I was excited to find that Mary Beard had a book – Women & Power: A Manifesto (Amazon) – based on her talks about the silencing of women. Of course I learned about it on The Eloquent Woman, and had appreciated the Famous Speech Friday posts about the talks that it was build on. I think sometimes it doesn’t seem worth buying something that is mostly online, but I much prefer reading on my kindle to anything else, and I’m always happy to support people I admire by buying their books.
It’s relatively short, but covers a lot of ground. The section on the Medusa image was particularly on point – giving historical context and making some good points on why the image of Hilary Clinton as Medusa was so problematic and so appealing to people who hate her.
Mary Beard’s writing is pointed and pulls no punches, and yet very matter of fact. I appreciated the undramatic-but-tell-it-as-it-is nature of the book. It’s well worth a read.