BOOK REVIEW

Feminism: for Real (for some of us)

Feminism For Real: Deconstructing the academic industrial complex of feminism
Edited by Jessica Yee
Reviewed by Melissa Graham

If you’re someone who’s struggled to figure out what the women’s rights movement is about, or if you’ve had trouble finding ways to make that movement fit into your experience, then I suggest you read this book.

Its editor, Jessica Yee, is a self-described “Two Spirit multi-racial Indigenous hip hop feminist reproductive justice freedom fighter,” as well as a non-academic, non-writer. She took on this challenge as a way to bring out the stories of people who are generally excluded or don’t find themselves fitting into the mainstream feminist movement.

Feminism FOR REAL is an attempt to confront the uncomfortable questions of mainstream feminism and bring together the contributors of this book to share their uncomfortable truths, not just about feminism, but about who they are and where they are coming from. It questions the idea that our ideas and struggles only count if they are understood by others.

This book has been hailed as a groundbreaking read, that brings out the stories of “real life” feminism. Yee’s contributors focus mainly on feminism as experienced by Indigenous communities, exposing over 500 years of colonization and oppression as it plays out in mainstream feminism. It is an enjoyable read that feels more like a conversation than a non-fiction book.

The needs of Indigenous and racialized communities within movements are an important discussion that all too often gets set aside as a special interest group.

That being said, I have a bit of a caution about this book.

By calling it Feminism FOR REAL, the book suggests that the experiences posed by mainstream feminism are somehow artificial, and risks alienating those it means to teach. It also suggests that these are the only experiences that get left out of mainstream feminism. I don’t think it is necessary or possible to fit all of these experiences into one book, but it’s definitely worth noting, especially if we see women’s rights as a community concern.

Feminism FOR REAL is a great beginning exploration of where our ideas of feminism come from, who decides what the priorities of that movement are and why. The book may not make the walls of academia come tumbling down, but it speaks to the frustrations of trying to relate to definitions of feminism that never fit no matter how hard you try.

It also gives us hope for a way to change these definitions, not so that one size fits all, but so that feminism fits the real world.