Half the Sky

"This book is hard for me to review. The information and the facts presented are important and I agree that worldwide misogyny should be our #1 social justice issue. However, something about the tone of the book was bothersome. I am not sure who the authors' audience is (I'm assuming wealthy white women), but he appears to think his audience is either really dumb and/or immoral and the book kept coming off as preachy and patronizing. There are lots of criticisms of potential Western involvement, first for not participating and then HOW we participate, etc. He first criticizes lack of awareness. However, nothing the author presented was information that was new to me or presented in a new light, and I have followed better written pieces about these issues. Then, he criticizes Americans for not traveling to overseas areas. However, he brags about how it's dangerous and how we should risk malaria, etc. to go. He seems to be bragging about himself (see the author's bio on Goodreads - about how he brags on his blog about an "African plane crash" etc) and I don't think going on a "suffering/poverty" **** tour would be helpful to anyone. He criticizes anyone who gives to other organizations in their local areas, as if charity/volunteerism is an all-or-nothing game. (How DARE people give to HIGH BROW organizations like universities or the arts!) And he makes it sound as if misogyny is only a developing world issue and focusing our attention on it here at home would be pointless and privileged. I work in social work/psychology and believe me, violence against women and children, lack of prenatal care, lack of healthcare/reproductive rights, rape, poverty, job/educational discrimination, etc all still happen in our capitalist Westernized countries buddy. Also his best solution seems to be exploiting cheap foreign labor through capitalism. We are supposed to feel "okay" with this, because the women are working in sweatshops and making some money, rather than being sex slaves. Another pet peeve - every single story he wrote about a woman began with a physical description of her, usually describing either how pretty or how "small/petite" she was. Again, the most important feature of womanhood is how attractive we are physically? To men? Are ugly women not worth saving? Give me a break. Even the teenage high school girl who had started charitable organizations was described as looking like a "prom queen." I don't recall a single physical description of any of the men in the book. Overall, an important topic but I am not a fan of the business school "social entrepreneur" model presented in this book and having a white male ORDER me how to help and which charities to donate to was annoying."

"Eye opening! "