How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran

How to Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran

1913 - Suffragette throws herself under the King's horse.
1969 - Feminists storm Miss World.
Now - Caitlin Moran rewrites "The Female Eunuch" from a bar stool and demands to know why pants are getting smaller. There's never been a better time to be a woman: we have the vote and the Pill, and we haven't been burnt as witches since 1727.

However, a few nagging questions do remain...
Why are we supposed to get Brazilians?
Should you get Botox?
Do men secretly hate us?
What should you call your vagina?
Why does your bra hurt?
And why does everyone ask you when you're going to have a baby?

Part memoir, part rant, Caitlin Moran answers these questions and more in "How To Be A Woman" - following her from her terrible 13th birthday ('I am 13 stone, have no friends, and boys throw gravel at me when they see me') through adolescence, the workplace, strip-clubs, love, fat, abortion, TopShop, motherhood and beyond.

The 411 by Maria:

This was compared to Tina Fey's BossyPants so I really wanted to read it because while I loved Tina as a personality, I had expected to really love her book. I only liked it. Oddly enough, I feel the same way about this book. I guess my expectations are too high. My wish is for a belly laugh once in a while but that doesn't happen although I do get a chuckle here and there.

Caitlin is a funny woman. You want to hang out with her and just know you will either roll your eyes at her or end the evening with a pain in your side from laughing which is how I feel whenever I hang with my girls.

I did chuckle on the section where she talks about naming your vagina. Personally, I call it a vagina and have done so since having a girl. She has always called it such but Caitlin's chapter called I Don't Know What To Call My Breasts has her and her husband at one point calling her baby girl's Baby Gap. Hahaha...now that I am writing it instead of reading it, I think it is really funny. Uh huh..OK...yeah the review.

OK...what I can tell you about this book.

The chapters remind me of the headings of my posts. Very basic like I Get Married. I Get Into Fashion. I Am In Love. I Am Fat. I Need A Bra, well you get the idea and with basic titles, we get basic, no nonsense writing which is something I really love. I don't want to have to think about what I am reading (there is a time and place for that) when reading a biography. Give it to me in English and please don't make it abstract.

Whether Cailin is talking about her crush on Chevy Chase in the Paul Simon You Can Call Me Al video or her acceptance of pole dancing and stripping as long as you do it because you love it she is smart, practical and writes like she is talking to a friend. Which I guess if I were a writer, I would want to hear.

Read it if you are not humor impaired because if so, you will find it mildly or wickedly offensive depending on your impairment. 

Never considered myself a feminist until this book. Always felt I was on the fence but eh' yeah...thanks to Caitlin, I'll shout it out. I am a non-radical feminist and proud of it.

Disclaimar: I received a complimentary copy of this book for the purpose of this review. No monetary compensation was received.