WTF Work? By Gregory Bergman and Jodi Miller
WTF Work?
Gregory Bergman and Jodi Miller
Go here to see the abomination at Amazon!
Honestly, do NOT let the Amazon reviews fool you in the slightest. This book is horrible! I actually gave it a brief flip through at the store and made the mistake of actually getting it. While on the surface, the book appears to be one that caters to everyone, it actually doesn't. Really... it's more of a man's book. Which there's nothing wrong with (although, men should really have better standards... but we'll give them this one). But the book ASSUMES that there will be female readers which it gives them a tiny little space once every few pages to give women advice about the field of work. The result of this book? Setting feminism backwards by at least 50 years and the obvious objectification of women.
Here's a few delightful examples:
For the Ladies:
If you stink, you should be shot. Women are supposed to smell like flowers, not fertilizer. If you can't stop the stink, move to India. Compared to those people you'll smell like Coco Chanel. (pg 38)
(Stinkyness doesn't seem like a desirable quality in ANYONE. But the book makes an actual point of saying this about women.)
For the Ladies:
Here are the top reasons why that guy will never call you back:
1.) He has a girlfriend
2.) He has a boyfriend
3.) Your vagina is stinky
4.) You don't know how to give head.
5.) He's a guy. (Pg 23)
(Wut now? The first two make sense (sorta) but this whole list does essentially two things - 1.) puts women down... particularly with list item 3 and 4; 2.) Allows men to get away with being assholes or at least suggests that.)
For the Ladies:
Just ask a man. Men are always willing to help a woman. You may have to sleep with them as a form of gratitude. No pain, no gain. (pg 60)
(So wait... we're SUPPOSED to sleep with them any time they help us with shit?)
Honestly, a lot of the advice in the book suggests to women that they should either use their tits to get what they want or sleep with someone. Although, it does suggest sex for men in certain situations, it is far more frequent for women and treats them like sex toys. This can be seen in this statement here GEARED towards women:
[On job promotions] Drop your pants and earn that promotion the old fashioned way. (pg 69)
And it doesn't get any better. Here's three more gems from this book in case you didn't have enough of the first few:
For the ladies: Become a man. As sad as it will be to give up mensturation, pregnancy, and bikini waxing, in a man's world like ours it's your best shot. (pg 105)
Sexiest Professions
For men: Fireman, Cop, Surfer, Doctor, Pool Boy
For women: Dominatrix, Stripper, Porn star, Whore, Librarian. (Pg 164)
(Why yes. It DID actually say that. Double standard or what! It seems like the only sexy professions for women (according to this book) is an uneducated whore. Now where did we last see this? The 1800s maybe? Hmmm! At this point when it lists it's unsexy professions, it says to women (DIRECTLY as in they actually put this shit down in writing) that Well-educated, successful anything (pg 164) is not sexy for women. So really, the book actually made their point being is that women should be nothing more than an uneducated pair of tits that men can screw whenever they feel like it. I think this is one of the more damning things this book has said.)
[On driving a school bus and hating the kids who ride them] For the ladies: You should never be in this position. You're genetically designed to LOVE children no matter what, If for some reason you can's stand kids, you should go to your doctor immediately because you probably have a brain tumor or a very, very small dick. (pg 166)
(So now the book goes further to state between the lines that the only place for women in this world is either as a mom (or total kid lover) or an uneducated whore. But this statement also works against men too. What it says is that men aren't supposed to like kids and liking kids is unmanly which is pretty much horrible and perpetuates the concept of men shouldn't be fathers to their kids ever.)
So yeah... this is just a short snippet of in what ways this book is bad and serves to objectify women. What is really worrisome is that this book was actually CO-AUTHORED by a woman! For me, between this and Twilight*, are both horrible for treating women like shit. It's one thing to be lighthearted in teasing either gender, but this is something entirely different. Other things that irked me about this book is that its' readers should be saying stuff like "as a good Christian...." Now I don't have anything against the religion, but except for this post, I and other people who don't follow that faith will probably never say that outside of this topic on Bookfails. I really don't like how the book assumes you do. This is more of a personal thing as is my feelings on the "I'm a proud American" types of statements. Why? Well... I'm Canadian. But that's personal. But what ultimately made this book a waste of 10$ CAN is all the anti-feminist statements made in this book. (FYI, I do like comedy books that sorta do what WTF does... but without slamming women and making country/religion specific statements.) Considering who the book was co-authored by, it really should have had more tact and it didn't.
So that's why WTF Work? earns a spot in my list of Crapiest Books Ever.
*NOTE: It's just been brought up. Given the subject matter here, I should be able to walk away with clean hands. So yeah. I edited it instead of me being ironic with Twilight's name.
