I’m always a bit weary of a collection of essays on any topic, mostly because 9 times out of 10 not of the opinions within the essays respresent me or my perspective. But with this collection of essays I can say that I was a bit surprised. While I might not have agreed with all of the perspectives; they all did make me think about why I might not have agreed with them.

The one thing about the book that I was most impressed with was how it was laid out. There were multiple sections and each section focused on a different theme. My favorite of all the themes was the theme regarding Action. I think this one spoke to me the most since what drove me to start this blog was taking some sort of action. I have done mostly book reviews, but the action is coming.

The one essay that stood out to me the most was “If In Your Mind You Are Born A Girl” by Tasha Bishop, the founder of The Pants Project. Her story was beyond powerful regrading her struggles with a rare medical disease caused her to be born without a womb and be unable to have sex. She found this all out at 16, and I am profoundly impressed by her strenght for being able to overcome that at such a young age and make the decision that she wanted to have surgery to at least allow her to have sex.

But I think the most powerful thing for me outside of the decision about the surgery was the quote that she gave: “If in your mind you are born a girl, you will grow to be a woman through experience.” There are so many ways to read and interpret that quote, but I think for me it speaks a lot to more than just the fact that at a certian point in your life you become a “woman”. For me it is more about looking at the bigger picture in life. There will be things that you won’t always “know”, but you will always be able to learn from experiences; so don’t let anyone tell you that you won’t be able to do something because you don’t know. You can grow into what you don’t know.

Overall I would say if you are interested in getting rather interesting prespectives on feminism for a variety of perspectives, I would read this collection of essays. It’s a quick and easy read that I would give a 3.5 out of 5 stars.