It's a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments

It's a Jungle Out There: A Review

It happens to every feminist at some point. You might be listening to a coworker bemoan the injustice of Ladies' Night bar specials or responding to an acquaintance who demands to know when you plan on getting pregnant. You know you're hearing sexist bullshit, but the situation leaves you, well, speechless.

Fortunately, Amanda Marcotte -- who considers herself "in the competitive category of bullshit callers" -- has you covered. Offering suggestions for how to deal with more than 50 sticky situations regularly faced by women, It's a Jungle Out There arms readers with the rhetorical ammunition necessary to stand up to a culture that can be downright hostile to feminists. Although she strives to show readers how to spot and resist sexism, Marcotte also acknowledges that it's not always advisable to lecture coworkers about the patriarchy or pick a fight with your wingnut uncle. Her strategies range from the passive (simply extricating yourself from an inflammatory conversation) to the very active (systemically eviscerating your opponent's argument, as she does in her chapter about abortion myths). And when it comes to the dreaded wedding-bouquet toss, she suggests the obvious: a well-timed bathroom break.

Marcotte honed her provocateur's wit as a blogger, and it's not surprising that It's a Jungle Out There often reads like a blog. Its short dispatches reference current events, which Marcotte uses as jumping-off points for broader assessments about the culture at large. The book's organization into several thematic sections helps corral the diverse topics. "It's not a post-feminist world when we have a long way to go," a section that jabs holes in the notion that feminist battles are over, is one of the book's best. In addition to other observations, Marcotte calls out bachelorette parties as a "spectacular failure" for feminism and dissects the new crop of excuses that women use to defend changing their names after marriage. Her ability to jump from a discussion of the Quiverfull movement to one on butthole bleaching in the span of 100 pages keeps the book feeling timely, but can also make for a somewhat jarring read.

It's a Jungle Out There also serves as a primer for high-school- and college-aged feminists, featuring chapters honing in on abstinence-only phenomena like Purity Balls and the Silver Ring Thing. In the chapter titled "What to do when Girls Gone Wild comes knocking," Marcotte introduces the intersection of feminism and labor politics, encouraging readers to have fun fighting back against sexism by simulating a strike. "If you call yourself the Slut Union, you could have...fun coming up with signs like, 'Just because I'm a slut doesn't mean I'm cheap' or 'No tits for T-shirts,'" she writes. "At the center of the Girls Gone Wild controversy is the issue of exploiting labor -- why should Joe Francis get millions while the naked girls who made him famous get paid in tee shirts?"

The strength of chapters like this, however, hints at one of the book's shortcomings: Marcotte's coverage of Girls Gone Wild, as well as other well-charted feminist territory, can sometimes make the book feel like a manual for collegiate-feminist set. Fortunately, she manages to integrate enough fresh material to keep the book relevant to feminists of all ages. As she observes in her introduction, "Spotting sexism sounds easy, but the sheer commonness of it, coupled with its surprising diversity, makes it so that even hardened feminists could use refreshers." Marcotte shines when she takes aim on subjects that are rarely discussed in Women's Studies 101, from the passing stranger who demands that you smile to the ritual of self-flagellation that occurs when female coworkers gather to eat sweets. It's a Jungle Out There offers fun, smart relief from the unending safari of sexism.

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