Katha Pollitt has a new book out, and she’s getting the usual shit that feminists catch when we write about our own lives (or about pretty much anything). First, there’s this review in the New York Times, which starts out like this:
Have you heard the latest? “Men are rats.” This directly from the desk of Katha Pollitt, a longtime feminist columnist at The Nation. It’s an absolute scandal. But with the recent surge of courageous investigative journalism from certain formidable women working around the clock at the front lines (which can involve detailed linen reconnaissance as they hunt down suspicious laundry), the news is finally seeping out. It still sounds a bit shrill, but I’m sure it will soon find its stride as the shock of it all wears off.
Groaning and moaning from clever, sassy women has become a genre unto itself, the righteous revenge of the liberal, pre-, during- or postmenopausal woman (anyone missing?) in the post-chick-lit age (it is over, isn’t it?). Perhaps this heralds the birth of fourth-wave feminism? (Or is it the fifth?) Or maybe it’s not something political, but just plain old biblical revenge: God knows women have centuries of wrongs to catch up on. An enraged, educated woman (Vagina dentata intellectualis) with her arsenal of experience, observation, self-deprecation and indignation is a force to be reckoned with, a kind of intellectual Mike Tyson — though, apparently, she is still not as likely to be seduced into bed as the bombshell bimbo, one reason she’s so irate. Not only is she entitled to be angry, but it is virtually the bedrock of her independence, and pugnacious prose is her lethal weapon.
The rest of the review deems Pollitt “shameless” and says “she’s giving up her dignity.”
Then there’s the interview with Deborah Solomon. Some of the questions are insulting, and others are just irritating. Katha does her best, but Solomon asks her things like this:
I’m baffled by the increasing number of nail salons in this country, which seem to be multiplying faster than Starbucks counters.
…right. She follows it up with:
It’s very strange to see people spending ever more time and money grooming their hair and their toenails while the larger physical world goes to ruin.
This is a pretty good way to demean and insult women — remind them that the beauty rituals society demands of them are not only useless and silly but detrimental to the world. Female “frivolities” are written off, and women shamed for engaging in them (though not as much as they’re shamed for not engaging in them) — the world is going to ruin and we’re all sitting around having our hair dyed. Perhaps some of the blame should sit with the people who are doing the ruining, no?
I’d love to see Solomon sit down with a male author of a collection of short personal stories and ask, “So what’s the deal with men buying stupid cars and obsessing over sports while the whole world goes to ruin?”
Note the complete lack of subject here. The world is just going to ruin, by itself you know, nobody is really responsible for it. It’s a question of people going to nail salons instead of doing maintenance, it’s not like there might be people who are directly ruining the world with their policies.
I notice the Times is continuing its practice of having lightweights review serious books by feminists, about feminism, and in particular by Katha Pollitt. First they had Ana Marie Cox review Katha’s Virginity or Death, now they have Toni Bentley, a former dancer who writes about dancing and erotica (including the book she’s most known for, a memoir about anal sex), review the latest. A taste of the fine prose from the woman who declares that Pollitt has lost her dignity:
Perhaps, though, it’s just a buttsex thing. Cox wrote a lot about that on Wonkette, too.
“groaning and moaning from clever, sassy women”
Is that another way of saying “analysis from smart women that I prefer to write off rather than engage”?
I think it might be.
Wow, NY Times. That’s a lot of misogyny for one review!
It’s very strange to see people spending ever more time and money grooming their hair and their toenails while the larger physical world goes to ruin.
And it’s stupid that I care about the NL Central race while there’s a war in Iraq. But I do, and I don’t see why that’s a problem; there may be people out there who can live their lives without a hint of frivolity in them, but they’re considered saints for a reason.
‘Vagina dentata intellectualis’ would make such a great name for a blog.
I would definitely wear the t-shirt.
“Vagina dentata intellectualis”
Oh, how clever. Yet another way to say, “smart women who let it be known they are smart will scare the men away.” What a load of crap. Oh and we’re angry because we’re not as likely to be seduced as the “bombshell bimbo.” What a steaming, stinking pile of crap!
Gee, Caja, you sound awfully angry. How do you expect to get a man like that?
Deborah Soloman is a useless waste of a page in the Magazine. She asks inane questions of just about everybody she interviews, though I’m hard pressed to remember something quite as stupid as freakin’ nail salons.
[...] lives are important, whereas women talking about their own lives are narcissistic or gossipy (or vagina dentata intellectualis). There’s a lot of baggage that comes along with being a successful woman, and especially [...]
So dead-on, it’s worth repeating.
Unfortunately, I wrote my review of “Learning to Drive” before the NYTimes one – because I would have loved to address a couple of their points.
The thing is, Pollitt’s such an amazing writer, she could probably write a grocery list and make it interesting. I can understand some reviewers not liking the book because of the topics covered, but they’re basically panning it because of what it isn’t – like her previous books. In many ways, though, “Learning to Drive” is much more accessible than Pollitt’s earlier collections – it’s certainly more *fun* to read – so I’m hoping that it gets a wider (i.e. non feminist, not totally liberal) audience.
[...] of you may have already read some of the misogynist hoopla regarding Katha Pollitt’s new book of personal essays, Learning to Drive, but I think that [...]
[...] book and, in particular, Toni Bentley’s bizarre “vagina dentata intellectualis” attack on it in the New York Times Book Review. It’s an interesting post, and it’s part of a larger discussion that will take place [...]
[...] why I’m hesitant to throw my support behind her. But comments like these remind me more of responses to Katha Pollitt’s book than thoughtful political analysis — the message seems to be than any display of weakness [...]