Caitlin Moran: ‘Every few years, I reread How To Be A Woman and marvel at what I got wrong’
“Masturbation, pornography, pubic hair, abusive relationships, wonky tits, menstruation, eating disorders, abortion, the madness of expensive weddings, sexism in the workplace, the pressure to have children, binge-drinking, the pain of childbirth, the joy of life as a modern woman: when I wrote How To Be A Woman in 2011, these were pretty novel subjects, because feminism had been siloed into the backwaters of academia, or on to late-night political talkshows. It had become so dry and jargon-filled that, even by 2015, a YouGov poll showed that 19% of people still believed calling someone a feminist was an insult. This was borne out by my childhood; the only time I’d ever heard my father even mention feminism was when he was arguing with my mother: “All right, Germaine Greer – put a sock in it.””
Article by Caitlin Moran – The Guardian, 29 August 2020