Overall, this is a good collection of essays that bring out a diverse array of voices on feminism in the Trump era. My favorite was the essay on Trump's pathology, which helps to place his actions into a wider context about mental illness and domestic violence. Worth the read and certainly a book that will make one think and likely feel uncomfortable. ( )

Rating based on Sarah Hollenbeck & Melissa Arjona's essays. Brilliant in the way they gut you with their fierce analysis of living under Trump.

"There is something to be said for opening your eyes to the world as it is, and not as we want it to be."

On 11/9/2016, that we're NOT living in a post-racial America was a sobering realization (for mostly white women I suspect).

Most powerful were the essays in which it was pointed out -- hey, white women, you may think Trump is the worst thing that's happened to America, but we're here to tell you, it's been horrible from the minute white men decided to take what wasn't theirs. And it's been happening every single day since then.

In other words, just because you are experiencing something for the first time doesn't mean that's the first time it's ever been or is currently being experienced by someone else or other peoples.

While I appreciated this collection as a whole, some of the essays fell flat for me; namely, Strayed's "She Will." The beginning of the collection is more focused on the election and Hillary's loss, then steadily they become more broad in the frame of feminism.

On my current journey to decolonizing my mind, these were my favorite essays: "Advice to Grace in Ghana"; "Beyond the Pussy Hats"; "Dispatches From A Texas Militarized Zone"; "We've Always Been Nasty" and "How to Build a Movement."

3.5 stars

Table of Contents with quotes and my notes, if any.

"I'm A Woman, Vote For Me": Why We Need Identity Politics / Samhita Mukhopadhyay
identity politics
coalitional politics - recognizing and fighting for the diverse needs of many

"That Trump's explicit appeals to white identity and resentment were considered legitimate rallying cries that supposedly united an unheard working-class base, while Clinton was called divisive, suggests that calls for 'universality' generally mean centralizing white, male experience."

Are Women Persons? / Kate Harding
speaks to white feminists/feminism
Women are still fighting for the same thing as 100 years ago - where's the progress?

"Systemic racism isn't something you can opt out of; it's only something you can consciously resist."

She Will / Cheryl Strayed
Personal story about how sad she was after the election

As Long As It's Healthy / Sarah Michael Hollenbeck
Disabled author discusses the impacts of Trump's election as well as her feelings around pregnancy and motherhood. Internal struggle with being okay with who she is and wanting to be "normal"

"My experience being a disabled woman is discovering in small, sharp explosions what I look like through the feedback of strangers."

We Have A Heroine Problem / Carina Chocano
How "woman" is presented and marketed, her "story"
Author's experience with Bernie Bros

"Revolutions - it's right there in the word - tend toward circularity. As often as not, they are followed by counterrevolutions, reigns of terror, Thermidorian Reactions; or they cycle straight into totalitarian dictatorships, regimes indistinguishable from the ones they toppled.

Advice To Grace In Ghana: Trump, The Global Gag Rule, And The Terror Of Misinformation / Jill Filipovic
Puts a face on the global impacts of Trump's presidency

Beyond The Pussy Hats / Katha Pollitt
Loss of reproductive rights and women's health care needs. I just keep thinking, and people think Red Clocks is sooooo far-fetched: HA!

Is There Ever A Right Time To Talk To Your Children About Fascism? / Kera Bolonik
The author and partner striving to teach (and protect) their adopted Black son

"...and what Meredith and I may be correcting, what we can correct: that we can pair difficult, vicious truths with action and community, and that lends a genuine sense of hope."

Country Crock / Samantha Irby
As per yuhz, Irby simultaneously makes me laugh and makes me think

Refusing To Numb The Pain / Sarah Hepola
Sobriety in the face of pain
Clarity in order to prep for resistance

"Part of my education has been discovering how much I have in common with people I don't like, and how much another side can teach me. These are uncomfortable truths, but discomfort can also be a sign you are growing."

"There is something to be said for opening your eyes to the world as it is, and not as we want it to be."

