We Were Feminists Once

From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement

By: Andi Zeisler

Narrated by: Joell A. Jacob

Today, feminism is no longer a dirty word, and women purporting to stand up for women's equality now include high-powered names like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Emma Watson. Hip underwear lines sell granny pants with "feminist" emblazoned on the back. In every bookstore there are scores of seductive feminist how-to business guides telling women how to achieve "it all". Meanwhile, access to abortion clinics is growing ever more difficult for many women across the country, and Arizona has passed a law requiring doctors to tell women undergoing abortive procedures about a junk science method of "reversing" abortion espoused by the Tea Party right. Feminism has gone mainstream, but true equality is never an easy sell.

Here, Andi Zeisler exposes how feminism has transformed into something barely warranting the name, ignoring the many for the one, shamelessly colluding with market forces and popular culture. Witty and fearless, We Were Feminists Once is the story of how we could have let this happen and where we go from here.

©2016 Andi Zeisler (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This thought-provoking yet sobering consideration of the current state of feminism emphasizes the need to continue to fight for full equality." ( Library Journal)

Very informative

I loved how the author left reference after reference of where she collected her information to ultimately make her conclusions. As a feminist that likes to have physical articles to hand over to those unsure of the cause, this was a gold mine.
This book gave me references to lawsuit cases, media advertisements, legislation decisions, research studies, campaign organizations and quotes from celebrities, politicians, researchers, CEOs and much more.

Fantastic book despite shoddy narration

This is a thorough, thoughtful, though by no means unbiased study of a topic that defies easy definition. While I might have minor quibbles with Zeisler on very minor points, I agree with her premise that "marketplace feminismL is detrimental to the cause it purports to advance. Moreover, I think this theme can be seen in other contemporary movements.

I concur with other reviewers frustrated by this audiobook's narration. The density of mispronunciation a is kind of staggering. To be fair though, it's not entirely poor Joell A. Jacob's fault. The other members of the production team bear some responsibility too. And mispronunciation a aside, Jacob's performance is actually pretty easy on the ears, and matches the lively buoyant tone of Zeisler's prose.

This is the first book-length study of feminism I've read, but it certainly won't be the last. We're all in this together.

A vital primer on feminism

I always thought of myself as a feminist. In many ways, as this book has helped me see, I have fallen short of the mark (obviously). An essential reminder that we all (mostly) need to (re)examine the topic and our perceptions and thinking more deeply. I’ll be telling my fellow men to read this and will gladly recommend it to anyone else. Thank you Andi!

Very Engaging Read For Feminists And Marketers

Andi does an excellent job of exploring how feminist themes got co-opted, sugared, and repackaged as sales pitches by the capitalist system. She does an eloquent job of analyzing how this repackaging actually undercuts the ideology of solidarity and collective action needed to achieve feminsim's humanistic goals and instead substitutes individual consumerism as feminist action. What is very, very uneloquent is the articulation of the reader.

The reader was unprofessional. When the text spoke of Andi's publishing career the reader pronounced the word "zine" (a contraction of the word magazine) as "zyne" the first time and "zeen", the proper pronunciation, the subsequent times. The reader pronounced the magazine title Nete A Porter as if the title was not from French.

Those reading foibles could be overlooked if this reader did not pull me right out of the book every time she did not mouth cross the double "tt"s in the words "written" and "button". Plus the reader softens the "or" in the middle of the word "important". A reader is suppose to either disappear altogether as the listener gets enfold ed in the text. Or the reader is suppose to enrich the text with character voices. The reader is NOT suppose to pull the listener out of the text. Yet that is exactly what this reader did.

Great book, terrible narration

I have read this book in paper form and I quite enjoyed it, but this audio version is terrible. The narration sounds like it is done by a robot. It is read in a monotone Siri-like voice, with many mispronunciations. I had to give up on it very quickly.

Refreshing and poignant

Market place feminism conditions Stockholm syndrome.. brilliant! Post-its clutter my desk from all the thought provoking tid bits that reside in this book.

Fantastic content but you might want to READ it...

...if you have issues with rampant mispronunciation of words.

Argh! The audio narrator would have been great but she can't pronounce the most basic of words or even celebrity names. I listened to 275 audio books last year and this one tops the list "most mispronounced words." It's egregious. I'm going to estimate that most books have about an average of 4 mispronounced words and this one has...50? Probably more. I should have tallied them.

She also swallows her "Ts" in any word that is 2 syllables " so "written" is "wri-en." "Latin America" has no "T."

It's really a pity. I'm not reviewing the content, which does deserve a 4 star review because the narrator is such an annoyance. Still, if you are in the "all audio" category of "reader," steel yourself, because it's still worth the listen despite the narrator.

Sounds like Siri is reading it!

Loved the book, but the narration was terrible. It is a great feminist starter text.

Amazing for anyone interested in feminism and gender studies

This book was so enlightening (and frustrating!) anyone who cares about the future of equality should read. The narrator is awful though and mispronounces words in her monotone and robotic voice. But if ya can get past that it's a real treat!

Great Book, Poor Narration

This was a great book, but the narrator repeatedly mispronounced words and names throughout. I liked her delivery, but it seems like she had no opportunity to research before reading aloud and no one was checking the recording after.