Rebecca Solnit

A landmark essay that went viral, inspired the word mansplaining,” and prompted fierce arguments.

Men Explain Things to Me

And Other Essays (Best of Granta)

Cecilie Spangsberg

The tyranny of the quantifiable is partly the failure of language and discourse to describe more complex, subtle and fluid phenomena, as well as the failure of those who shape opinions and make decisions to understand and value these slipperier things.

Essays

Wenn Männer mir die Welt erklären

Lea Hi

[...] dass sie die Freiheit der Identität einfordert durch ihr Beharren auf Vielfalt, Nichtreduzierbarkeit und womöglich auf Geheimnis, wenn Geheimnis die Fähigkeit bedeutet, im Zustand des Werdens zu verharren, über Bestehendes hinauszugehen, nicht eingrenzbar zu sein, mehr zu enthalten.

Zitat von John Keats (1817) im Essay zu Virginia Woolf (2009)

[...] Ich meine die negative Befähigung, das heißt, fähig zu sein, mit Unsicherheiten, Geheimnissen und Zweifeln zu leben, ohne gereizt nach Fakten und Logik zu verlangen. 

Für mich rechtfertigt sich Hoffnung schlicht dadurch, dass wir nie wissen, was als Nächstes passieren wird, und dass ziemlich regelmäßig das Unwahrscheinliche, das Unvorstellbare geschieht.

One of the best books ever written and read, everyone should read this. It's harshly eye opening in the best way possible.

Elise Rosa Cornelis

big ab

maybe it’s cause this was written 10 years ago and i’m way angrier now than i was in 2014.. but yikes. at one point when talking about a woman who was assaulted, she says “im proud to live in a country where she was believed, that’s democracy” … kinda feels weird to not bring up the fact that many women don’t get believed, cases don’t even get brought to court, or that police officers are one of the biggest offenders of violent crimes against women.. she also struggled with talking about intersectionality and just, idk, the sentiment felt very true to 2014 but not true now.

Loved the book. Loved. It. That’s all i could say.

Manuela

Loved reading these essays, it took a while though since there are a lot of references and statistics that damper the mood. Had to set the book down and come back to reread make sure I was in the right mental state to truly intake what Rebecca is conveying in her essays. Reading in public has started solid conversations from both women and men. Good read for sure and one I would recommend

sometimes you pick up a book without much thought and you are lucky that it turns out to be exactly what you needed in that moment. in a time where I felt despair for the backsliding of the progress millions of women before me have fought for, this book gave me hope for the future and replaced despair with fury. it made me aware of privileges - both the ones I lack and the ones I possess. it made me want to keep going and to do better.

Joanne Chavali

Genuinely good ideas and thoughts that I agree with, but the “Welcome to Manistan” line left such an ugly, sour taste in my mouth. I know times have changed since that particular essay was written (2013 I think), but it’s so incongruent with the thoughts in the last essay when zapatistas are brought up. It’s also very interesting that marriage equality needs to be clarified that feminism paved the way to it, but nothing about what paved the way to women’s suffrage………. Not my favorite book of feminist essays, but also not the worst. I loved where Rachel Carson (Silent Spring) was brought up as an example.

Rebecca Solnit's essay 'Men Explain Things to Me' has become a touchstone of the feminist movement, inspired the term 'mansplaining', and established Solnit as one of the leading feminist thinkers of our time - one who has inspired everyone from radical activists to Beyonc Knowles. Collected here in print for the first time is the essay itself, along with the best of Solnit's feminist writings. From rape culture to mansplaining, from French sex scandals to marriage and the nuclear family, from Virginia Woolf to colonialism, these essays are a fierce and incisive exploration of the issues that a patriarchal culture will not necessarily acknowledge as 'issues' at all. With grace and energy, and in the most exquisite and inviting of prose, Rebecca Solnit proves herself a vital leading figure of the feminist movement and a radical, humane thinker.

And Other Essays

Lindy

I've read most of these essays before, during high school and the first few semesters of college when I was incredibly concerned with the mechanics of situating my own thoughts and experiences within the world's broader contexts and being taken seriously while doing so. Solnit's skills of connection and juxtaposition impressed me. Since then, I've done some wandering and my worldview has somewhat shifted and the world has shifted right alongside me. I spent this afternoon re-witnessing yesteryear's headlines, things I haven't really thought about in years but that have a mark on the present.

I also discovered sentences that had become so lodged in my head I think I forgot their origins:
"Credibility is a basic survival tool."