- Steele
Gregory Bergman and Jodi Miller
Go here to see the abomination at Amazon!
Honestly, do NOT let the Amazon reviews fool you in the slightest. This book is horrible! I actually gave it a brief flip through at the store and made the mistake of actually getting it. While on the surface, the book appears to be one that caters to everyone, it actually doesn't. Really... it's more of a man's book. Which there's nothing wrong with (although, men should really have better standards... but we'll give them this one). But the book ASSUMES that there will be female readers which it gives them a tiny little space once every few pages to give women advice about the field of work. The result of this book? Setting feminism backwards by at least 50 years and the obvious objectification of women.
Here's a few delightful examples:
For the Ladies:
If you stink, you should be shot. Women are supposed to smell like flowers, not fertilizer. If you can't stop the stink, move to India. Compared to those people you'll smell like Coco Chanel. (pg 38)
(Stinkyness doesn't seem like a desirable quality in ANYONE. But the book makes an actual point of saying this about women.)
For the Ladies:
Here are the top reasons why that guy will never call you back:
1.) He has a girlfriend
2.) He has a boyfriend
3.) Your vagina is stinky
4.) You don't know how to give head.
5.) He's a guy. (Pg 23)
(Wut now? The first two make sense (sorta) but this whole list does essentially two things - 1.) puts women down... particularly with list item 3 and 4; 2.) Allows men to get away with being assholes or at least suggests that.)
For the Ladies:
Just ask a man. Men are always willing to help a woman. You may have to sleep with them as a form of gratitude. No pain, no gain. (pg 60)
(So wait... we're SUPPOSED to sleep with them any time they help us with shit?)
Honestly, a lot of the advice in the book suggests to women that they should either use their tits to get what they want or sleep with someone. Although, it does suggest sex for men in certain situations, it is far more frequent for women and treats them like sex toys. This can be seen in this statement here GEARED towards women:
[On job promotions] Drop your pants and earn that promotion the old fashioned way. (pg 69)
And it doesn't get any better. Here's three more gems from this book in case you didn't have enough of the first few:
For the ladies: Become a man. As sad as it will be to give up mensturation, pregnancy, and bikini waxing, in a man's world like ours it's your best shot. (pg 105)
Sexiest Professions
For men: Fireman, Cop, Surfer, Doctor, Pool Boy
For women: Dominatrix, Stripper, Porn star, Whore, Librarian. (Pg 164)
(Why yes. It DID actually say that. Double standard or what! It seems like the only sexy professions for women (according to this book) is an uneducated whore. Now where did we last see this? The 1800s maybe? Hmmm! At this point when it lists it's unsexy professions, it says to women (DIRECTLY as in they actually put this shit down in writing) that Well-educated, successful anything (pg 164) is not sexy for women. So really, the book actually made their point being is that women should be nothing more than an uneducated pair of tits that men can screw whenever they feel like it. I think this is one of the more damning things this book has said.)
[On driving a school bus and hating the kids who ride them] For the ladies: You should never be in this position. You're genetically designed to LOVE children no matter what, If for some reason you can's stand kids, you should go to your doctor immediately because you probably have a brain tumor or a very, very small dick. (pg 166)
(So now the book goes further to state between the lines that the only place for women in this world is either as a mom (or total kid lover) or an uneducated whore. But this statement also works against men too. What it says is that men aren't supposed to like kids and liking kids is unmanly which is pretty much horrible and perpetuates the concept of men shouldn't be fathers to their kids ever.)
So yeah... this is just a short snippet of in what ways this book is bad and serves to objectify women. What is really worrisome is that this book was actually CO-AUTHORED by a woman! For me, between this and Twilight*, are both horrible for treating women like shit. It's one thing to be lighthearted in teasing either gender, but this is something entirely different. Other things that irked me about this book is that its' readers should be saying stuff like "as a good Christian...." Now I don't have anything against the religion, but except for this post, I and other people who don't follow that faith will probably never say that outside of this topic on Bookfails. I really don't like how the book assumes you do. This is more of a personal thing as is my feelings on the "I'm a proud American" types of statements. Why? Well... I'm Canadian. But that's personal. But what ultimately made this book a waste of 10$ CAN is all the anti-feminist statements made in this book. (FYI, I do like comedy books that sorta do what WTF does... but without slamming women and making country/religion specific statements.) Considering who the book was co-authored by, it really should have had more tact and it didn't.
So that's why WTF Work? earns a spot in my list of Crapiest Books Ever.
*NOTE: It's just been brought up. Given the subject matter here, I should be able to walk away with clean hands. So yeah. I edited it instead of me being ironic with Twilight's name.
- Steele