With International Women’s Day here in a couple of days, I thought I’d focus this week’s blog post on Lauren McKeon’s terrific book on what’s ailing feminism.

Although I started calling myself a feminist when I was 13, I confess that my commitment to doing so has wavered over the years. Not because my belief in principles like equal pay and reproductive rights has faltered, but because my willingness to embrace the movement that champions these values has sometimes been shaken by feelings of exclusion. 

Maybe that’s why I enjoyed reading The F Bomb: Dispatches from the War on Feminism (Goose Lane, 2017). Author Lauren McKeon (class of 2017) writes passionately and compassionately about some of the concerns women like me have had over the years with feminism as a movement. I’ve always believed that changing the world begins with understanding our opponents, yet I often feel dismissed for saying we need to understand people who I think are clearly on the wrong side. I suspect those who dismiss me (and sometimes “unfriend” me on social media) think I’m saying we need to have compassion for them when what I’m really saying is we need to comprehend where they’re coming from (compassion optional). History’s best generals know you can’t fight a war without having respect for and insight into the way your enemy thinks. In political circles, it’s called “oppo research.” 

The F Bomb is incredibly well researched and intelligently written. Its arguments are organized to build from a simple question — where is feminism failing? — to a beautifully argued conclusion. It’s also a perfect vehicle for McKeon’s award-winning journalistic chops. Here’s a sample from the epilogue:

As we wade further into the opposing but jointly skyrocketing feminist and anti-feminist movements, I hope we can learn to listen more to the other side. I don’t exactly mean we should have a tea party with Hitler, Mussolini, and, oh heck, even Trump. Crumpets, tea, and fascism! But I do believe we have to let go of our liberal superiority, the belief that clearly reprehensible views aren’t powerful enough to gain mass traction. We’ve seen they obviously are. It means acknowledging that people who we don’t think have any right to be unhappy—the white middle class mainly—are miserable, hurting. What’s worse, they believe the cause of their pain is the policies of the left. Unless we understand why, it will be impossible to counteract and confront the ripple effect of damage that pain has caused. We can’t fight what we so arrogantly ignore. …

I believe it is possible, still, to fight with compassion and humility. Not just possible, actually, but essential. At its heart, feminism is not about making your life better and more equitable; it’s about making everyone’s lives better. … We must embrace criticism and change. We must live our politic. We must make some fucking room.

To my mind, McKeon hits squarely on a remedy not just for what can make feminism more welcoming for people who often feel they just don’t belong but for what’s ailing so much in the world today. And this is even truer as I write now, as Donald Trump is a couple of astonishing months into his second term as US president, than it was when The F Bomb was published a few months into his first term. If we can’t understand the people who elected him, how can we ever hope to reach them? 

Books with a feminist bent:

Halal Sex: The Intimate Lives of Muslim Women in North America, by Sheima Benembarek.

Every Boy I Ever Kissed: A Memoir, by Nellwyn Lampert.

No Place To Go: How Public Toilets Fail Our Private Needs, by Lezlie Lowe.

Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, by Jessica McDiarmid.

Conspiracy of Hope: The Truth About Breast Cancer Screening, by Reneé Pellerin.