Enemy Feminisms by Sophie Lewis is an engaging book that will bring many contradictions, in how we think and whom we praise, into stark contrast.

You can approach this book in several ways, and I will highlight how I did. I read this as a history which is written to speak to our current environment. In other words, taking the past, and how we have used and sometimes misused it, to illustrate how we might best approach our present and future. As such, I didn't have to fully agree with every point Lewis makes as long as I do my best to understand as well as I can. Bracket my own ideas so I might better grasp theirs, then bring them into conversation with each other.

One takeaway, among many, is the need to identify our enemies, even when those enemies happen, at times, to be allies. Or even perhaps even ourselves, we're all capable of working against the very things we profess to be supporting. Whether historic figures who were instrumental in some areas but despicable in others or contemporary figures who use their fame to spew ignorant hate rather than write their next novel, we need to be able to assess these people, and ourselves, more honestly and with more nuance.

This isn't "hard feminism," whatever the heck that is, this is critical feminism. Critical of external and internal inconsistencies. If being forced to acknowledge some of your own shortcomings upsets you, this may not be the book for you. If you understand that none of us are perfect and we must always be considering and reconsidering paths forward, then this will be a valuable addition to your library.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

Unfortunately could not finish this in time because I got sick during new years. But what I have read seemed very good and I look forward to trying to find it locally one day so I can finish this.

Going to be in my highly recommended reads for early 2025, if only because we elected the fucking Leopards Eating Your Face Off party into power again, and it needs spelling out that not every feminist is working for the betterment of all. There are probably some folks who are going to take issue with the idea of classifying some of the people in here as "enemies", but man, Lewis uses historical and current precedent to show that not everyone using the feminist label is on your side.

Enemy Feminisms aims to present its reader a history of times when some feminisms have been aligned with the oppressors, by pandering to cissexism, white supremacy, femmephobia and policing the marginalized.

It was a really interesting read that does really well in drawing parallels between these problematic histories and the way the thinking they stemmed from shows up in our current times, encouraging us to always challenge those ideas to cultivate feminisms that are intersectional and accountable for their failures.

It's also a very up to date book so I was really happy to read a non-fiction that recognizes and calls out the transphobia and racism of some figures of today.

Overall, a really informative read. It requires a bit of prior knowledge of the different feminist movements and some US history, but it's still accessible enough that a few searches can catch you up to speed if there's anything you didn't know before. The chapters are also concise, short but well-developed. Some of the ironic or sarcastic tones had me confused because I sometimes struggle with those.

I'd recommend this to anyone wanting to look into ways in which feminism hasn't been inclusive in the past (and even today) and what we can do to address those issues.

If you have an interest in hard feminism (which I do not) then be sure to read this book. The author opposes the nuclear family, and g craves total equality between the sexes, but she refuses to acknowledge the deep biological differences between males and females so "Enemy Feminism" misses the mark!

In the current political climate we’re in feminisms is very important. This book is mostly history about past feminisms movements. I was hoping for more like a guide on how to better be involved with feminism in the present

I am not used to nonfiction books making references to all the newest memes and history. Usually by the time book comes out it's all slightly outdated and by the time I read it it's very out of date.

This book is about the feminisms which fight against women's interests and why they do that. (I'll never understand marginalized people wanting to be oppressors) Each chapter has different subject beginning from white supremacist feminism, pornophbia to TERFs. It contains biography, cultural context and commentary on the most noticable representative of that particular movement. I've read some feminist literature but not much I'll admit. I personally found a lot of new information on this work. I doubt that will be the case for someone more versed in the studies than me. At least now I know where the world girlboss came from. 😅 The book is mostly about the UK with some added context to the USA.

I didn't fact check all the references but the ones I checked did say what the author claimed they say.