From Seal Press:
Hellions: Pop Culture’s Rebel Women by Maria Raha
“Modern pop culture and the media have distorted the notion of rebellion. Classic male rebels appear sexy, nomadic—naturally rebellious—while unorthodox women are reprimanded, made to fit unrealistic roles and body images, or mocked for their decadence and self-indulgence. In order to appreciate our legacy of female rebels—and create space for future cultural icons—the notion of rebellion needs to be reevaluated.”
I expected to love this book. After all, I love rebellious women and consider myself one. Now that I’ve finished it I find I’m ambivalent about it instead.
The book starts off rightly criticizing pop culture’s love of rebellious men and either disdain or ignorance of rebellious women. I’m totally agree with Raha here. But this went on and on. I felt like “I get it let’s move on to the Hellions” and thought that sentiment only needed a paragraph. I wanted the book to be jammed packed with radical icons. Maybe the average reader wouldn’t agree with sentiment? It just made me impatient but perhaps I’m not the target audience here.
After all, I knew most of the women covered in this book. That was ok though-I love reading about Jane Fonda’s anti-war activism and was pleasantly surprised to see Cindy Sheehan included in the politics chapter.
The book seems to have two themes. On one hand it’s celebrating rebellious women. But at the same time it critiques all the ones covered. I don’t think the combination of celebration and critique work here; it’s a buzzkill for the book. It’s as if Raha gets the reader all excited over someone only to take a literary swipe at the end of the description.
Another disappointment was the lack of photos. The cover made me think there would be plenty. A book like this would benefit from pictures of the women described in it. Each chapter starts with a photo but I would have appreciated a snapshot of the particular woman I was reading about. This could have been due to the book’s budget though.
Would I recommend this book? Perhaps. If you don’t know about many rebellious women this book showcases many of them. If you’re already familiar I’d say skip it. This would make an excellent gift book. I’m saving my copy to give to a friend for her birthday.
Posted by Vixen as Reviews at 11:02 PM CST