Feminist Icon: Girls Should Not Read Books Written By Men
Hang on; here���s another good one.
Popular feminist Caitlin Moran, author of the apparently-necessary manual How to Be a Woman, a manifesto that declares, in part, that women are inherently feminist unless they disbelieve in personal freedom, has what many will surely see as an unusual marching order for young ladies:
Don���t read any books written by men.
In reporting by Heat Street, Moran says that girls who read works by literature���s greatest male authors are setting themselves up for a lifetime of misery, due to the chronic insecurity that will ensue as a result of having read books written by male writers.
Moran even names a handful of men whose books should be avoided by girls: J. D. Salinger, William Faulkner, Raymond Chandler, Ernest Hemingway and Philip Roth.
Here are her views on the subject, straight from the horse���s mouth (can that even be said nowadays?):
���If I had one piece of advice for young girls, and women, it would be this: girls, don���t read any books by men.
���Don���t read them. Stay away from them. Or, at least, don���t read them until you���re older, and fully-formed, and battle-ready, and are able to counter someone being rude to you, in conversation, not with silent embarrassment, or internalised, mute fury, but a calm, ���F--k you very much, and goodbye.������
What in the world?
According to Moran, novels written by men have made her feel ���unwelcome��� and ���uncomfortable,��� and have ���broken��� her heart.
All of this lunacy noted, Moran actually believes that the books written by men like these are representative of genius, but that doesn���t matter; they should remain unread by young women.
���They are not the right books to read, if you are a young girl. They are not the voices you should allow in your head. Until you are grown ��� until you can argue, with confidence, with a narrator; with a genius; with a world-view ��� girls, do not read books by old men.���
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
