Women's Wicked Wit

by michelle-lovric

Forget scratching and hair-pulling, once a girl gets past the age of eight she knows that her deadliest weapon is her tongue. For centuries history has really been His story - publicly, at least, women have been spoken for by men and lived in a world controlled by men. But in truth women have always had plenty to say about this and "Women's Wicked Wit" is a selection of their sharpest comments on life, on men and on each other. Two-thousand witticisms from all ages and cultures are arranged according to subject, (or victim) and nothing and no-one escapes. This selection by novelist, publisher and anthologist Michelle Lovric proves that when it comes to chopping someone down to size with a cutting remark, the female of the species is indeed more deadly than the male.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Collections

Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Gospodyina · Rating 1 out of 5]

An unimaginative gift for the one-dimensional feminist in your life.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good

[Lisa Mcbroom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Snarky women putting down other women.....

[Mills · Rating 2 out of 5]

If there is one quote that sums up how I felt about this book, it would be this:

"A new acquaintance is like a new novel; you open it with expectation, but what you find there seldom makes you care to take it off the shelf another time" - Ouida

Unfortunately Michelle Lovric seems to be of the opinion that snarkiness and wit are the same thing. The majority of the quotes were neither clever, nor amusing. At least a dozen of the sections that the quotes were split into were nothing more than an excuse for a misandric "OMG all men should just die" rant. Whoever read the book before me even took the liberty of highlighting and making notes next to some of her favourites:

"Listen, if it's got four wheels or a dick you're goin' a have trouble with it guaranteed" - Proulx
"There are only two kinds of men - the dead and the deadly" - Rowland
"Well, I've finally figured out that being male is the same thing, more or less, as having a personality disorder" - Shields
"Show me a frigid woman and, nine times out of ten, I'll show you a little man." - Burchill

And so on and so forth. Charming, no? But you know what - even that little ray of sunshine seems to have given up less than a hundred pages in. I came across maybe thirty or forty quotes that made me smile but in a book of 300+ pages that strikes me as pretty poor.

I made myself finish it because I hate to chuck out a book without finishing it and believe me I'm looking forward to chucking this one out!

[Miss Clark · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not find these quotes to be all that humorous, comedic or entertaining. (I laughed perhaps ten times in the course of the entire book.) As an exemplar of women's wit, it leaves a very great deal to be desired. Also, the author seems to have only really used about two dozen sources for the majority of these quotes. I noticed a lack of many authoresses noted for their cleverness and verve, particularly from the early 20th century.

The quotes also focused on a cynical, cruel, tawdry and cheapened view of life that was again so limiting in its exploration and exposition of women's wit. It lacked any exploration of women's capacity for warmth, hope and depth. Their courage and brilliance is discarded in favor of showcasing bitterness and callousness.

It was quite a depressing disappointment and I would not recommend it.

[Paula Geanau · Rating 1 out of 5]

Of all things we need to read nowadays, here's a book on quotes by women, about women... but, like, being careful to select only the extra mean, bitchy, mysoginistic ones so we can continue perpetuating that ugly "no fury like a woman scorned" trope. :) SUCH FUN /sarcasm

Mostly it seems like the author has been careful to only select the typical array of horrible:
- women NOT supporting women
- slut-shaming
- fat-shaming
- mysoginistic disguised as white feminism

Not even the chapter on Women About Men is delightful, because it's 1. so straight and 2. the tongue-in-cheek attitude of men are disappointing that's why we love them teaches no girl nothing good.

I paid £1 for this book and somehow desperately would like that money back.

[Banu Yıldıran Genç · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kitapta en çok hoşlandığım sözler Doğurmanın Gururu başlığında toplanmış. Etrafımız annelik ve bebek güzelleyen romantiklerle, tepemiz sürekli doğurmamız gerektiğini söyleyen iktidar sahibi erkeklerle dolu, neyse ki bu konuda gerçekçi davranmış kadınlar da var. “Bazen çocuklarıma bakıp kendi kendime, 'Lilian, bakire kalmalıydın,' diyorum” diyen Lilian Carter da “Annelik biyolojik bir gerekliliktir, babalık ise toplumun icadı.” diyen Margaret Mead de duygularıma tercüman oldular diyebilirim.

http://tembelveyazar.blogspot.com.tr/...

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quotes by different women on different topics from Marriage and Divorce, Love, Women on Men and etc. Some quotes are funny and so many are so true...

[Jemma · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Men who consistently leave the toilet seat up secretly want women to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and fall in."

Rita Rudner

"My cat does not talk as respectfully to me as I do her."

Colette

Read it and laugh.