Welcome back readers! After surviving
one of those so-called “natural events” that are getting worse due to the
massive amounts of greenhouse gases spewed into the environment, I am back
here. I got sick after that, which delayed the writing of this post even more...
I am thankful that I survived without any injuries, and now I need to keep my
book blog active.
If there is only one book you want to read this
year, make sure you pick Caroline Criado
Perez’s book: Do It Like a Woman.
You may not know this, but even educated
people are biased against women. Both men and women are; the consequences of these
biases are disastrous for humanity and the planet we inhabit. Therefore, Caroline Criado Perez’s book may
be an effective vaccine to prevent this terrifying, subliminal social
phenomenon.
Even
though research has debunked the myth that boys are better at math than girls, even
educated people are known to spread false beliefs that have a harming impact on
society as a whole. In 2005 Lawrence Summer, the then president of Harvard
University, made a bizarre speech about how girls are just intrinsically worse
at math than boys, and that issues of “socialization and continuing
discrimination” are in fact secondary to this “variability of aptitude.”
Stereotyping and prejudices have a serious impact on peoples’ lives. I
have always been aware of the fact that gender double standards are normalized and considered acceptable. The problem
is rooted in the fact that both girls and women are penalized when they do not
conform to stereotypical gender behavior. In The Equality Illusion, Kat Banyard
cites a 2003 study of teachers which found that the same behaviors that led
boys to be indulgently labelled as “just mucking about” led girls to be called
“bad influences,” “spiteful,” and “scheming little madams.”
Research has shown that "men who asked for flexible time to enable them to carry out childcare commitments were rated as more respectable, likable, committed, and promotion-worthy than a woman who made the exact same request."
Do it like a woman who does not behave like a sycophant… and change the world
Do It Like a Woman by Caroline Criado Perez is about
women who try to transform systems that put women
down systematically. When they cannot transform them, as it happens in some cases, they defy them. The book brings to the spotlight situations and data that
are not even questioned or acknowledged. It happens across the world.
There are no excuses to be surprised anymore. Before
the election of November, 2024 in America, I remember journalists interviewing
people who clearly expressed that they would never vote for Kamala Harris for
president because she was a woman. ( One cannot help but wonder why these
people are afraid of intelligent women while they trust an incompetent man and
vote for him to make him president).
In November 2024 in the United States of
America seventy-seven million people voted for a convicted felon instead of
voting for the female candidate who had a clean record. This is not an opinion;
this is a fact.
Social misogyny is expensive and
destructive.
Seventy-seven million people voted for a man
who promised to lower grocery prices, stop the war in Ukraine and Gaza, fix the
healthcare system and reduce gasoline prices. He also promised he would start
no new wars and to be a dictator on day one. He expressed admiration for
Vladimir Putin. This is what they voted for.
On February 28 the man they voted for was
responsible for the death of more than 160 girls in a school in Minab. I am
still waiting for signs of accountability; the silence is deafening. This
atrocity was not enough. Then he threatened to wipe out an entire civilization.
Yet his sycophants continue to normalize him.
Many people have died as a result of the
votes in November 2024 and continue to die. It is hard to keep up with so much
destruction, injustice and irrationality. Let’ s not forget the people in America who
die in the hands of ICE. Money that could be invested in education, health and
the environment is used to build detention centers to detain innocent people. I do not see any signs of social and fiscal responsibility here.
The trump regime is now busy going after political opponents, covering up for pedophiles and building a ballroom. It is also too busy trying to censor comedians and posting ridiculous material online by using AI... It is hard to understand why seventy- seven million voters in America have so little self-respect. It is truly sad to see how they were okay with voting for a man who is happy to destroy their own country.
How can they even call this the
political party of social and fiscal responsibility?
Let's refresh people's memories because they are very fragile and feeble. Seventy-seven million people voted for a man who started an unlawful war to cover up
for pedophile crimes. Ninety million people could not bring themselves to vote
for a woman because she was not good enough for them.
How
many billion dollars are being spent daily on an unlawful war to kill children when the money
could have been used for education, health and the environment?
Social
misogyny has devastating consequences for every country in the world and we
need to face the truth and work to address it. This is why Do It Like a
Woman is an important book.
You
will learn about women working to fight the corruption of systems that put
women down in every country.
The version of this book can be written in one
million other ways with lots of different women, but this is what Caroline Criado
Perez put together with comprehensive research, while sharing the experiences of human
beings fighting the good fight against structures of corruption and injustice.
Let’s focus for a moment on the imposed
stereotype that considers women “irrational.”
Here’s a thought on this on page 56:
“’It is always a source of wonder to me how
male anger, which so routinely explodes on our newspapers in the form of rape,
beatings and murders, hasn’t earned men the label of ‘irrational’.” We are used
to hearing how irrational women are; this is used to mock and safely dismiss
women. By the same token, when women behave
in rational ways that challenge the concept of irrationality, they are treated
with distrust. They are breaking some kind of rule that is used to stereotype
them.
On page
107 there is an insightful analysis on the Greco-Roman roots of silencing women
who speak up against systems of corruption. The influence runs deep in
literature. I encourage you to read it because it will help you to awaken to
biases that are accepted as part of the normal landscape.
“An ancient scientific treatise pontificating
on the way a ‘deep’ voice indicates manly courage, while a high voice alerts us
to the presence of female cowardice; a Roman anthologist from the first century
AD describing the ‘impudent’ barking and ‘yapping’ of a woman.”
These influences have been carried by literary
works throughout history, so it is important to identify these subliminal
forces that shape mindsets and judgments.
I like
how she cites, for example, the case of Henry James, a celebrated writer. “In
the nineteenth century, Henry James is explicit on this point in one of his
essays comparing women’s voices to the moo of the cow, the bray of the ass and
the bark of the dog. Like the undermining of women’s voices as shrill, nagging,
whining, this reduction of female speech to animalistic, unintelligible noises
serves a purpose beyond denying women access to human speech. It highlights the
fundamental denial of access to rationality and knowledge.”
Perhaps dismissing women’s voices is a tool
to abuse power and disregard the need for empathy. It is a strategy to impede the growth of
positive qualities in a society.
I would change the title to Do it Like a
woman who is not a sycophant. I think it is important to be specific here. It
can make a world of difference, right?
Read it. Share it. Pass it on. We need more
books like this one, not only to awaken people to their own biases, but also to
change attitudes and behaviors.
Stay informed, stay active.
Relevant
links with updated content, information and reflections on what is going on:
Fascism
expert provides important insights to understand what is happening in America:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOHqE--T7-U
Brain Tyler Cohen explains clear examples on how
the pathological liar’s words come back to haunt him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GIeIGlSThw
How data
centers are worsening climate change:
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/30/climate/data-centers-are-having-an-underrported
He promised
to cut energy prices. The opposite is happening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O7R4M3haac
He wants
taxpayers to fund his ballroom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwa3VXZojNQ
The regime
is deleting data. This is a form of censorship and it facilitates the spread of
falsehoods and misinformation:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/may/07/trump-administration-deleting-data
Black
lawmakers are getting arrested for opposing the gutting of the Voting Rights
Act:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYSLuE5I3dM
A refugee
was left to die in the cold in Buffalo, New York. This is what Nazis did too:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/27/rohingya-refugees-buffalo-new-york
The pattern
to silence women online is real:
If you
enjoyed this post, feel free to read my writing on the following books:
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
