Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman

by Anne Helen Petersen

**A Stylist Book Club pick**

'In a time when women are under constant attack, I am so grateful for Anne Helen Petersen's sharp and topical book. Petersen nails the magnetism of women who break boundaries and the punishment that often comes along with it. All women will see a bit of themselves in the "unruly"' Jessica Valenti, New York Times-bestselling author of Sex Object

You know the type: the woman who won't shut up, who flaunts it, who's too brazen, too opinionated – too much. Sometimes, she's the life of the party; others, she's the focus of gossip. She's the unruly woman, and she's one of the most provocative, powerful forms of womanhood today. 

The unruly woman has been around for as long as there have been boundaries of what constitutes acceptable 'feminine' behaviour – that is, for ever – but these days she is more visible and less easily dismissed than ever before. In Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud, cultural critic and Buzzfeed writer Anne Helen Petersen explores 'unruliness' through the lens of eleven pop culture powerhouses, including Serena Williams, Melissa McCarthy, Nicki Minaj, Madonna, Kim Kardashian, Hillary Clinton, Caitlyn Jenner and Lena Dunham. Petersen examines why our culture loves to love and berate these controversial figures for being 'too' something: too queer, too strong, too naked, too old, too shrill, too much. This is an incisive, candid, conversation starting analysis of the part influential women play in redefining contemporary femininity. 

'An oasis in a world of hot takes, a set of crisp essays on the provocateurs who fascinate and enrage us. With warmth and wit, Anne Helen Petersen celebrates the power of being just a little too much, seeking the rebel inside the trainwreck' Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker critic 

'Raucous and smart . . . Because these criticisms are, writ large, the same ones flung daily at non-celeb women, the book is a timely and essential read' US Elle

'Anne Helen Petersen's gloriously bumptious, brash ode to nonconforming women suits the needs of this dark moment . . . Crucial reading' Rebecca Traister, author of All the Single Ladies

• ISBN10: 1471171779
• ISBN13: 9781471171772
• Publish Date: 21 September 2017 (first published 20 June 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Imprint: Scribner UK
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[clementine]

I like the idea of this book: an exploration of the ways in which women step out of bounds and are sanctioned for it. But unfortunately the best I can say about it is that it's a perfect illustration of why the rise of feminism in the public consciousness doesn't actually equate to meaningful activism. I mean, do we actually a need a white woman telling us about how revolutionary Hillary Clinton, Lena Dunham, Kim Kardashian, and Caitlyn Jenner are?

Petersen's writing is competent: clear, smart, well-articulated. It's also unmistakably the writing of someone who has spent time in media studies academia. Take, for example, this description of Kim K: "no makeup, her hair tied up in a truly messy, not performatively messy, bun." A performatively messy bun, you guys! Ahh!

But the biggest issue I have with this book is its politics. Petersen takes great pains in the introduction to explain why the majority of the women she writes about are straight and white: because unruliness is accessible, with fewer consequences, to straight white women. This is undoubtedly true. It's also a major fucking copout. The women she writes about are merely completing the work of so many who came before them, many of them women of colour, or trans women, or lesbians. Petersen tries to contextualize each essay, but what's missing is acknowledgment of the labour of the subaltern that white women capitalize on.

Petersen also tries to acknowledge the "problematic" (barf I hate that word) nature of some of the women she profiles, but ultimately fails as she continues to uphold these women as revolutionary. She successfully works through the issue of Serena Williams' anger (and this is the strongest essay in the book by far, a defense of a woman who has spent her entire career dealing with coded and not-so-coded racism and misogyny, scrutinized because it is unbelievable to the white majority that she could be so dominant). But she just misses the mark with her other essays. No mention, for example, of any of the legitimate grievances people might make against Hillary Clinton. No doubt much of the rhetoric around her is frustratingly sexist; no doubt she is perceived as shrill because she is a woman; no doubt misogyny played a large role in her loss. But, come on. She's an establishment politician; she failed to adequately address the concerns of many minority populations; she made major missteps in her campaign.