Dispatches From A Texas Militarized Zone / Melissa Arjona
Dealing with checkpoints in TX; floating border walls (balloons w/ cameras!)
reproductive-justice issue

Pulling The Wool Over Their Eyes: The Blindness Of White Feminists / Collier Meyerson
If you're white and a "feminist" read this, especially if you don't know what intersectionality is

A Nation Groomed And Battered / Rebecca Solnit

The Pathology Of Donald Trump / Sady Doyle
Okay, so he's technically not crazy nor does he have NPD. He's just a rich white man (same thing as crazy or narcissist? lol j/k)

Nasty Native Women / Mary Kathryn Nagle
This election is no different for Native women than any other election. This president no different than the previous 44.

"Today, Native women are more likely to be murdered, raped, and abused than any other American population*. Until all individuals - not just President Trump - are held accountable for their trivialization of Native women's identity and bodies, we will continue to be murdered and abused at rates that originated at the time of colonization. Such trivialization, in my view, isn't 'making America great again'; it is extremely polarizing."
*https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/2005/05/10

Farewell To Meritocracy / Jamia Wilson
"I lost what faith I had in the system and decided to trade in my ballot-box pantsuit for the armor of a resistance warrior. Clinton's loss led me to actively reject social conditioning and internalized oppression, by focusing less on how to be included in systems with ever-moving goalposts, and more on paving insurgent ground by building new structures and more inclusive movements with my own community."

Permission To Vote For A Monster: Ivanka Trump And Faux Feminism / Jessica Valenti
"And that's the most important thing to understand about the trend that Ivanka represents: It's not just about any one woman who chooses to present herself as a feminist while supporting policies that oppress others. It's about the way these women and their appropriation of feminism are used to enable misogyny as tangible force in people's lives."

"...to ensure that the next wave of feminist activism is so clearly defined that it will be impossible for conservative women to claim it."

Donald Trump's War On The Working Class / Sarah Jaffe
Marches and protests must have risks involved; they must threaten or else there's no effect on system

"That solidarity does not mean we are all the same, or that we all face the same challenges or have the same levels of power. But it means that we understand our struggles as connected and understand that a winning movement must use the power and talents we all posses in order to bring about justice."

We've Always Been Nasty: Why The Feminist Movement Needs Trans Women And Gender-Nonconforming Femmes / Meredith Talusan
Another criticism of the Women's March not being inclusive

"We cannot be truly included in the current movement if we are spoken of primarily as victims, occasionally as inspirations. To include representatives of a marginalized community only when they agree to the structures and frameworks set up by the majority is the definition of respectability and tokenist politics."

"When faced with large-scale injustice, we must be prepared to rebel and disobey, to risk physical harm or imprisonment. To confront state power, we must be dangerous enough to foment actual resistance."

X Cuntry: A Muslim-American Woman's Journey / Randa Jarrar
Travel journal format

Trust Black Women / Zerlina Maxwell
Yes!!

"In politics, the proximity to power is often the first step toward actual power and progress, and the Clinton campaign employed more black women than any other presidential campaign in American history."

How To Build A Movement / Alicia Garza
Explores how Alicia wasn't going to join the Women's March (for all the criticisms previously mentioned in this collection and other articles online), but then she re-thought her decision. What an inspiration she is!

"Building a movement requires reaching out beyond the people who agree with you."

All-American / Nicole Chung

Really puts a face/ reality to transracial adoption from adult adoptee's POV. I was first introduced to transracial adoption in the novel, The Leavers.
( )

Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America, edited by Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding, contains essays from professors, journalists, authors, and activists dealing with the wake of Trump's election. They offer advice on how to remain engaged and what to do next, how to face the reality of America rather than the teleology of progress, when and how to discuss Trump's antics with children, and more. Beyond the practical advice, this volume helps just to read these women's honest, firsthand accounts and find people articulate the aftershock of the election or offer insight or a glimmer of hope through tentative plans for what to do next. Even though we're now in our 466th day with this madman, Mukhopadhyay and Harding's collection helps. ( )