on women's disheartening and empowering experiences. Ambitious. Exotic. Intimidating. Aggressive. Aloof. These and other descriptors build a fraught lexicon in which barbs and compliments alike convey barely concealed, or even blatant, misogyny. With an introduction by Rebecca Traister that elucidates how certain expressions silence women, this literary collection features voices emphasizing the need to keep speaking up. Novelists, women in media, activists, and others each tackle one commonplace word through pointed memories and deft examinations of word origins, often braiding private experiences with larger events. Though certain themes recur--double standards in the workplace, physical appearance, and expectations about women's behavior--the personal approach keeps the collection fresh and surprising. Stephanie Burt, for instance, weighs the implications of "pretty," which can be seen as shorthand for not being beautiful enough. Through a rigorous exploration of a spa visit, Amy S. Choi bemoans the lie that beauty is "effortless," while Dagmara Domińczyk's take on "ugly" is a painful reminder of adolescence. In Monique Truong's "Sweet," she exposes the word that Christine Blasey Ford's colleague used to describe her as the trivializing term it can be. Essays on achievement--and how often it is attributed to reasons other than women's talent and effort--revisit frustrating ground, and essays on the compounding problems of being a minority woman underscore how little American culture has changed since the civil rights movement. Other salient passages depict how a single word can reverberate in a woman's life for decades. There's no easy solution for eradicating derogatory, deeply ingrained language--or reclaiming certain terms to be used positively--but this uplifting collection serves as a good first step toward highlighting what's wrong with how women are talked about. Other contributors include Laura Lippman, Carina Chocano, Meg Wolitzer, and Katha Pollitt. A galvanizing, sharp compendium.

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January 6, 2020
Journalist Skurnick (That Should Be a Word) curates a sharp-witted and intimate essay collection examining how language is used to disempower women. Each piece addresses a single word, as writers including Laura Lippman, Dahlia Lithwick, Rebecca Traister, and Meg Wolitzer take on ostensibly admiring adjectives (nurturing, sweet), outright slurs (shrill; crazy), and veiled insults (ambitious; feisty). Guardian columnist Afua Hirsch’s “Professional” explores how women are viewed in the workplace, while essays by South African writer Lihle Z. Mtshali and Asian-American memoirist Beth Bich Minh Nguyen address the cultural stereotypes behind yellow-bone and small, respectively. The collection’s confessional nature—feminist critic Kate Harding wrestles with identifying as a victim after a sexual assault, and novelist Jennifer Weiner admits that being called fat has the power to “shut me up and shut me down”—packs a punch but leaves little room for charting concrete solutions. The diverse contributor list offers new perspectives on mainstream, white-dominant culture, even though the essays largely share a similar and somewhat traditional notion of what femininity connotes. Nevertheless, this eloquent inquiry into how language enshrines gender stereotypes will resonate with feminists, wordsmiths, and fans of the personal essay. Agent: Victoria Skurnick, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency.

Starred review from February 1, 2020

Each essay in this new collection edited by New York Times Magazine columnist Skurnick and introduced by Rebecca Traister (Good and Mad) skewers a particular word historically used to denigrate women: princess, ambitious, disciplined, lucky, aloof, intimidating, nurturing, crazy. The essays take various forms; some trace back to the origins of words such as cunt and harpy, mourning how overuse has turned "intentional and weighty insults" into "common diminutions." Others, including Julianna Baggott's "Ambitious," take a personal angle. Reflecting on the push and pull between her aspirations as a writer and society's expectations of her as a wife and mother, Baggott reflects on what it means to call women ambitious, and how women try to disconnect themselves from the word. Multiple selections throw the chosen words into stark relief when they compare their usage in regards to men. VERDICT This collection features an array of voices and serves as a multiuse resource that can be a glossary, a takedown of toxic masculinity, or a radical reclaiming of words that are often used to undermine.--Sierra Dickey, Ctr. for New Americans, Northampton, MA

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2020
Readers ready to feel energized, and maybe even a little righteous anger, will find plenty of fuel to fire them up on the pages of this clever and potent anthology edited by the creator of the "That Should Be a Word" column in the New York Times Magazine. Skurnick invited 29 women writers to contribute short essays in response to the impact of 29 loaded words, ranging from "Ambitious" to "Pretty" to "Sassy" to "Tomboy." The spot-on contributors include Laura Lippman, Bich Minh Nguyen, Katha Pollitt, Rebecca Traister, Monique Truong, Jennifer Weiner, and Meg Wolitzer. Each writer analyzes how their chosen word is used to undercut women's confidence or subtly dismiss or disparage them and their accomplishments in contexts private and public: how, that is, ordinary words can be turned into insidious sexist weapons. An additional 17 words, with synonyms and explanations of how they're used against women, are also provided under the heading "Words You Shouldn't Call Women." The book's smart premise and the incisive essays themselves are immensely relatable and should provide a great catalyst for personal introspection and thoughtful and productive discussion for everyone seeking a better tomorrow.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)