Manifesta: I Finished It!

And so, now that I have finished Manifesta and sort of marinated in my thoughts on it, I thought I ought to stop putting off blogging about it and go ahead — after all, next up is Unpacking the Knapsack and then, having established our frame, we’re moving on to Twilight! I know that’s going to one fun, fury-filled ride.

So, okay. To sum up: hated how much Ms. plugging there was, loved how much history they provided. Think that the aforementioned plugging has mostly to do with their personal experiences, therefore find it more forgivable, but must admit that still found it annoying.

Moving on! I loved, loved, loved how much Jennifer & Amy covered when it comes to the backstory of feminism. This, I think, is probably the most important thing about Manifesta. It does not present any new ideas to the reader, if the reader is not new to feminist thought. It is not really revolutionary, it is not thought-provoking in a, “wow, I never thought of that before!” way — but it IS full of the spirit of feminism. It is a relatively easy to read primer to the history of the movement, and it helps to break down the differences between First and Second and Third wave feminism, as well as going into different sub-categories like Riot Grrrl. Did you know about the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment), and how it never passed? I didn’t. I do now. It’s also rich with titles in case the reader is looking for more feminist literature. They also cover the problems of feminists not calling themselves feminists — in fact, this article really reminded me of passages in the book.

Their slant of “we need to all get along, gals” is also refreshing. Too often, when reading blogs and so-on, there seems to be this… mmm, this sort of cat-fight problem in feminism, where some people are anti-sex work and some are pro- and some think if you wear the miniskirt you are deluded and it all becomes this thing. Jennifer & Amy’s book is genuinely vested in going beyond that, into what is good about each view and why we need to work together.

I am one of those girls who has a extreme and deep love for bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. For me, Riot Grrrl — and political punk music in general — was this huge thing, this powerful discovery I made that started me on the road to actually thinking about political and social issues. Reading the history of that particular subculture bit was probably my favourite part of Manifesta.

Unlike Wolf’s Give Me Liberty, which left me feeling so horrifically “why bother” at the end, Manifesta leaves the reader with a really inspired, “I can do it!” attitude. The authors give a long appendix of contact information for various organizations, they have a section just on activism and who can do what, where, and how. This is probably my second-favourite part about this book.

I wanted to blog using quotes from the book, but my little sister has already made off with my copy — she is plowing through my bookshelves with a zeal that rivals a football fan — so that will have to be edited in.