Rebecca Solnit's 'Men Explain Things To Me' Is A Riveting Collection Of Feminist Essays

By Jaclyn Bauer in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 16, 2014 7:00PM

Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit is a short collection of captivating and absorbing essays on the history and current state of feminism. Packed with statistics on rape, speculations on where feminism is headed, and a witty boldness that is admirable by sheer value of its originality, Solnit’s essays are insightful spurts of illumination that engage with various conversations within the feminist movement.

The title essay, originally published in 2008, describes Solnit’s interaction with numerous men who have tried to (often inaccurately) explain things to her that she already knew, while ignoring her as she tried to correct them. Solnit’s point throughout the essay is that these isolated cases are indicative of a larger socio-cultural issue that has been nourished by gender biases, among them the silencing of women.

Solnit, however, is not a hardheaded and exclusionary feminist. She admits numerous times throughout her essays that not all men fall into the category of misogynists. On the contrary, she recognizes the many men who have stood with women on the feminist front, especially those who continue to do so with the shift in feminism that has been brought on by discussions and laws concerning marriage equality.

“Marriage equality is a threat to inequality” Solnit claims in her essay entitled "In Praise of Threat." Solnit discusses how in the past, marriage was never between equals; rather, a woman was subsumed by her husband as her own identity was erased. With demands that marriage be between equals, and with men and women standing on both sides of the argument, Solnit sees more of a “war…of gender roles” in today’s culture than of sexes.

“Feminism sought and seeks to change the whole world” Solnit asserts, and therefore it is a road, war and movement that anyone can follow, fight, and partake in, not just women. Solnit’s essays attest to this with flare, motivation and passion about a subject that is pertinent to the population worldwide.