Vitriolic Reviews: Half the Sky

 I read this book for my feminist bookclub (which seems currently incapable of picking a time to actually sit down and discuss it). So instead I will have some thoughts about it for the invisible masses of the internet. Or something.

My initial reaction to this book was two-fold. I find it extremely useful that the authors make every effort to get readers off their bums and doing something, even tiny little somethings, to help women all over the planet. One thing this book does well: condemn the low priority assigned to developing and ensuring women's health, economic well being, and educational opportunities around the world. The amount of money that is donated towards women and young girls around the world pales in comparison to say the 1.5 BILLION dollars spent on Abstinence Until Marriage  Sex 'Education' in the United States. Immediately it makes the facts about the status of women (read: shitty, as always) worldwide and gives you immediate ways to help out.



Unfortunately, to do so, the book can come across as pretty darn manipulative. Please feel sorry for Srey Neth, a young woman forced into prostitution in Cambodia. Here's the specific organization where you can donate to help young women like her. Obviously this kind of information is incredibly important. But the book never addresses the larger cultural sexist attitudes that make her exploitation common and difficult to eradicate. I am all for small scale intervention. I live in the real world, and every little bit helps real live women that need it. Please do volunteer for organizations that work to end sexual slavery or donate to help women such as Srey Neth.

BUT there is something equally important that must be addressed that has not been. The challenge to the very root patriarchal ideas that make sexual slavery and the exploitation of women and children possible. These patriarchal ideas CANNOT be attacked by appealing to an individual story and manipulating the audience into action for that one cause. Sexism MUST be addressed within all of us.  There are cultural values and social mores that allow this kind of exploitation to continue. And they are not at all 'foreign'. I feel like the book should have drawn more attention to the fact that the author, Kristof, as a white American man, could walk into a brothel and 'buy' a young female women to do with as he pleased. This one white American man could do so because many white American (or Canadian. Or Western, if you will) can and do do so. ALL THE TIME. We can and must help the women of the developing world. But we also can AND MUST challenge both the men of the developing world and the developed world to take a good hard look at their privileges and their attitudes. Sexual slavery and rape will stop when men stop doing it. This is the hard truth one must face when aiming to help women at home and around the world.

Furthermore, the focus of the book is the developing world. This is important for a number of reasons: a) the way these countries develop, and treat women, is extremely important for the future of women worldwide. (As well, as the book cleverly argues, for the world as a whole. This is because the empowerment of women aids local economies and communities); b) it would be impossible for the book to also tackle this problem a little closer to home. That would be quite the tome.

That being said, I find it completely infuriating that it is only 'fashionable' to donate and volunteer in developing countries. Obviously those countries and those women need the help desperately and obviously we are well situated to lend a hand. It would be nice, however, for some books to start acknowledging the work that needs to be done here. Off the top of my head: a women is raped every 17 minutes in Canada. We need to fund rape crisis centers, volunteer our time, create more transition houses for battered women and most importantly: Fight rape culture in our advertisements, in our newspapers and television, and within ourselves.
Not your cup of tea?
How about the fact that ONE IN NINE  Canadian children live in poverty?! We are one of the richest countries in the world and yet we continue to fail our children.

Please: donate to some of the foundations and organizations that Kristof and WuDunn suggest. But please remember that women and children struggle a little bit closer to home. And they don't have Bono. 


 Short but sweet review truth: I actually enjoyed reading this book and it inspired me to help in new and different ways. It's good to keep yourselves informed. Give it a read.
Et en peu de vitriol gives it ****

Get it from Amazon. (Please try your local bookseller first)