radical sanity: contradictory fluff by clueless woman
When other readers comment that Wurtzel is spoiled, I really want to shake them-- the aforementioned "do not do the dishes" portion is is the only part of the book I can find that would (mistakenly) lead one to that conclusion. In any case, I'd hope that the chapters about being self-sufficient and not dumping your problems on friends & family neutralize any misconceptions about Wurtzel being a spoiled brat. To me, advising people never to do something unpleasant that they can pay someone else to do does NOT make one spoiled, but smart. Ditto for spending $$ on good hairstylists. I mean, if you're smart enough to make more than the money it takes to hire a maid, why would you be dumb enough to do such work yourself?? Work an extra hour and use the $ to pay the maid for 2 hrs, rather than cleaning your own apt for 4 hrs (unless, of course, you dislike efficiency enough to sew your own clothes & grow your own food, circa 2000 B.C.!) And is walking around with orange hair really worth the money you saved by doing it yourself?
All of the above are reasons why this book is titled "Common advice..."-- the thing about common advice is that it's not at all common, as the college educated, house-cleaning, man-worshiping Miss Clairol victims show us everyday. This book is a public service! -- via a review of Radical Sanity: Commonsense Advice for Uncommon Women.
I have a few thoughts on this.
While Wurtzel's book attempts to be a direly needed kick in the rear for the hoards of young woman who have no identity or hope outside their Prozac prescriptions or pot-bingeing habits, it's nothing but a poorly written suburbanite piece of fluff that does as much harm as "good." That girls read this book &decide to join the ranks of feminism while denouncing dishes as "too beneath them" &"something other people should be hired to do" proves only how shallow, thoughtless, racist, &classist this book really is. Wurtzel's readers claim women &girls everywhere should embrace feminism &end the oppression of women everywhere &then define success as how many maids you can hire to do your dirty work for you. Yeah, it certainly is easy to be a liberated female when you have all those faceless Mexicans/blacks/poor women doing your basic household chores, right? It's really liberating womankind, right? Wrong! Gender-defined liberation cannot be had at the expense of the poorer versions of your own gender...and gender roles (esp. that archaic &gross "women belong in the kitchen" adage) can't change so long as we continue to assign working class WOMEN to clean our [mess].
There are millions of women out there who have harder things to deal with than "should I get my hair professionally dyed pink or purple?" -- there are women out there who HAVE to cook, &clean, &work, &then decide whether or not their minimum wage paycheck should be spent on a doctor's visit for their kid, food, or bus fare. This book has absolutely no qualms telling girls that liberation is had by making these poor usually non-white women clean your house/earn no respect/receive no benefits/experience no choice while you go have your feet pedicured, &it's gross. Radical Sanity is another lame &VERY unfeminist piece of trash directed at bored suburbanites everywhere who are tired of choosing between Contempo Casuals &Hot Topic &should be skipped. Read some bell hooks instead.
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I really wish I'd rented this book before I bought it for Kim -- I could've sent that money to the desperate and good-intentioned Green Party, or something, rather Elizabeth Wurtzel's big vapid gold-lined PO Box. Live and learn, I guess.