by Julie DiCaro ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021
An eye-opening and dispiriting account of biased behavior.
A sports journalist for Deadspin reflects on the perils of being female in a toxically male-dominated field.
DiCaro, who segued from a career as an attorney into public relations and then, at age 40, into a position in sports talk radio, focuses primarily on the many difficulties of working at the radio station. After she lost her job during the pandemic, she realized that she was “far from the only woman who had run smack into a brick wall, unable to rise above a part-time, after-hours show.” Drawing on her own experience, as well as those of other women in sports media, she discusses in appalling detail the corrosive effect of the ongoing personal criticism of her voice and appearance by predominantly male callers to the show and, even more distressingly, the multiple attacks by Twitter trolls, including “death threats, rape threats, attempts to get me fired from my job.” DiCaro notes that as a woman sports reporter, it's far easier to get a job reporting objective facts from the sidelines than one where the journalist is allowed to express her opinion. The author insightfully analyzes the hidden biases involved in sports reporting, most notably that her co-hosts seemed all too willing to dismiss claims of sexual or domestic violence against players, in part because the shows depend on sponsorship by local teams. DiCaro aims much of her anger at Barstool Sports, the online media company that “definitely engages in advanced-level trolling.” Some may assume the author is just settling scores, but Barstool has a long reputation of harassment. The first chapter, about women sports journalist who came before, the “smashers of glass ceilings,” condenses material from other sources, and DiCaro occasionally veers off topic. Still, she provides enough solid evidence to convince readers that sports media remains a bastion of male privilege.
An eye-opening and dispiriting account of biased behavior.Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4610-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
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by Alok Vaid-Menon ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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by Shavone Charles ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
by Leo Baker ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
by Paul Kalanithi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 19, 2016
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
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A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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