JogiesFosties t1_j24ndra wrote on December 29, 2022 at 5:07 PM

In the past, this book had a large impact on me. I grew up very conservative and religious, with very strict traditional gender roles. I read this book right as I was starting to turn away from my religion, and found the different take on womanhood to be super impactful for me at that time in my life.

BUT, that was several years ago. I've tried to re-read it more recently, and had a difficult time looking past those problematic areas you mentioned. For my job, I work with a lot of transgender and nonbinary folks. So I now find the strict binary language around gender (cis-woman or cis-man) described in the book to be incredibly off-putting.

Depending on your comfort level and the openness of your book club to talk about these things, I think this could he a really interesting discussion to have with your book club.

Purplefootprint OP t1_j24y6we wrote on December 29, 2022 at 6:17 PM

Thank you, I like your idea. The book club is an ongoing one, and it has a lot of young women who have found a wealth of great advise in these pages. Maybe there are cases where "if it works for me, what's the damage?" kind of thinking excuses a text that brings also a message that reads a lot like extremism. However, as you mention, in a more mature group, diverse, it would be an interesting reading for discussion and also to shed lights on things we currently don't see.