Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump’s America is an insightful essay anthology that serves as a call to action. This was a combination read-listen for me. Inspiring and motivating, not to mention comforting to know many other women share my anger at the destruction wrought by this administration.

A witty, biting incisive look at the Trump election from all angles. I absolutely loved the diversity of the essays, looking at disability, racism, history. Samantha Irby's essay is the MVP.

This took me forever to read. I want to be more politically active, but it makes my head want to explode (as it does many people.) Therefore, I spaced the essays out in between other books so that I wouldn't be a sobbing heap. Unfortunately, that means a lot of the details escape me, but what I do know is that there are a lot of smart smart women who feel the same way I do, and while it's really hard to enact change in a very red state, that there are people out there working harder than me. I would (and have) recommend this to anyone who is a bit angry and perhaps who leans a bit red, but who is unhappy with trump. I would not recommend this to a Fox news addict.

“Such a nasty woman.”

It was the sexist insult heard ‘round the world that quickly became a rallying cry; after all, women have always known what it is to be nasty. Like many of the writers of Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump’s America, I cried myself to sleep on the night of Hillary Clinton’s defeat. It felt surreal, yet much like the nasty woman remark, it was ultimately less surprising than it should have been. This horrible inevitability— realized immediately or only after a good deal of denial—is captured in these essays with varying degrees of despair, defiance, and determination.

Nasty Women showcases a diverse range of voices and experiences from an impressive roster of feminist writers and activists. Mary Kathryn Nagle shows how, for Native American women, the election of Trump is no different than the 44 that came before him, while Sarah Jaffe talks about the working class and its contradictory relationship to conservative economics. Randa Jarrar, Zerlina Maxwell, Nicole Chung, Kera Bolonik and others discuss racism, anti-Semitism, and the rising tide of xenophobia across the country. Samantha Irby tackles the LGBTQ experience in rural America, an area known for strong pro-Trump sentiment. A powerful piece by Rebecca Solnit shows how misogyny shaped the politics of the 2016 election at nearly every level. This intersectional approach captures the individual perspectives of each writer but it never forgets how each piece fits into the bigger picture of global politics and feminism, a large-scale focus made especially poignant in the essay by Jill Filipovic on the impact of US policy decisions abroad and the increasing danger of anti-choice rhetoric.

Whether looking at identity politics, disability, reproductive rights, online misogyny, or simply detailing the overwhelming sadness of comforting shell-shocked children post-election, each essay in Nasty Women is a case study in why the personal is always political.

(This review originally appeared in the Canadian feminist publication Herizons Magazine, Spring 2018 edition, print only)

This was exactly the collection of empowering no-nonsense essays that I needed to read after such a rough 2017 year.

If, like me, you embrace the Nasty Woman moniker, you should read this book.

If you were disappointed by the results of election night, you should read this book because Cheryl Strayed's essay about election night is pretty close to the story of all of us during election night.

Nasty Women is a collection of 23 essays responding to the Great Betrayal that was the 2016 election. Edited by Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding, this collection unites the voices of women with all kinds of identities in contemplation of the world we woke up to on November 9th.

For some reason, the media is far more interested in the belligerent whining of white men and white women whose feelings were hurt by black hands on the steering wheel of state and who were damn sure they didn’t want no woman’s hands driving next. We are supposed to have compassion for all the suffering they endure in their victory.

Meanwhile, the media has no interest in what it feels like to work for and support the candidate who won the most votes, who was the most qualified, only to see a constitutional defect to protect slavery hand the country over to an ignorant, unqualified, thuggish grifter. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a more interesting story. After all, we won the most votes and they got the White House anyway – in large part due to structural failings that should disturb us. After all, two of the last three guys handed the keys to the national car lost the popular vote. That’s no democracy. Why isn’t the media interested in what it feels like to be robbed of America’s promise again?

Thankfully, the editors of Nasty Women are interested. With essays by women who are White, Black, Asian, Latino, Native American, straight, lesbian, transgender, citizens, immigrants, urban, rural, blue state and red state, this is a cross-section of Hillary voting women who have every right to be angry and who have something to say about it. These are voices we are not hearing from enough. These are the real stories of this election.



