A work of candor that incites more questions than illuminates answers or a path forward.
Bravo unpacks “our complicity” by assigning responsibility for women’s mistreatment at the hands of men to internalized patriarchal norms.
In 2017, the author accused Charlie Rose of sexual misconduct toward her a decade earlier. In the introduction, she examines how “women are conditioned to enable their own mistreatment.” From various angles, she attacks the blaming of victims, heteronormative gender roles, and the forcing of women, in the interest of self-preservation, to choose “the least shitty of shit options.” Bravo weaves stories of women’s interactions with predatory men with social psychology studies about unconscious acceptance of power biases, and she quotes a wide variety of other sources, ranging from bell hooks to Louis C.K. “It’s easier to assume that we simply failed…than to recognize how conditioned we’ve been to acquiesce to men,” writes the author. Much of the book is repetitive, but Bravo’s points are distinct and often spot-on—e.g., “We’re so boxed in by our simplistic, all-or-nothing conception of consent....The patriarchy has never provided easily accessible, effective scripts for confronting male entitlement.” The author acknowledges her privileges as a White woman in a racist society. “If you’re a white woman like me, you’ve been given ample opportunity in recent years to reflect on systemic racism and how you’re implicated,” she writes. Throughout, the author’s first-person-plural usage may offer inclusion for a specific group of readers, but it limits both her audience as well as those who may identify with some of the messages and relayed experiences yet don’t care to be spoken for. Following 200 pages largely filled with examples of women’s mistreatment, Bravo names the single solution as “relentless imagination” and asks, “Can we truly conceive of our lives outside of dominant, patriarchal frameworks?”
A work of candor that incites more questions than illuminates answers or a path forward.Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9781982154745
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
A sharp, entertaining view of the news media from one of its star players.
The veteran newscaster reflects on her triumphs and hardships, both professional and private.
In this eagerly anticipated memoir, Couric (b. 1957) transforms the events of her long, illustrious career into an immensely readable story—a legacy-preserving exercise, for sure, yet judiciously polished and insightful, several notches above the fray of typical celebrity memoirs. The narrative unfolds through a series of lean chapters as she recounts the many career ascendency steps that led to her massively successful run on the Today Show and comparably disappointing stints as CBS Evening News anchor, talk show host, and Yahoo’s Global News Anchor. On the personal front, the author is candid in her recollections about her midlife adventures in the dating scene and deeply sorrowful and affecting regarding the experience of losing her husband to colon cancer as well as the deaths of other beloved family members, including her sister and parents. Throughout, Couric maintains a sharp yet cool-headed perspective on the broadcast news industry and its many outsized personalities and even how her celebrated role has diminished in recent years. “It’s AN ADJUSTMENT when the white-hot spotlight moves on,” she writes. “The ego gratification of being the It girl is intoxicating (toxic being the root of the word). When that starts to fade, it takes some getting used to—at least it did for me.” Readers who can recall when network news coverage and morning shows were not only relevant, but powerfully influential forces will be particularly drawn to Couric’s insights as she tracks how the media has evolved over recent decades and reflects on the negative effects of the increasing shift away from reliable sources of informed news coverage. The author also discusses recent important cultural and social revolutions, casting light on issues of race and sexual orientation, sexism, and the predatory behavior that led to the #MeToo movement. In that vein, she expresses her disillusionment with former co-host and friend Matt Lauer.
A sharp, entertaining view of the news media from one of its star players.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-53586-1
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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