Leah
Written on Sep 6, 2011
It’s A Man’s World wasn’t the book I was expecting. Reading the synopsis, I expected a male vs female battle-of-the-sexes type novel where Alexa had to strive to make her mark in the male-dominated environment of Banter, a lads mag. And whilst Alexa does strive to make her mark, it was nowhere near how I expected it to be. Instead, It’s A Man’s World is one long, epic tale of how, frankly, lads mags are ruining the world. So where I was expecting a relatively lightish read, instead I get something more hard-hitting and something infinitely harder to take than I’d have liked. Much like Polly, when I think of a lads mag office (not that I do very much) I expect it to be light-hearted and well, if Polly’s research and subsequent writing is anything to go by, it isn’t and it just was a bit more than I was expecting, really.
It’s still quite a readable novel, but once the novel takes its turn to the dark side – ie. when the protestors come on board after Alexa launches a mobile app, it does become one big rant on how lads mags are destroying everything and I do think that’s unfair. I can’t say I’m alright with lads mags, but to hold them responsible for everything wrong in the media and to suggest that the only offices in which women are sexually harassed is in lads mags ones, that’s wrong. Because it’s not true. While the office environment of Banter is hard to swallow – and I did question Alexa’s reasons for keeping schtum – it does indeed seem an accurate portrayal and I sort of expected Alexa to be a stronger character, to really take it to the men and to show them women are perfectly capable of doing a job deemed to be predominantly male. I wanted Alexa to show them she could turn the magazine around, and that was seriously lacking.
If you’re going to write a character that goes into a male-oriented work domain she’s got to be strong. I want her to go in there and show them who’s boss. Go in there and not let them get you down, not let their harassment be tolerated, you know? But Alexa just sort of flip-flops throughout the book. She wants to make her mark, no doubt, but she’s miles too meek to do it. She haphazardly decides to get “revenge” on the editor, Derek, but her revenge is nothing really, not what I expected. She’s almost thirty years old, but she’s afraid to tell her parents where she works because her mother allegedly rules her life(!). A stronger heroine was needed. Everyone who worked at Banter, with the exception of Jamie and Riz, were horrific. Like I’ve said a few times, I’m sure all of those people are representative of how men think and believe, and it is rather disgusting.
It’s A Man’s World is more hard-hitting than I expected, but it was also a little too preachy. I can see where Courtney was going with it – truly, I can – and I can believe that females in real life who do work at lads mags have a hard time, but honestly? I don’t want to read it in my fiction. I’m all for my characters overcoming obstacles, but I draw the line at having to put up with a character who’s protesting that lads mags are the worst thing ever. I’m not defending lads mags, I’m not saying it’s wrong of Courtney to have a novel that’s a bit more true-to-life, but I’m just saying it’s not really my cup-of-tea and I thought it was going to be more of a light-hearted look at what it takes for a woman to make it in a male-dominated world. It was readable enough, but not what I was expecting. Sadly It’s A Man’s World wasn’t a book I loved, however it was readable enough and a lot of people will love it, I just found it a bit too different than how I expected it to be!