Nasty Women is as good as anthology like this can be. Not every essay spoke to me and a few of them made me roll my eyes when they fell into the familiar “flawed candidate” rut that prefaced every statement of support for Hillary before the election. She’s not running for anything now, so must we still follow that script? The majority of essays though were affirming, empowering, and challenging pieces that dissected the misogyny than demands we enumerate her flaws before saying anything positive. Sarah Jaffe’s essay was particularly discordant, echoing many of the familiar denunciations of Clinton, even bringing up her very short service on the Wal-Mart board and repeating Sanders’ smears on her character. But that is just one of twenty-three and many are excellent.

I was particularly moved by editor Samhita Mukhopadhyay’s defense of identity politics. It’s appalling that post-election analysis is so shoddy as to suggest abandoning the voters we have in pursuit of voters presumed more worthy because they are white and male. This is not giving up a bird in hand for two in the bush. It’s giving up a bird in hand for a myth in the bush. Rebecca Solnit’s essay was perhaps my favorite. She called out the “flawed candidate” trope in particular and took on the pathology of “progressive” men who hated Clinton. How many of us were floored during the primary by the atavistic hatred of her voiced by men we had always thought of us a liberal, smart, and feminist? Sady Doyle’s essay is important, too, in pointing out how calling Trump crazy is excusing his evil and the evil of those who voted to give him power. Carino Chocano’s essay was another that spoke to me because, to be honest, I am far more angry with those on the left who helped elect Trump by hating Clinton than with those on the right from whom I did not expect better.

Rebecca Solnit’s essay was perhaps my favorite. She called out the “flawed candidate” trope in particular and took on the pathology of “progressive” men who hated Clinton. How many of us were floored during the primary by the atavistic hatred of her voiced by men we had always thought of us a liberal, smart, and feminist? Sady Doyle’s essay is important, too, in pointing out how calling Trump crazy is excusing his evil and the evil of those who voted to give him power. Carino Chocano’s essay was another that spoke to me because, to be honest, I am far more angry with those on the left who helped elect Trump by hating Clinton than with those on the right from whom I did not expect better. Though, on the other hand, Nicole Chung’s essay makes me ask if I should have challenged the Trump voters in my family more. They voted for Trump in spite of Black and Native American family members who will be hurt by Trump’s bigotry. They voted for Trump despite gay, lesbian, and trans children and siblings. What can someone say in the face of that indifference to the human cost of their votes? Their identity as white and rural was more powerful than their identity as sister or brother, mother or father. What can anyone say in the face of that and still be family?

Nasty Women is not comforting unless the notion that other people are just as mad as you are is comforting. What it does is challenge us to not give in, not give up and to pick up the struggle and persist. If you were broken-hearted on November 9th, this won’t mend your heart, but it will pick up and set you in the direction of fixing what breaks us.

I received an e-galley of Nasty Women from Picador through NetGalley.

Nasty Women at Macmillan / Picador
Samhita Mukhopadhyay author site
Kate Harding author site

This was the book I was waiting for! I’ve read a lot books and essays this year and they all left me a little underwhelmed. This one was what I needed.

Covering every topic from identity politics, abortion, intersectionality, sexuality, race, immigration and more, this is a fantastic collection of essays. It not only praises all the nasty women of the world, but implores with certainty why we are needed. There are so many gems in this book that it’s hard to narrow it down to just a few examples. At 20% in, I was already recommending it to my feminist book group.

He is mentioned. That squatter. That abuser. That narcissist. Because he has to be. Because it’s so important to remember how awful is for everyone who isn’t a heterosexual white male.

This book is necessary. It serves as a rallying cry, a eulogy, and a hope for the future.

“The competent, entitled, outspoken woman has always been a threat to the patriarchal structure because her very existence threatens to topple it, to burn the edifice to the ground; and so a woman like Clinton—experienced, powerful, authoritative—can play only one role in the narrative as it exists: that of the villain.”

Wow! This collection of essays by feminist writers on the American political landscape -- how we got here and what now -- nails the experience of a wide variety of women and their experience. This timely collection takes an unflinching look from many varied points of view. I found myself infuriated, guilty, sad and hopeful. A difficult read, to be sure, but an important one.