The Bookworm's Feast

Release Date: November 2nd 2017
Publisher: Profile Books
Genre(s): Non-Fiction, Feminism, History, Essays
Page Count: 116
Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Page

“When it comes to silencing women, Western culture has had thousands of years of practice.”

Mary Beard, Women and Power

This book features two parts: The Public Voice of Women, and Women and Power. The content is derived from Mary’s lectures and features some very important points on the relationship between women and power, and the weight (or lack of) that is often given to women’s words.

Mary explores how throughout Roman and Greek ancient history, you can clearly see that women were dismissed, or in the odd occasion they did have some power or were heard, were given manly attributes. A woman simply did not have the capacity in her to know what she was talking about, to have a voice – after all, speech is the business of men according to, as she points out at the beginning, Telemachus in Homer’s Odyssey.

These themes are presented throughout the examples Mary provides; she shows us how much these are still in effect today, and how examples are taken from ancient history to further the agenda of men – such as the use of a statue of Perseus holding up Medusa’s severed head being photoshopped to show Trump displaying Hillary’s in the US Election campaign.

I’m not going to lie, I thought we really were almost there on equality for men and women (I probably have had my head in the sand), but this book opens your eyes to how it may seem it just on the surface at a quick glance – but so much is still there underneath. We have made some really important strides, but we’re definitely not as far along as I thought we were.

I didn’t know that the UK’s first female prime minister, Thatcher, took voice training lessons to deepen her voice.

I’d never really thought about the fact that I never really see female politicians wear anything but suits.

I’d never really considered the wording of headlines before now either, and how they often give the impression that women are doing something that ‘women don’t do’ rather than have been shut out from, are conspiring for, are seizing (giving the idea they are taking from someone).

There’s all this underlying stuff going on that my eyes and ears just seemed to glaze over, as it is the norm!

Mary also mentions her own experiences from when she’s been more in the public eye. The outbursts of hate, the threats, and the trolling she receives on social media. She even mentions that people have lectured her on Roman History on twitter! If you haven’t heard of Mary Beard before, she is a distinguished Classicist, Professor of Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, and the Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement.

This book is short – interlaced with opinions, experiences, and shows us how ingrained misogyny is and reflects on the roots of it. It’s definitely a bit of an eye-opener and raises some extremely important points. I read this book for International Women’s Day, and its definitely leaving a lasting impression one me.