"Think of how much more time and energy we would have to focus on other things that matter if we weren’t so busy surviving."

"It’s the job of writers and explorers to see more, to travel light when it comes to preconception, to go into the dark with their eyes open. Not all of them aspire to do so or succeed."

"The worst criticism seeks to have the last word and leave the rest of us in silence; the best opens up an exchange that need never end." 

Volume highlights: "Men Explain Things to Me," "Grandmother Spider," "Woolf's Darkness: Embracing the Inexplicable"

Kendall McClain

Anddy G

Con Men Explain Thing to Me conocí a Rebecca Solnit y de ahi, no hubo vuelta atrás.
Me gustó... y mucho. 
Hubo capítulos que releí y releí encontrándoles nuevos sentidos y nomás me explotaba la cabeza al darme cuenta de esas cosas con las que crecí y creía normales, era el patriarcado siendo el patriarcado.

Lamia Hajani

Solnit sounds like me as a young freshman in college, just barely starting to study womxn and gender studies at a large public university. She lacks the proper intersectionality to make her argument to womxn of color who see her whitesplaining intimate partner violence, especially when she criticizes countries in the Middle East and South Asia without ever utilizing reflexivity to point herself out as a white womxn who holds so much privilege over people of color. To talk about the veil with no clue what the veil symbolizes but to point it out as an exhibit of male privilege is ignorance by a white womxn at its finest. When she talks about marriage equality, she fails to mention that rates of intimate partner violence are pretty much the same in both straight and LGBTQ couples. 

When Solnit does mention resistance movements by womxn of color, I am struck by how they are almost props to her white feminism - these womxn did this, so it is an act of sisterhood to me. This is not uncommon - white womxn take the victories of WoC and claim them as their own, while WoC do the bulk of the work and resisting and dying to create a better world.

There are times in the book where Solnit gets closer to hitting the mark - she seems to have some sort of understanding, it's just not fully fledged. She's a wonderful writer and that's why I gave the 2 stars I did - but I really wish I'd spent my time reading something by a Black feminist writer instead of reading this.

Cassandra Gregory

Now, I'm not usually into anything nonfiction and quite honestly I haven't read a lot of feminist essays and musings (though I'd like to). Solnit wrote this piece beautifully. Depressing at times, yes. But also full of dry wit and realism. Stuff that should be common sense I found my self saying oh duh. But really all in all this is the kind of book I find that that I want to buy multiple copies of just to hand out to all my friends. If you have the chance. Read this. It honestly is perfection.

Zoe Stricker

one essay #YesAllWomen was great, and it was sprinkled with interesting essays, but there were also a few comments that I felt were slightly amiss. but still, she's a great mind

Bailley Leppert

This should be required reading! Best feminist books I’ve read!

Midori Kobayashi

3/5 stars


i hate when i give nf books anything less than 5 stars but this one just wasn't it. Don't get me wrong in no way is this a "bad book". it's just that i am so late to this party that the thoughts/ideas mentioned in this book have been discussed very much already and this just doesn't seem to add much value to what i already knew/think. nevertheless a good hours of nodding along to the authors random thoughts (which jbtw aren't even so well put together? like they are just random bursts of ideas, none of which have been expanded upon/fully dived into?)

“Rape culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety. Rape culture affects every woman. Most women and girls limit their behavior because of the existence of rape. Most women and girls live in fear of rape. Men, in general, do not. That’s how rape functions as a powerful means by which the whole female population is held in a subordinate position to the whole male population, even though many men don’t rape, and many women are never victims of rape."

Jeannette Ordas

This collection of essays (& a few postscripts) should be required reading for everyone. Well, I did skip the Woolfe/Sontag essay after a few pages in (I had limited time before the book had to be returned, overdue, to the library). A quick read at a slim 125 pages.

Jesse Morley

I took this book with me to the barber to read while I was waiting. My barber noticed it and asked me what I thought, but before I could respond he started to expound on what he thought were the "problems" with Solnit's first essay. I sat quietly as he listed, without realising it, all the reasons that this book, and feminism in general, threaten him and his perspective on the world (i.e. the best bits).

Five stars; minus one for having to find a new barber.

cece

it changed my mindset so much. i feel like i took so much out of it, and it was one of those late nights where you just plunge right through the chapters, absorbing and reflecting on every word. to put it plainly, i felt smarter after reading this, and i don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. books are meant to open up our thoughts in one way or another.