The chapter on Lena Dunham was obviously an eyeroll. Petersen vaguely references to "a lack of diversity on her show" and "her privilege" but does not expand upon that at all. Again, yes, Lena Dunham is the recipient of misogynistic bullshit, and yes, some of that is because she puts her size 12 naked body on television. But, hello, she has huge issues with race (and acknowledging it as "a blind spot" as she did in a recent profile does nothing to alleviate that), and she LITERALLY accused an actress on her show of lying about being raped by one of her friends. (OH BY THE WAY, the actress was a biracial woman, just to add another layer to that lovely story.) She outed her sibling to their parents. COME ON. She is the worst. She is not a woman who deserves to be hailed as some boundary-breaking feminist hero. The people I know don't hate her because she's naked on HBO, they hate her because she is a truly godawful, unbearable, immoral person.

And Caitlyn Jenner! Oh my god! I Am Cait is worthy of analysis and exploration, and Jenner's celebrity image is absolutely fascinating. But for Jenner to be used as a poster child for trans women, for her chapter to be labelled "too queer", is a slap in the face to the entire LGBTQ community and to trans women specifically. Jenner has done almost no meaningful activism while trans women of colour do work that is never acknowledged. Jenner is a Republican voter and opposes same-sex marriage; choosing her as the representative of "too queer" is truly offensive to all the LGBTQ women who are actually unruly, revolutionary, whose hard work makes a difference, who put up with abuse and assault and social sanctioning that Jenner has insulated herself from. Caitlyn Jenner does not and will not ever represent me or other LGBTQ women. She is an enemy of the community except for when it serves her personally. Of all the trans women and bi women and lesbians whose work is transformative and necessary, for Jenner to be selected instead - it's just insulting. It really is.

Anyway, this book had one good essay (the one on Serena Williams), a few essays that had good points spoiled by generally shallow analyses and dumb academic jargon, and a bunch of REALLY bad ones.

[gmcgregor]

I was psyched when I found out Anne Helen Petersen, who does amazing writing on celebrity for Buzzfeed, was writing a book, Too Fat Too Slutty Too Loud, about women who transgress our social norms. Who among us hasn't stepped outside the lines, peeked out from inside the box and felt blowback for it? Who hasn't looked at the women who do get out there and live out there and regarded them with a curious mixture of revulsion and envy? Petersen highlights nine (well, ten, as one pair is addressed in the same essay) "unruly" women, focusing on how each in turn has challenged the expectations we place on lady people. Many of these challenges focus on the body, from Serena Williams' "too strong" frame to Madonna's refusal to cover up because she's "too old" to Caitlyn Jenner's "too queer" gender confirmation surgery. There are also women who make other choices they're not supposed to: Hilary Clinton might be smart and ambitious, but she's "too shrill", and Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer (the Broad City team) make us uncomfortable because they're "too gross".

I wanted this book to be amazing and mind-blowing and incredible. And it was good! Petersen's writing is lively and insightful and serious without being ponderous. But I think maybe it would have worked better if it had been split into two volumes, one focusing on body and one focusing on personality. The essays felt like they skimmed the surface, taking a shallow dive into concepts that deserve deeper thought and analysis that I would have loved to read Petersen's take on. In writing about how Nicki Minaj is "too slutty", for example, Petersen refers to and gives some brief background on how black female bodies are sexualized and fetishized. But there's so much there that because the book needed to be a reasonable length and there are eight other subjects, she doesn't really have space to really give it the full context it deserves. I felt the same way, perhaps even more strongly, about the chapter on Jenner and trans issues. It would have felt problematic to leave the gender binary untouched entirely, but to only briefly interact with it doesn't feel quite right either.

One essay, though, that really made me think was the piece about "too loud" Jennifer Weiner, who won't just quietly accept the judgment of her writing about women and their lives (which, to be perfectly honest, I don't personally much care for) as mere "chick lit" not to be taken seriously. I know I fall into that trap with my own reading, disdaining titles with pastel covers or shoes and shopping bags prominently displayed. There's not a good reason why I, or we, treat stories about women's lives and problems, written by women, as lesser than books written by and about men. This was just one of the instances of reflection prompted by this book, and though it does have issues, it's very worth reading if you want to take some time to interact with your conceptions of womanhood.