Books, NonFiction

The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off by Gloria Steinem

Worth A Read Yes
Length 192
Quick Review Gloria Steinem has been one of the most identifiable women’s rights advocates for over sixty years. She has gathered some of her favorite quotes into this fun and powerful book. 

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My brand of feminism includes not wearing pants whenever possible.
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Spending quarantine reading The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off by Gloria Steinem.

I love quotes. I have a hard time remembering them, but I love them. I think they’re fascinating insights into just about anything, and when they’re really good quotes, they’re insights into everything. Gloria Steinem is quoted often. As a writer, activist, journalist, and all-around bad-ass, she has a lot of great quotes. She took some of her favorites from her career – and a few of her friends’ quotes too – and compiled them into The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off, which is one of her most famous quotes. 

The majority of the book is a collection of quotes. The prologue – like the beginning of every chapter – Steinem talks about moments and experiences in her life, which inspired or informed her work. She also breaks down the statistics, history, political, social, economics behind topics she tackles. The prologue takes the time to explain the title because it’s a quote she wrote many decades ago after being inspired by Vietnam protest signs. The quote went unnoticed for quite awhile until it became a slogan for feminists and others, “In a way, passing on a quote is like putting a note in a bottle and sending it out to sea.” 

Throughout the book some quotes are singled out and decorated with illustrations. The blue lettering used in these illustrations is a fun pop of color. 

The book is centered around women’s rights, but within the feminist realm she speaks to politics, aging, work, family, laughter, power, activism, racism, and more. 

Some might call it arrogant to make a book almost entirely out of your own quotes, but that’s only because she’s a woman. If a man did it, it would be called his greatest hits. I love that she had the lady-balls to say, ‘I like all of these things I’ve written. I like them so much, I want to remind everyone else about these awesome sentences and thoughts.’

A book of quotes is amazing, but it’s kind of hard to review. I highly enjoyed The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off. So I copied down my favoritest quotes, and it was hard to narrow them down because they were all good. It’s a great little book to keep on your coffee table or bookshelf. It’s filled with funny moments, serious topics, and a whole lot of feminism. 

Memorable Quotes
“So many of us are living out the unlived lives of our mothers.”
“A great thing about aging is that all those brain cells that were once devoted to sex are now available for anything else.”
“Democracy begins with owning our bodies. By that measure, women have rarely lived in a democracy.”
“Women can’t have it all if that means doing it all.”
“I hope you find encouragement and company in this lifetime connection of quotes from my speeches, articles, and books, plus some from my friends.”
“The Golden Rule was written by a smart guy for guys, but women need to reverse it: Treat ourselves as well as we treat others.”
“Talent is really enjoying something long enough to get good at it.” Nell Painter

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

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Title: The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off
Author: Gloria Steinem
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780593132685

Books

My Life on the Road

Read Yes
Length 276
Quick Review Steinem is a feminist icon having dedicated her life to activism, which kept her on the road. She finally put pen to paper to document her journey.

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This book was an adventure in and of itself because my dog took a bite out of the middle. After the ingestion of ten pages, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Gloria Steinem’s My Life on the Road.

As a woman who spends a great deal of time traveling, I enjoyed Steinem’s stories immensely because I identify with her narrative on so many levels. A lone woman on the road, wariness is a familiar companion. Steinem repeatedly found herself in uneasy scenarios only to be pleasantly surprised by the kindness and complexity of humanity. This has become one of my favorite parts of traveling.

Steinem’s nomadic life began with her father’s wandering ways. As a child without four walls to call her own, she lusted after a normal life only to realize the road was her normal. After college, she decided to go to India for two years where her love of traveling and being apart of the people began shaping her future. She talks about her stories with people, shared experiences, feeling of isolation, and how people would recross her path in the most unusual ways.

Steinem is known for her fierce activism for women’s rights, and one of the most powerful moments in the book is when she stated simply: “When humans are ranked instead of linked, everyone loses.” Her entire life on the road was for the purpose of leveling the playing field for all people regardless of gender, orientation, or ethnicity. As a traveler, she often dealt with feelings of isolation, which parallels the isolation many feminists deal with, “those of us, women and men, who identify with feminism are still made to feel isolated, wrong, out of step.” One of the most enlightening parts of My Life on the Road is when she discusses the Houston Women’s Convention in 1977. I never knew it existed, and she was there a leader and part of the movement.

A constant traveler herself, Steinem often found comrades in those who traveled for a living. She learned about the community cross-country truckers have, and the dangers and obstacles female drivers face. She learned of the struggle and marginalization of “stewardesses” in airlines as they fought for rights and equality to be known as flight attendants. Steinem could connect with people because she was always with people.

Steinem isn’t only serious, she’s incredibly funny with gems like: “It was like riding in a placenta with Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, or Chaka Khan.” She is funny, smart, and in touch. I can’t recommend it enough.

Memorable Quotes
“Perhaps our need to escape into media is a misplaced desire for the journey.”
“Also I’d, never thought about the racist reasons for controlling women’s bodies.”
“We might have known sooner that the most reliable predictor of whether a country is violent within itself – or will use military violence against another country – is not poverty, natural resources, religion, or even degree of democracy; it’s violence against females. It normalizes all other violence.”
“Altogether, I can’t imagine technology replacing bookstores completely…”
“If you travel long enough, every story becomes a novel.”
“… the presence of any woman devalued the masculine domain.”
“the power to make people laugh is also a power, so women have been kept out of comedy.”

Title: My Life on the Road
Author: Gloria Steinem
Publisher: Random House (Penguin Random House)
Copyright: 2015
ISBN: 9780679456209