Nonfiction: Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister

I was absolutely blown away by Rebecca Traister's 2016 book All the Single Ladies. Even so, when I saw the title of today's focus, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger, I was both excited and apprehensive. I was excited because this is something I had been thinking about for years now and knew that the anger of women was something that could create significant and lasting change. But of course, I was also apprehensive because I knew what Traister would be discussing on the pages would not only cause me to be angry, but also feel a bit hopeless and afraid. Also, I knew Traister would approach the subject with unabated intensity and honesty, which is why she is the perfect person for the job.

Genre, Themes, History: This is a nonfiction book in which Traister explores the complicated and intricate history of how women have been able to enact significant change simply by allowing themselves to be angry, and to show it. While pulling examples from history, Traister also looks at the 2016 presidential election and the wave of rage, coupled with disbelief and despair, that took hold of women across the country. But the history lesson does not stop there; in fact, Traister continues into 2018, with much of what she talks about still going on now that the year is almost to a close, and 2019 is less than four days away. With chapters titles such as "The Circle of Entrapment: The Heavy Price of Rage," "How Minority Rules," "Trust No One," "Sympathy for the Devils," and "The Exhilaration of Activism," the book is not simply a collection of events, followed by women getting angry and protesting. Traister looks at why women expressing their anger can be a complicated and tricky thing; how race plays a huge part in who gets listened to and why; who women are getting angry at (and how it often includes other women); why men are so uncomfortable with a woman's anger; and of course, the powerful force that is the #metoo movement. With information backed up by facts and figures, as well as personal interviews and examples, it is a comprehensive account of why women in this country are so angry, and the change that can come from it.  

My Verdict: With unflinching honesty, Traister lays it all out there, whether people like it or not, and the timing could not be more perfect. What I especially love is that Traister is mindful to acknowledge that black women have long been outraged about the injustices in this country, and that the majority of white women are pretty late to the party. As pointed out by Andre Johnson, the lead character in ABC's family comedy Blackish - and in the episode that dealt specifically with the 2016 presidential election - black people in America are used to being disappointed with a system that continually lets us down. There is information in this book that is hard to read, and even harder to acknowledge. But unless we move forward, and ultimately continue to be angry as well intent on creating change, the things women are so angry about will continue to happen, and those who are responsible will continue on their course unchallenged. Incredibly informative, but ultimately inspiring, it is the kind of book I want to recommend to everyone, knowing that very few have the stomach for it.

Favorite Historical Figure: Former Governor of Texas Ann Richards campaigned on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. Like many marriages at the time, hers ended in the early 1980s, during the tumult and changes around women's roles. 

Favorite Quotes: "Black women have long been the backbone of our political and progressive past...Yet they've been only barely represented in leadership of the political parties they've bolstered; their participation has long been taken for granted. And when white women have caught up to where black women have been for a long time, the work of black women has often been appropriated, ignored, and uncredited by those with greater economic, cultural, and racial advantage." - from the chapter "How Minority Rules."

"Women who are willing to defend white patriarchy and its abuses - usually women with proximity to powerful men and the chance to gain from it, and who are therefore themselves often white - have historically found reward from those powerful men, in the form of sexual or romantic attention, marital alliances, as well as jobs and stature, in exchange for their defense of the very power structure from which they benefit." -  from the chapter "Collateral Damage."

"What [Martin Luther] King commanded we too must command: that this not get written off as a summer storm, an aberration or fad or period of hysteria until our demands are met. We must insist on our discontent, not permit it to be muffled or put behind us swiftly." - from the chapter "Conclusion."

Recommended Reading: All the Single Ladies, also by Traister, explores the fascinating trend of women in the U.S. deciding to marry later in life, if at all, and how it has changed and shaped this country.