The Trouble With Women

The Trouble With Women
Image source: Google

Rating: 4.7/5

Author: Meghna Pant

Paperback: 128 pages

Publisher: Juggernaut

Publication Date: 2016

Language: English

Genre: Gender Studies

ISBN-10: 9781910931097

ISBN-13: 978-1910931097

ASIN: 1910931098

Cost: Rs. 445.20 (Kindle Edition)

Plot:

Can women be geniuses? Or are their arms too short?

Why did we only learn about three women at school? What were all the others doing?

The Trouble With Women reminds us of what we were taught about women in history lessons at school, which is to say, not a lot. A brilliantly witty book of cartoons, it reveals some of our greatest thinkers' baffling theories about women. We learn that even Charles Darwin, long celebrated for his open, objective scientific mind, believed that women would never achieve anything important, because of their smaller brains.

Get ready to laugh, wince and rescue forgotten women from the 'dustbin of history', whilst keeping a close eye out for tell-tale 'genius hair'. You will never look at history in the same way again.

Review:

Talking about writing on feminism and how it is done right, Meghna Pant seems to get it correct every time. In Indian male-dominated communities, women have to endure several challenges after the legal termination of a marriage. More often, women are held responsible for not being able to sustain the relationship. With this book, Meghna has challenged many of the ideas about women that has been accepted for ages.

Although women writing on feministic approaches has sown its seed in the modern contemporary world, still there’s enough prejudices surrounding the female existence.  She wants her audience to take notice of the silly everyday sexist experiences women face:

“Your eyes are big, so innocent, twinkling like… stars in the sky,” Nikhil said to me with a slur. I giggled. Emboldened, he put his hand on mine. It felt different. His touch, cold and unfamiliar, was nothing like Kabir’s. “That’s what I love most about you. You’re untouched, like a flower that hasn’t bloomed.”

And next she expressed her disgust:

“Nikhil’s matrimonial ad had asked for a ‘convent-educated homely girl’, a.k.a. virgin. I’d read more such ads than the hair I could count on my head. I’d met many such men, seeking virgins…”

In this book, women across all over the world; rural or urban can relate because she has pin pointed every kind of issues women faces: from marital rape to molestation, to being undermined in a marriage. Her strong feminist side has come in a powerful way in the form of words.

In fact, in her personal life she has also faced a lot of these issues and had a lot to say and encourage other women on how to move forward:

“I was in an abusive relationship. Writing became my buffer. It also made me aware of what women go through. You can think of yourself as a strong, modern, independent woman. But it can still happen to you,”

Milestones of the Book:

  • This book was described as 'the best book from Juggernaut' by The Hindu Business Line.

About the Author:

Meghna Pant is a multiple award-winning author, journalist and speaker. Her books – Happy Birthday!, One & A Half Wife, Feminist Rani, The Trouble With Women and How To Get Published In India – have been published to commercial and critical acclaim.

She has been felicitated with various honours and shortlists for distinguished contribution to literature, gender issues and journalism, including the Laadli Media Award, Bharat Nirman Award, Muse India Young Writer Award, FON South Asia Short Story Award, Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, Frank O'Connor International Award and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Pant's short stories have been published in over a dozen global literary magazines, including Avatar Review, Wasafari, Eclectica etc.

Meghna has lived in Delhi, Singapore, Zurich, Dubai and New York City. She is currently based in Mumbai with her husband and daughters.