Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women

Opening up one’s perspective, especially for me as a male reader, Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel was a real “eye-opener”.  While I can’t say I agree with everything I read in the book, I can appreciate where the author is coming from.  Clearly the author paints “men” in almost all of her situations as the “evil empire” though she does take her swipes at many high-profile women, especially those in the entertainment sector.  Wurtzel uses media, especially movies and entertainment celebrities (and to some extent politicians), as her main source of examples throughout the book.  The chapter titles will give you an idea of what the book is trying to focus: “He Puts Her on a Pedestal and She Goes Down It” (major focus on Delilah from the Biblical stories and Courtney Love during the time of her relationship with Kurt Cobain); Hey Little Girl is Your Daddy Home (Amy Fischer and Joey Buttafuoco – don’t blame Amy on this affair—and a few movie story lines); There She Goes Again (Margaux Hemingway the model, Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath writers);  The Blonde in the Bleachers (All things Hillary – Clinton that is and Princess Diana); and Used to Love Her but I Had to Kill Her (the chapter almost exclusively on Nicole Brown Simpson with no sympathy shed for her or her sisters).  Wurtzel takes no prisoners as she is firm on saying who is to fault.  Opinions are not few and far between, and she has no problem shouting out loud “I intend to be who I am.”  The book goes deeply into the secret lives of iconic men (Presidents Kennedy & Clinton, OJ Simpson, Kurt Cobain) to try and illustrate early on that feminism really didn’t help, so what’s the point? Female sexuality is powerful, and necessary, heck why not?  Women need to engage in “over the top” to be who you should be… (kind of like the cover of the book, where Wurtzel is topless and throwing her “F – U sign up to the world”.  Lots of random round-about talking, it’s almost as if Wurtzel is trying to figure this “male/female thing out” throughout her book.  Does she in the end?  I think her point is that it needs to be figured out as the examples she shares certainly show that Hillary Clinton failed (well this was written in 1998, so maybe she would think differently now that she said Hillary would never think of running or office, time will tell on that).  While her approach is provocative, her droning was a bit too much at points.  For anyone who wants to learn a bit about celebrity life in the 1990s, this book will give you that glimpse.  I have no doubt this book will serve as a “period piece” 50 years from now.  I hadn’t read Wurtzel previously.  She was the author of the renowned  Prozac Nation.  Certainly opened my eyes and mind to a very different approach.  A relatively quick read that kept me on my toes throughout.  Not beach reading though!