A landmark essay that went viral, inspired the word ?mansplaining,” and prompted fierce arguments.

Dillon Diatlo

Oh, wouldn't this be ironic for me to explain my thoughts on this book?

Sloan, Kara

Sometimes I want everything by a certain author to be a banger. Sometimes it not. Still good though.

A landmark essay that went viral, inspired the word "mansplaining," and prompted fierce arguments.

Alma 🌻

A thought-provoking read about feminism, gender wars, and how conversations between men and women, about women, could go completely awry. It touches not only on feminism, but politics, economics and social justice in the context of gender wars. This is an intense read for not just women, but men too. Highly recommend!

Bana Bilgiçlik Taslayan Adamlar

Irem

Neden bahsettiğimi bütün kadınlar bilir. Hangi alanda olursa olsun her kadının ağzını açmasını zorlaştıran, konuşmaya cesaret etse bile sesini duyurabilmekten alıkoyan bu küstahlıktır insanın zoruna giden; sokaktaki taciz gibi bu da dünyanın kadınların dünyası olmadığını işaret ederek genç kadınları sessizliğe mahkum eder. Bu bize kendimizden şüphe duymayı ve kendimizi kısıtlamayı öğretirken erkeğin dayanaksız aşırı özgüvenini pekiştirir.”

“Hepimizin bu kadar iyi bildiği bir hikayeyi nasıl anlatabilirim? Kadının adı Afrika. Erkeğinki Fransa. Erkek kadını sömürgeleştirmiş, kullanmış, susturmuş ve çoktan çekip gitmesi gerekirken yıllar sonra bugün hâlâ bütün kozları elinde tutarak Cote d’Ivoire gibi yerlerin iç meseleleri hakkında karar veriyor. Kentin adı ihraç ettiği üründen dolayı verilmiş; aslında kimliği bu değil. Kadının adı Asya. Erkeğinki Avrupa. Kadının adı sessizlik. Erkeğinki iktidar. Kadının adı fakirlik. Erkeğinki zenginlik. Kadın ve erkekten bahsederken Onun diyoruz, ama kadına baktığımızda, Onun olan bir şey var mı gerçekten? Erkeğin adı Onun, ve o her şeyin “kendisine ait olduğunu iddia ediyor, kadın da dahil. İzin almadan ve bir bedel ödemek zorunda kalmadan kadına sahip olabileceğine inanıyor. Bu çok eski bir hikaye, ama son yıllarda hikayenin sonu değişmeye başladı. Bugüne gelindiğinde eski hikayenin yeniden yazılan sonu temelleri sarsıyor, çok da iyi oluyor bu temellerin sarsıldığı.
Yukarıda bize anlatılan hikaye kadar sıradan ve uyduruk bir masalı kim yazar?”

“Erkeğin adı ayrıcalık, kadınınki ise olasılık. Erkeğin hikayesi bildiğiniz şu eski hikayenin aynısı, kadınınki ise hâlâ bitmemiş bir hikayeyi değiştirebileceğimize dair olasılıklarla dolu yepyeni bir öykü. Henüz sonuna gelmediğimiz bu hikayede hepimiz varız; olup bitenleri yalnızca izlemiyoruz, aynı zamanda hikayeyi birlikte yazıyoruz. Gelecek haftalar, aylar, ve yıllar boyunca da hikayemizi anlatmaya devam edeceğiz.“

Kadınların yaşadığı dünya ile erkeklerin yaşadığı dünyanın aynı olmadığını çok açık bir şekilde anlatıyor. O yüzden kadın-erkek herkesin okuması gereken kitaplardan.

Discusses why men often wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women do not, and why the silencing of women is problematic for society.

Emma

Solnit's writing isn't bad, these essays just weren't meant to go together and the reader notices that. I did find the different topics interesting but a lot was lost on me since I lack knowledge about many of the events/scandals/crimes she talks about, not being a US resident.

Capucine Fachot

#2nd book by rebecca solnit that I've read, devoured, enjoyed very very much. 
what to do now? reflect.

Moni

Jeder Essay greift sich einen anderen Schwerpunkt heraus, und erläutert an Anekdoten und Beispielen den jeweiligen Sachverhalt. Alle diese Essays passen hervorragend zusammen und sprechen manche Themen an, die sonst gelegentlich in den Hintergrund rücken. 

Hier die genauere Rezi: 
https://chaosgemisch.blogspot.com/201...

Men Explain Things to Me

Reviews

Highlights