Jessica Danforth

I was thrilled to read this book, as the elitism of women's studies / feminism can really weigh down on activism. I loved the tongue-in-cheek subtitle; using jargony words straight out of a women's studies text book to describe the very problem they find most troubling with feminism. I was sold.

Jessica Yee starts off straight away telling the reader she doesn't have any fancy shmancy college degree, and if the reader thinks her less credible for it, well, so be it. The collection as a whole is about (academic) feminism discounting opinions of those if they're CV doesn't read well (or read at all). And fellow feminists should find more value in opinions of those who have Ph.D's over opinions of those who are speaking from real life experiences. And somehow a feminist who has a Ph.D from studying 1800 gender roles in Ireland is an expert in everything feminism - from single motherhood, to class, to globalization. That a Ph.D isn't just valuable in what you research in, but has an overarching authority to speak about everything - and not have your qualifications questioned.

There were many profound essays and poems, but one poem stood out to me in particular, "A Slam on Feminism in Academia" by Shaunga Tagore (pg 37) in which she writes about not being the ideal graduate student that professors, diversity committees, and other academics were hoping for. She's too busy being an activist to read the 900 page weekly requirement for her professor's women's studies class - ABOUT ACTIVISM. The ideal graduate student, though? Tagore writes, "is / someone who doesn't have to experience community organizing / because you're already assigned them five chapters to read about it."

This was an amazing and refreshing anthology.… (mehr)